U.S. Airline Traffic Up 1.4 Percent In March

U.S. airline system traffic maintained its momentum in March after three consecutive monthly increase, according to the preliminary data released by U.S. Transportation Department on Thursday.

U.S. airlines carried 64.5 million domestic and international passengers in March 2012, 1.4 percent more than the same period of 2011, said the department. The fresh number of passengers was 3.6 percent above that of two years ago in March 2010.

Specifically, there were 1.0 percent more domestic passengers and 4.2 percent more international passengers in March than a year ago.

Delta Airlines carried more total passengers than any other U.S. airlines in March, reaching 10.04 million. Southwest Airlines topped others in domestic service with 9.75 million passengers. United Airlines following its merger with Continental Airlines, took the first place in terms of international passengers with as many as 2.19 million, according to the data.

In the first three months of 2012, U.S. airlines carried 172 million passengers, up 2.8 percent from the same period in 2011.

Suffering from economic crisis, the U.S. airline industry experienced sharp decline in flight demand. However, the nation's airline traffic has been gradually peaking up from the early 2010.

Copyright 2012 Xinhua News Agency