U.S. Travel Agencies Set Air Ticket Sales Record in 2019

Year’s Total Reaches $97.4 Billion as Passenger Trips Increase 2.3%

 

ARLINGTON, Va. – Jan. 15, 2020 – Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) announced today that U.S.-based travel agencies achieved record sales of airline tickets in 2019. The consolidated dollar  value of tickets sold last year totaled $97.4 billion, a 2.8% increase when compared to 2018.*

The increase was aided by a 10% surge in December ticket sales when compared to the same period in 2018, totaling $6.1 billion. The average U.S. round-trip ticket price in 2019 was $494, a $4 increase over 2018.

 

Total passenger trips settled by ARC for U.S. travel agencies in 2019 increased by 2.3% compared to 2018, to 302,323,757. In 2019, U.S. domestic trips increased by 2% while international passenger trips increased by nearly 3%.

 

Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD)** sales in December swelled 44% to help total 2019 sales increase by 8% to $84.6 million. EMD transaction volume last year increased by 8.5% over 2018, totaling 1.4 million.

 

More detailed information is available on ARC’s website.

 

 

About ARC:

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