• by Masha Geller , August 9, 2002

It could be that people are thinking, “The summer is almost over and I’ve missed it,” or it could be that Spirit Airlines offered free tickets for flights on 9/11/02 (which were snatched up in about 8 minutes), but at-work traffic to the airline category jumped 15% during the week ending August 4.

"As the summer travel season winds down, surfers planning a final vacation getaway in August are shopping online for the latest bargains and deals," said Lisa Strand, director and chief analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "Online travel continues to be a strong e-commerce category, despite the difficult climate this past year."

According to the latest Nielsen//NetRatings numbers, Daily overnight analysis from Nielsen//NetRatings shows that traffic to the Spirit Airlines site at home jumped significantly on August 7, after the company announced its plans to give away 13,000 airline seats on September 11 (the site did miss the top 5 list).

JetBlue Airways claimed the top spot, as the site's traffic surged 72% to 362,000 surfers, compared to 211,00 the previous week. Traffic to the American Airlines website soared 32% to more than one million surfers, while Continental Airlines attracted 509,000 unique visitors, jumping 31%.

Rounding out the top five fastest growing airline sites, traffic to the United Airlines site grew 20% to 782,000 unique visitors, while Southwest Airlines drew more than 1.1 million surfers for the week.

Elsewhere on the web, the "American Idol" site drew 544,000 unique visitors at work for the week ending August 4, 2002, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. "American Idol" fans logged onto the site for the latest status on contestants and recaps of past episodes. The site also gained 414,000 unique visitors at home, and attracted a predominantly female audience.

Interestingly enough, traffic to Dictionary.com surged 62% to 800,000 unique visitors, with male workers comprising 78% of the audience. Merriam-Webster attracted 617,000 unique visitors, with men making up 64% of the site's audience. The site grew 40% during the week ending August 4, as compared to the previous week.