Thanksgiving Air Travel May Reach Pre-Pandemic levels

According to a new report, Thanksgiving flight bookings are outperforming 2019 levels, reflecting significantly from moderate holiday travel during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. Bookings for the Thanksgiving holiday has vaulted up past last year’s levels, at 78% higher than this point during 2020, and are modestly exceeding even pre-pandemic levels at 3.2% higher than 2019 bookings. The report has proclaimed that, historically, most Thanksgiving travel has been engaged by this point in the year.

After a long year where people were helpless to see their friends and families for Thanksgiving, the airlines are anticipating busy airports this month. The celebration spike is also bracing up prices online, and customers should begin considering about Christmas travel pretty soon.

Like much of the travel industry, airlines were in the grip of the Coronavirus during the early days. However, demand for air travel began flourishing as vaccinations were boosted and coronavirus cases declined earlier this year, with flight bookings almost reaching pre-pandemic levels.

However, the unforeseen growth of the delta variant this year “all but flattened the pathway to renewal,” which marked a second continuous month of rejecting bookings during the month.

Bookings and income remained flattened during the last two months, despite the recent step-up in travel. The online expense for domestic flights was 35% below the 2019 level in the month of September due to reduced travel rates. October was more reassuring, at 28% below 2019 levels, with bookings down just 10% compared to the same period in 2019. In October, prices also progressed for flights, rising to just 7% below pre-pandemic levels, up from 13% below 2019 levels in September.

Airlines have been at the wheel of corporate coronavirus limitations, such as vaccine decrees to keep their services running during the last few months to combat the coronavirus’s perpetual effect on the industry.