The US residents see soaring flight prices, reaching the pre-pandemic levels.
As the holidaymakers prepare themselves for the holiday season, air tickets prices rise to pre-pandemic levels. Adobe’s Digital Economy Index called it an encouraging sign for the travel industry.
Highlights:
- In October, the domestic flight rates were 7% below the price average in 2019, before the pandemic – revealed Adobe after tracking transactions from the top US airlines.
- In August and September, the flight prices were down 11% and 13% respectively, than in 2019.
- Despite the soaring demands, the September and October air travel bookings were 13% and 10% down than in 2019. The lowered air ticket prices couldn’t make improvements in the revenue. As per Adobe’s findings, the online spendings recorded in September and October were $4.2M and $4.8M respectively, yet 35% and 28% below the spendings in the same period in 2019.
- The reason for such floor prices for air tickets was partly due to the delta variant, which compelled the Airline to decline the rates – reported Adobe.
- The current year’s holiday season is driving up the air tickets prices online. Vivek Pandya, the lead analyst from Adobe Digital Insights, said
“consumers would be wise to start thinking about Christmas travel pretty soon.”
- Thanksgiving flight bookings for Nov 20 to Nov 25 are estimated to beat the pre-pandemic levels, 78% higher than the prices in 2020 and 3.2% higher than in 2019.
After travel bans for the holidays in 2020 and early 2021, the health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci have given a green signal to the public to celebrate the holiday season with friends and family. The data that Adobe revealed, including the projections from AAA, shows, the public has taken this travel ban lift to heart as the industry is expected to see the overall number of travelers via air and road matching the pre-pandemic levels.
This is an encouraging sign for the industry, which affected the worst during the peak Covid times. As per the UN estimates, the significant crash in the industry will cost the world’s economy around $4 trillion or even more in the coming years.
