--- In BATN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "1/6 SF Examiner" <batn@xxxx> wrote: Published Friday, January 6, 2006, in the San Francisco Examiner SFO saw 1.7m holiday travelers By Neil H. Dempsey SFO hosted nearly 1.7 million travelers this holiday season, realizing internal predictions that the airport would see a 9 percent jump in holiday passenger numbers since the year before, spokesman Michael McCarron said Thursday. McCarron said the airport was "very pleased" with the count -- which came directly from devices at TSA checkpoints -- of 1,687,939 travelers. Though the tally includes employees who pass through checkpoints, it does not include passengers who transferred planes post-security or those who landed but didn't disembark -- even though both groups will be included in final tallies, he said. The count represents about a 9 percent increase over the 2004 holidays, when the airport saw roughly 1.55 million travelers over the last two weeks of December. The airport also saw a 4 percent increase in passengers this Thanksgiving. SFO's increased traffic is consistent with what Burlingame City Manager James Nantell called a "dramatic change" -- the comeback of the travel industry and, with it, financial sustenance to Peninsula communities. Nantell said Burlingame's 10 percent hotel tax -- which typically accounts for about one-fourth of the city's general fund monies -- has made a significant resurgence since a damaging 2001-02 fiscal year. That year, the city expected $14 million in revenue from hotels, but received less than $7 million -- and hotel occupancy rates averaged between 40 percent and 50 percent. This year, Nantell said the occupancy rate is back above 70 percent, though the city's not receiving as much hotel tax as it would like because conditions haven't enabled the hotels to raise prices to pre-Sept. 11 levels. "It's back to normal occupancy, not normal on dollars," he said. "We need the rates now to move up." Though it's encouraging that travel numbers are up throughout the country, John Heimlich, chief economist with the Air Transport Association, said it's difficult to tell whether commercial airlines are making any money. Despite low prices designed to stimulate volume, the latest data indicates planes are only averaging 76.3 percent capacity, when most need to be at 82.4 percent just to break even, he said. "We'd be having record profitability if we had year 2000 fuel prices," Heimlich said. "We need even more volume when we have today's low fares." ATA spokesman David Castelveter cited recently closed Independence Air as an example of how popularity doesn't necessarily translate into success. "They were putting people on their planes ... but their costs were outpacing their ability to bring in revenue," he said. --- End forwarded message ---