©Reuters
Delta Air Lines forecast strong demand for travel during the holiday season but warned that there were signs consumer travel behavior was returning to pre-pandemic levels after a very busy summer.
“I think we’re seeing some return to more normal seasonality,” Chief Executive Ed Bastian said at an industry conference on Wednesday.
There was a real air travel frenzy this summer as consumers unleashed the pent-up demand at home after two years. A key question for airlines is how long this demand trend could last amid challenges like high inflation, which is causing many Americans to redirect spending to necessities like food and gas.
So far, the strong demand has not abated, said Bastian, because holidaymakers booked large numbers of trips in the traditionally low-traffic autumn period. This echoed comments made by American Airlines and United Airlines last week.
“We expect very, very strong demand for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays,” said Bastian.
He added that business travel would have a “very strong” fall, but cautioned that “everyone” is looking for “cracks” in this typically lucrative segment.
The Atlanta-based airline, the third largest in the US, would offer more transatlantic flights next month than it did in October 2019, now as international revenue spurs the airline’s recovery.
Delta is betting US travelers will take advantage of the strong dollar to fly to Europe. About 80 percent of Delta’s revenue is denominated in dollars, making the currency’s current position a “very strong thing” for the airline.
Bastian predicted a “really good” autumn and winter for Transatlantik [travel] based on US consumer strength”.
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