One of the busiest travel weeks gets underway as airlines prep for the holiday-season surge
Planes, trains, and automobiles… This week kicks off what airlines say could be their busiest holiday-travel season ever. More than 39M Americans are expected to fly tomorrow through January 2 — or about 2.8M passengers/day. (FYI: this year a record 2.9M+ US passengers went through TSA over Thanksgiving weekend.) Overall, 115M Americans are expected to travel at least 50 miles from their homes, marking the second-busiest end-of-year travel period since 2000.
Lower cost: Ticket prices have cooled from last year’s highs to below prepandemic levels, with the average cost of airfare down 13% on the year as of October.
High fly: One survey suggested that a third of fliers traveled more this year than prepandemic.
3 hours early… for a 2-hour flight. Airlines may finally be back on Santa’s nice list after last year’s winter storm disrupted thousands of flights. Yesterday, Southwest Airlines was ordered to pay a record $140M fine for its meltdown last year, which affected 2M passengers (the low-cost carrier says it’s “absolutely prepared” for this year’s surge). Meanwhile, airlines have been on a hiring spree, with the likes of Delta, American, and United all expecting strong holiday demand.
Strong winds can boost cruisin’ speeds… As overall US consumer spending gives off mixed signals, travel demand has stayed hot. That may continue: the International Air Transport Association forecasts that airlines will notch record operating profits of nearly $50B next year. Internationally, the # of air travelers next year is also expected to hit a prepandemic high. But miles aren’t the only thing jetsetters have racked up. About 37% of fliers say they’ll spend months paying off holiday bills.