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The number of air trips in August sold by U.S. corporate agencies declined for the eighth month in a row, according to Airlines Reporting Corp., even as overall sales increased. 

August trips sold by corporate agencies, those with at least 70 percent self-reported corporate and government business, and settled by ARC declined 6.4 percent year over year. 

Total August U.S.-based air ticket sales settled by ARC exceeded $8.3 billion, according to the company. Sales were up nearly 2.5 percent year over year, and it is the second month in a row that the sales total set a monthly record.

Passenger trips for August were up 1 percent year over year to nearly 24.6 million. Domestic trips held steady, increasing 0.2 percent to nearly 15.7 million, while international trips reached 8.9 million, an increase of 2.6 percent compared with August 2024. 

“Air travel demand in August highlighted momentum seen throughout the summer as ARC-settled passenger trips were above 2024 levels in June, July and August,” ARC chief commercial officer Steve Solomon said in a statement. “This data reflects recent reports from multiple airlines of strong demand and encouraging outlooks.”

Several U.S. carriers this month have pointed to recent increases in business travel demand.

New Distribution Capability August transactions accounted for 20.8 percent of the total ARC-settled transactions, up from 18.8 percent a year prior. A total of 1,093 travel agencies reported NDC transactions.

The August average price for a U.S. domestic roundtrip ticket was $532, up from the $515 reported in August 2024 and the $528 reported for July.  

The average price in August of an economy-class ticket increased about 4 percent year over year to $485, while the average price of a premium-class ticket was up about 7 percent to $1,309 for the same period.

RELATED: ARC: July U.S. Air Ticket Sales Set Record

Despite record numbers of travelers passing through U.S. Transportation Security Administration checkpoints during the past year, coupled with widespread flight delays in recent months, overall passenger satisfaction with North America airports on average has increased year over year, according to the J.D. Power 2025 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, released Wednesday.

This year’s increase, featured in each of J.D. Power’s three sizes of airports—mega, large and medium—largely were driven by improvements in the food, beverage and retail programs category, which increased 14 points year over year across all airport segments. Ease of travel through the airport also contributed to the increases, according to the survey.

“While the annual growth rate in passenger volume seems to be leveling off, we’re still seeing record number of travelers pass through the nation’s airports, and, for the most part, they are enjoying the experience,” J.D. Power managing director of travel, hospitality and retail Michael Taylor said in a statement. 

Taylor called out completed improvements in several airport facilities as well as those underway as a big part of the recent increase in satisfaction. In addition, “a decades-long trend of bringing unique, local flavor to the passenger experience has positively impacted the airport experience,” he said.

Still, passengers in mega airports experienced more crowding and longer wait times, according to the survey. On average, 56 percent of passengers traveling through medium airports and 50 percent of those traveling through large airports spent 10 minutes or less getting through security. These passengers are also more likely to characterize the airport as “mildly crowded” or “not at all crowded.” Among mega airports, however, 23 percent spent 21 minutes or more getting through security, and 57 percent described the airport as “moderately crowded.”

Airport Rankings

This year’s report measured seven criteria, in order of importance: ease of travel through airport; level of trust with airport; terminal facilities; airport staff; departure/to airport experience; food, beverage and retail; and arrival/from airport experience. 

Mega airports are defined as those with at least 33 million passengers per year, large airports with 10 million to 32.9 million passengers per year, and medium airports with 4.5 million to 9.9 million passengers per year.

The top three mega airports were a repeat from last year: Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in first with an average score of 660 out of 1,000 points (down from 671 in 2024), Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport was second at 649 (up from 643 a year prior), and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was third at 634 (up from 633 in 2024). The average score for the mega category was 603, up from 595 a year ago. Newark Liberty International Airport once again was in last place for this category, but its score improved to 565 from 552.

Among large airports, which had an average score of 644, up from 629 in 2024, John Wayne Airport in Orange County and Tampa International Airport repeated their first and second place rankings from last year. John Wayne’s score was up significantly to 730 from 687 a year prior. Tampa’s score was 709, up from 683. In third place was Dallas Love Field with a score of 705 compared with its fourth-place score in 2024 of 675. Philadelphia International Airport also was last once again for large airports, but its score also improved this year, to 570 from 541 in 2024.

Indianapolis International Airport repeated its first-place ranking for medium airports with an average score of 713, up from 687 last year. Ontario International Airport in California was second with a score of 709, up from 672 and last year’s fourth place. Buffalo Niagara International Airport rounded out the top three with a score of 698, up from 670 and fifth place in 2024. The medium category average was 656, up from 646 a year prior.

RELATED: J.D. Power 2024 North America Airport Satisfaction Study

Despite some economic indicators that suggest a sluggish economic outlook, U.S. business travel demand in the latter half of the third quarter has bounced back from the lows of the spring and early summer, executives from the largest U.S. carriers said Thursday at a Morgan Stanley conference.

After a chaotic spring featuring the introduction and subsequent postponement of some tariffs and major stock market swings helped dampen demand for corporate travel, and though U.S. job growth has been slow and inflation persistent, Delta Air Lines president Glen Hauenstein told attendees of Morgan Stanley’s 13th annual Laguna conference that “we’re seeing very strong domestic corporate demand into the fall, which we’re very excited about.”

Hauenstein added the carrier recently “actually had our highest post-pandemic corporate sales number for any day and any week in September.”

Hauenstein suggested the corporate growth was more predominant on domestic U.S. routes than international routes, and Delta EVP and CFO Dan Janki said sectors including “banking, financial service technology” were “leading the way.” 

“It’s still choppy in areas like industrials, manufacturing and those areas, but there’s real momentum and strength there,” Janki said.

Delta on Thursday filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission notice that it had revised its third-quarter revenue projection to a year-over-year increase of 2 percent to 4 percent, compared with the projected flat revenue to a 4 percent increase issued in July. Delta was the only presenting carrier to file an updated outlook with the SEC.

Other presenting carriers agreed corporate demand was looking up. United Airlines EVP and CFO Mike Leskinen, for example, said the “corporate recovery is leading really good.”

Leskinen said overall United bookings since Labor Day for travel at least two months out had increased year over year by double-digit percentages. “That’s a short trend, but I mean, the bookings are really strong, particularly corporate going into the fourth quarter,” he said.

American: Demand Developing ‘Nicely’

American Airlines chief strategy officer and vice chairman Stephen Johnson at the conference said “our business traffic has continued, I think, to develop nicely,” but noted that some of the rebound was due to the carrier’s continuing recovery from the ending last year of its controversial sales and distribution strategy that alienated some corporate clients.

“We do have a little bit of a tailwind because we are winning back corporate share as part of our sales and distribution strategy,” Johnson said. But nevertheless, you can see that business traffic is staying pretty firm, particularly as you come out of August, which is a slow business travel month.”

In July, American president and CEO Robert Isom during an earnings call said the carrier remained “on track to get back to our historical share of indirect channel revenue as we exit 2025.” Johnson on Thursday said that American was “on track to beat the objective that we’ve set out in our earnings calls to restore our performance by the end of this year to where it was in 2023 before we actually started the new strategy.”

Johnson noted that American hasn’t had “to make any sort of crazy investments in winning back or buying back that business. … It’s coming back deliberately and incrementally over time,” but noted that returning to Q1 2023 levels of indirect share wasn’t the carrier’s goal.

“The opportunity is bigger than just returning to where we were by the end of this year,” Johnson said. “In first-quarter 2023, we weren’t in a great place. That was one of the reasons why we considered an alternative strategy. And so we’re looking not just to finishing the year strong but also to opportunities to grow our corporate share in 2026 and 2027.”

Southwest: ‘Good Inflection’

Southwest Airlines president and CEO Bob Jordan at the conference agreed that “we are seeing a good inflection back in corporate right now,” with “no reason to believe that won’t be sustained.”

Jordan said the uptick in corporate demand “feels like it is broad-based but then also specific to certain sectors. … We’re seeing a steady improvement month-to-month in areas like health care, technology and professional services.” He added there were some regional variations to the trend with strength in the Midwest and Southeast, particularly Nashville, Tenn.

Jordan, meanwhile, reiterated executives’ statements from the carrier’s July earnings call that the revenue generated by its first fees for checked bags had overperformed expectations and would total more than $350 million of earnings before interest and taxes for full-year 2025.

“We just aren’t seeing a lot of customer pushback,” Jordan said. “We’re not seeing any evidence of book-away.”

Alaska Air Group has named Alaska Airlines senior vice president of public affairs and sustainability Diana Birkett Rakow the new CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, effective Oct. 29, the company announced late Wednesday.

Birkett Rakow will succeed Joe Sprague, who plans to retire, according to the company. Sprague was Alaska Airlines’ regional president of Hawaii and the Pacific when he was named CEO of Hawaiian in September 2024, upon the completion of Alaska’s acquisition of Hawaiian.

Birkett Rakow, who will be based in Honolulu and report to Alaska Air Group CEO Ben Minicucci, has spent eight years at the company leading its sustainability and government affairs efforts. Her new role will “continue to include oversight of company-wide sustainability and venture investment strategies,” the company said in a statement.

Minicucci said in a statement that Birkett Rakow “has proven herself over an established career as a leader who builds strong teams, delivers results and cares deeply about people and culture.” 

Alaska continues to integrate Hawaiian operations into its platforms, launching a combined loyalty offering last month and preparing to transition Hawaiian to Alaska’s Sabre-provided passenger services system next year. Next up is securing a single operating certificate from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which Sprague in a statement said was “imminent,” making this “a natural transition point” for a leadership change.

Sprague “will remain engaged through the transition to ensure continuity and support for employees and guests” and will remain a member Hawaiian’s board of directors, according to the company.