Summer Travel Outlook 2009

The recession will definitely be taking a toll on summer vacationers...or at least those traveling by air. The Air Transport Association of America expects seven percent fewer passengers will be taking to the skies over the U.S. of A. from the beginning of June through the end of August. That's 150,000 fewer flyers per day, and a total of 14 million less than summer 2008. And last summer was no great shakes in itself. The ATA, the airline industry trade group, points out that traffic last summer was off 3.6 percent from the record-setting year of 2007.

Even though fewer people will be flying, that doesn't mean planes will be less crowded. During the past year, airlines have cut back flights or traded down to smaller planes in order to better match diminishing demand.

Internationally, the forecast is for six percent fewer fliers, for a total of only 24 million overseas jet-setters. There will be 32 fewer flights a day from the United States to Europe, the most popular continent for those from this side of the pond.