7 charts on flying ahead of the holidays

• The friendly skies have been decidedly less so since the pandemic started. By mid-November, the Federal Aviation Administration had initiated a record 991 investigations after 5,240 unruly passenger reports. There were an additional 3,798 mask-related incident reports.

• There were fewer flights in the early days of the pandemic, but they were on time. Eighty-five percent of flights have been on time since May 2020. For comparison, about 71% of flights since 2001 were on time. 
   
• On-time arrivals fell as travelers returned and flights increased. In June 2020, 93% of all flights arrived at the gate on time, the best month of the 21st century. By August 2021, on-time arrivals fell to 75%.

• More flights also meant an increase in airline capacity, and planes are fuller than a year ago. Passengers filled 14% of seat-miles in April 2020 (an all-time low) and filled 78% of that seat-miles last August. For comparison, they filled 84% of seat-miles in 2019.

There’s more to discover at USAFacts:

• Interact with four more charts with travel metrics dating to 1995.
• Learn how airlines calculate seat-miles.
• Track the history of airfare and much more.

In addition to travel, the holiday season, of course, means shopping. November and December mean so much to the retail sector, but profits depend on the industry — and external factors like the supply chain and the pandemic. USAFacts has decades of data on monthly retail sales so you can see which types of stores rely most heavily on the holiday season.

• From 1992 to 2020, Novembers and Decembers accounted for 23% of all clothing and accessories retailer revenue. The monthly revenue for these retailers decreased 11.3% in November and December 2020 compared to a year prior.
   
• Electronics and appliance stores also made 23% of their yearly revenue in Novembers and Decembers from 1992 through 2020. 

See more about the history of retail sales here.



One last fact