How much does the average person travel?
 

Anyone know how we could find this out? I am in an airport a few times per month, but I have friends who probably see an airport twice a year, if that often.

It was just last month when my mother, once one of the original AAdvantage Platinums, asked me how security had changed since 9/11 as she prepared for her first airplane trip of the century. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/eek.gif

So, I'm not looking for the average number of trips for a flyertalker, but of the average person, any ideas? I'd ask google, but not sure what query to use.

are you interested in Singapore statistics?

http://www.singstat.gov.sg/ssn/feat/mar2002/pg10-13.pdf

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/wink.gif

Actually, I was embarrassed to not know how to search for this and it energized me to find the answer.

OK, page 5 of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Transportation in the United States study states that 415 billion passenger miles were flown in 1995.

Table 3 of the BTS 1995 American Travel Survey states that the mean round-trip distance of a commercial air travel trip (over 100 miles) was 2,165 miles that year.

Therefore, there were 191,685,912 commercial air round trips (I'll assume the number of <100 mile round-trips is negligible) that year. The census bureau estimated the population as of July 1, 1995 to be 262,803,000 people for an average of 0.73 round-trips per person that year.

Only considering people 18 and over (also from the census bureau) we have 194,249,000 people or 0.99 round-trips per year.

So, never mind http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

Edited first to correct some UBB code, but then to wonder aloud at how much time the answer to this question would have taken in that very same 1995, when the web was still taking tiny baby steps.

[This message has been edited by robb (edited 04-08-2003).]

What would also be interesting is the average number of trips per person excluding those who never fly or fly very rarely (say, once every five years). There are a lot of people who don't fly. I estimate 50% of the population of 262 million never or rarely flies, which implies 1.5 round trips per person remaining.

From ABC news, "More than 85% of the American public flies infrequently if at all. More than seven in 10 can be described as infrequent fliers, flying once or twice a year or less; and 14 percent have never flown. Another 14 percent fly at least once every few months."

So, excluding people who have never flown, you have 191,685,912 round trips/(.86&mult;262,803,000) = .85 round trips per American who has ever flown.

I'm not sure how to extend this farther. I don't believe that number of miles flown is the same between frequent and infrequent fliers, and these stats are vague and a little self-serving (is it meaningful to know how frequently people travel of people who travel at least every 90 days? The answer will be at least 4!).

I too would say once, maybe twice a year. And even that may be high. In other forums I visit, it's still very common for people to ask about security since 9/11 For many, many people, the last time they flew was before that day.

Well, just one personal note I can tell you that my Dad hasn't flown anywhere in, oh, who the heck knows when. Probably 15 years or more since he was last on a plane. Definitely there are some people like that out there. So saying the average is 1-2 trips a year still doesn't really give you all that clear a picture considering these sorts of anomolies.

I have several close relatives (aunts, grandpa) who have never flown.

And you don't consider flyertalkers to be an anomaly? http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif I'm pretty sure that those of us who fly 50-100+ segments per year do our share to skew the average.

I agree a simple average cannot give a very clear understanding. Even the median number of flights/year probably does not.

We at least need to know MTBFs (mean and/or median times between flights, and apologies to those in reliability engineering who use MTBF as mean or median time between failures), and ideally the entire distribution of times between flights. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/wink.gif

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif True enough. I guess it's just hard to think if I fly, say, 12 or so segments a year (that's probably about my average with some years in the past being a little more and a few years being only 2 or 4) that's actually somewhat above the average. But then again, I know to some of my friends and acquaintances the amount I fly is "a lot", whereas in this grouping at FT the amount I fly is "none". http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...um/biggrin.gif

Mean time between flights is very easy to calculate. If the "flying population" takes an average of 1.5 flights per year, mean time between flights is 2/3 of a year.

Simply take 1 divided by frequency, and you get period! http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif