For those who do not have to travel by air this summer — don’t. The number of seats filled will hit near-record levels. Airports will be crowed, in many cases where temperatures are high. The lines will be longer. And flight delays will be more likely than at any time in memory.

According to trade group Airlines for America, the economic recovery has helped the airline industry, but:

… more people will fly this summer than a year ago, and a record number of passengers will fly internationally. A4A said it expects U.S. airlines will carry close to 209 million passengers globally from June through August, an increase of 1 percent from the same period in 2012. The system-wide summer estimate includes 27 million international passengers, a record number for U.S. airlines.

This marks the largest summer volume for U.S. airlines since 2008, when more than 210 million traveled. The all-time high was summer 2007, when more than 217 million people took to the skies on U.S. airlines.  A4A further noted that the busiest travel days are expected to be Thursdays and Fridays between the middle of June and the first week of August.

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