Forty-four percent (44%) of regular airline travelers say the increase in ticket prices during the holidays is keeping them from flying over Thanksgiving and Christmas.

But a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 50% are not deterred from flying during those holidays because of higher ticket prices.

Still, 60% of air travelers say price is the most important thing to them when booking a flight. In far distant second place is flight schedule, which is most important for 13%.

Airport location and extra fees like baggage charges are most important for seven percent (7%) each, followed by the number of connections (5%) and the airline (4%).

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Seventy-nine percent (79%) of air travelers say charges by the airlines for services like checking baggage has made them more likely to shop around for tickets. Eighteen percent (18%) say these charges have not prompted them to shop around more.

Forty-eight percent (48%) of air travelers in May said they favored a requirement that airlines tell customers what a flight’s on-time record is before they purchase a ticket, one of the proposals under discussion in Washington as part of a Passengers’ Bill of Rights.

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of regular airline passengers say they are at least somewhat concerned about the safety of air travel these days. Twenty-five percent (25%) are very concerned. Thirty-four percent (34%) are not very or not at all concerned.

These findings are roughly comparable to those in April 2008.

Last January 34% of Americans said they were more confident about flying in the wake of the heroic crash landing of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River which resulted in no loss of life. Twenty-three percent (23%) said they were more fearful of flying.

Thirty-five percent (35%) of adults say they travel on commercial airlines occasionally. Another five percent (5%) say they fly at least once a month. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say they rarely or never travel by commercial airliner.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of adults who took a vacation this summer said economic conditions caused them to cut back on how much they spent.

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