Growth in Commercial Air Travel Is Slow, FAA Says
The FAA predicts that passenger enplanements will grow at an annual average rate of 2.4 percent a year as a baseline during its forecast period of 2013 to 2022.
The FAA predicts that passenger enplanements will grow at an annual average rate of 2.4 percent a year as a baseline during its forecast period of 2013 to 2022.

Commercial air travel in the U.S. grew only slightly last year, staying in line with the slow recovery of the overall economy. Domestic and international capacity expressed in available seat miles (ASMs), a measure of airline industry output, increased by just 0.1 percent, to 995 billion, following a 3.4-percent capacity increase in 2011. System wide, revenue passenger miles (RPMs) increased by 0.9 percent, to 822 billion, and passenger enplanements rose 0.8 percent, to 736.7 million. Domestic enplanements grew by 0.6 percent, while international enplanements increased by 2.4 percent, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s latest aerospace forecast.