Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) data for December show a 23% annual increase in airline ticket sales.
International trips were up 57% and domestic 8%, ARC reported.
The results are based on monthly sales data from 10,547 US retail and corporate travel agencies, satellite ticket printing offices and online travel agencies. but do not include sales of tickets purchased directly from airlines.
ARC-accredited travel agency air ticket sales totalled US $5.5 billion in December, a 76% increase compared to December 2021.
“Travel purchases in December were significantly higher than last year, with international travel making the biggest comeback compared to 2021,” said Steve Solomon, chief commercial officer at ARC, which describes itself as "a leading travel intelligence company that possesses the world’s largest, most comprehensive global airline ticket dataset, including more than 15bn passenger flights representing 490 airlines and 230 countries and territories".