Increased Travel Demand Boosting Airfare and Hotels Prices
Air travel has seen a rebound in recent weeks. For 12 days in a row now, over one million passengers have passed daily through TSA checkpoints. The best day for travel this year was on March 21, when the TSA counted 1,543,115 people flying at airports nationwide. That’s almost three times the number of passengers that passed through checkpoints last year and 70% of the same day in 2019.
But with increased travel demand, prices are expected to go up as well. During the height of the pandemic, airlines and hotels were desperate for customers and were offering some of the best deals we have seen in a long time. Those deals are now quickly disappearing. If all Americans are eligible to get vaccinated by May, as expected, we could see that trend accelerating.
“Domestic airfares are rising. While discounts can still be found, they’re no longer falling into consumers’ laps,” said Jamie Baker, JP Morgan airline analyst told CNBC. “Discounted fares increasingly require a hunt, and for many consumers that have been locked up for a year, they’re probably not up to the effort.”
The cheapest domestic leisure airfares were $59.48 as of March 15 for example. That’s still 26% lower than a similar week in 2019, but up more than 6% on the week, according to Harrell Associates, a firm that tracks airfares. Average leisure fares were nearly $187, up almost 5% on the week and close to 9% higher than a similar point in 2019.
Hotel occupancy in the U.S. this month through March 13 is also up, averaging more than 51%. That’s the highest in more than a year, according to hotel data analysis firm STR. In hot vacation spots like Miami, occupancy is nearly 70% with average rates of $228 a night. Those are prices that we have not seen since before the pandemic hit back in February 2020.
The CDC is still advising against travel, warning that unvaccinated vacationers can catch and spread Covid-19. But with 25.3% of Americans receiving at least just one dose, and 13.7% being fully vaccinated, travel opportunities are opening up for more people.
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lolol at the CDC.
Still screaming the sky is falling.
Science disagree with them. Facts disagree with them.
BUT the media makes money on it, and keeps amplifying their stupidity.
They’ve been, effectively, wrong on everything in the last year.
Why anyone listens to those idiots anymore is beyond me.
Prices will continue to rise because of demand and airlines also need to figure out how to recoup the money they’re losing from change fees.