Air Ticket Sales by US Travel Agencies Fall 12% in February

Domestic Trips Rise 1%; International Trips Down 12% as Coronavirus Unfurls

ARLINGTON, Va. – March 17, 2020 – Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) today released data showing that ARC-accredited travel agencies experienced a $1 billion year-over-year decrease in air ticket sales for the month of February. The consolidated dollar value of tickets sold by agencies last month totaled $7.2 billion, a 12.4% decrease when compared to February 2019.*

The total number of passenger trips settled by ARC for its agency customers decreased 3.9% to 24,859,327 compared to 25,868,150 in February 2019. U.S. domestic trips increased by 1.3% YOY, but due to the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus outbreak outside of the U.S., international passenger trips fell 12% YOY. The average U.S. round-trip ticket price last month was $488, a $2 increase over February 2019.

Despite the drop in overall ticket sales and passenger trips, Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD)** sales in February rose 24% to $7.9 million YOY. EMD transaction volume increased by 38.6% over February 2019, totaling 136 million.

More detailed information is available on ARC’s website.

About ARC:

As a leader in air travel intelligence and omnichannel retailing, ARC provides platforms, tools and insights that help the global travel community connect, grow and thrive. ARC enables the diverse retailing strategies of its customers by providing innovative technology, flexible settlement solutions and access to the world’s most comprehensive air transaction dataset. In 2019, ARC managed more than $97.4 billion in transactions between airlines and travel agencies, representing more than 302 million passenger trips. For more information, please visit arccorp.com.