Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and Delta airlines had the most passengers in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics released Monday.
Dallas-based Southwest led in the domestic category with 101 million passengers, followed by American Airlines with 85 million and Delta Air Lines Inc. with 67 million.
According to year-end data for 2009, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport held onto its coveted title of world’s busiest airport. Chicago’s O’Hare came in second and Los Angeles ranked third in the list of top 10 largest airports.
The total number of scheduled domestic and international passengers on U.S. airlines and on flights to and from the United States on foreign airlines fell 5.3 percent to 769.6 million in 2009. U.S. airlines carried 5.2 percent fewer domestic passengers (618.1 million) in 2009 and 6.3 percent fewer international passengers (85.8 million) than in 2008.
