Air ticket sales last year grew for U.S. travel agents

The total dollar value of airline tickets sold by U.S. travel agents in 2011 grew more than six per cent on the year prior despite the number of air ticket transactions falling by over two per cent, says ARC, the financial settlement link between airlines and travel sellers.

According to ARC, total ticket sales for the year amounted to US$82.1 billion, reflecting sales growth of 6.11 per cent over 2010 ($77.4 billion) and 25 per cent over 2009 ($65.8 billion).??

By contrast, ticket transactions in 2011 fell by 2.09 per cent compared to the twelve months prior, although this figure was still 5.1 per cent higher than that of 2009¡¯s.

Additionally, passenger segments last year decreased by 2.9 per cent ¨C to 370.1 million segments ¨C over 2010, but were up by 2.9 per cent on 2009 numbers.

For December 2011, the value of air tickets sold by U.S. based travel agencies? ($4.9 billion) grew 3.9 per cent and 12.3 per cent respectively over the same periods in 2010 and 2009. ?

Ticket transactions for the month fell by 4.5 per cent on the corresponding month the year prior, and were also down 1.7 per cent on December 2009. ?

More than 14,000 travel agencies and 190 airlines utilize ARC¡¯s transaction settlement services.