The surge in coronavirus cases across the U.S. is slamming the brakes on the recovery of the travel industry, according to Adobe’s Digital Economy Index, reversing a months-long trend of rebounding demand and prices for domestic air travel that was only just reaching pre-pandemic levels. In June, U.S. domestic flight bookings drove $6 billion in online spending, according to Adobe’s Digital Economy Index, just 5% below 2019 levels.
The surge in new Covid-19 cases caused as the infectious delta variant spread across the country curtailed this recovery, with data from Adobe showing $5.26 billion spent on domestic flights in July, a 13% drop from June and 16% lower than spending in 2019. This trend continued in August—Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandya said sales typically match those from July—where the $2.9 billion spent on domestic flights is 33% lower than the same period in 2019.
Though July was the first month in 2021 where flight prices bounced back to 2019 levels—continuing a month by month increase from 28% below 2019 levels in January to just 1% below them in June—data from Adobe showed the changing conditions and drop in demand meant August defied this trend. For the first three weeks of August, prices for domestic flights dipped to 6% below 2019 levels, according to Adobe, which measures transactions from six of the top ten U.S. airlines.Pandya said domestic flight bookings in August “show that U.S. consumers are taking the delta variant seriously and once again shifting their travel plans.” Pandya said it is likely spending in August will “be significantly under July...