Skift Take

Want to understand the U.S. airline industry, but short on time? Our proprietary estimates will allow you to understand how the the market is changing, which airlines are growing fastest, and the most important operational metrics at a glance.

Executives, investors, and marketers alike seeking to understand the business of travel first need to establish a baseline of information to work from. How big is the market and is it growing? Who are the big players, what are their products, and what operational metrics are they benchmarked against?

In order to answer these questions with a single source of data, Skift Research is launching its own series of travel market estimates.

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Our inaugural report, U.S. Airline Sector: Skift Research Estimates 2019, provides proprietary estimates for the U.S. passenger airline sector. It is based on our analysis of multiple sources, including the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Census Bureau, and individual company securities filings.

We expect U.S. passenger revenue to reach $171.4 billion in 2019, up 2.6 percent from 2018. Passenger revenues grew 3.7 percent in 2017 and are likely to close out 2018 up 4.5 percent, in our view. We also estimate the market will remain concentrated in 2019, with the four largest carriers in the U.S. controlling 85% of market share in 2018, up from 77 percent in 2013.

Other estimates that we present in this report include industry revenue by specific product offerings, namely domestic versus international travel and coach versus business and first class tickets; and operating statistics including passenger demand (as measured by revenue seat mile), aircraft seat capacity (as measured by available seat miles), and unit revenues (as measured by passenger revenue per available seat mile).

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What you’ll learn from this report:

  • The U.S. passenger airline market size estimates, 2013–2019.
  • How U.S. passenger revenue is split between domestic versus international travel and coach versus business and first class seats.
  • Market shares for all major U.S. air carriers.
  • Important operating statistics for the U.S. air industry, including passenger demand, aircraft seat capacity, and unit revenues.

Subscribe to Skift Research Reports

This is the latest Skift Research report aimed at analyzing the fault lines of disruption in travel. These reports are intended for the busy travel industry decision-maker. Tap into the opinions and insights of our seasoned network of staffers and contributors. More than 200 hours of desk research, data collection, and/or analysis goes into each report.

After you subscribe, you will gain access to our entire vault of reports conducted on topics ranging from technology to marketing strategy to deep dives on key travel brands. Reports are available online in a responsive design format, or you can also buy each report a la carte at a higher price.

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Tags: airlines, market size, skift research, skift research estimates

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