Air traffic control map of the United States

After a fuel spike and economic meltdown in 2008, the airline industry went into panic mode last year.

With many of the major carriers slashing the amount of planes they flew, passengers found themselves squished onto fully booked air-crafts.

In 2009, traffic dropped by 5.3% to 703.9 million customers while the load factor for planes averaged 80.4% for the entire system and 81.1% for domestic travel.

The busiest airlines in 2009 were American Airlines for international and Southwest for domestic while Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson International Airport was the busiest domestic airport and Miami International was the busiest for international travel.

Source: Wall Street Journal