Travelers shouldn’t expect any elbow room this summer — flight bookings are at record levels, Delta said Wednesday in its earnings report.Americans are shrugging off the pandemic and gearing up for a summer travel bonanza, even as inflation pummels road warriors and flyers.
“With the rebound in demand, the month of March was the best cash sales month in Delta's history, outpacing our prior record from spring of 2019 despite offering 10% fewer seats,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian told investors in a conference call.Business travel is still ailing, but leisure travel is outpacing pre-pandemic levels despite a 10.7% increase in airline fares from February to March.
“It’s not just Delta. You’re seeing that basically across the board,” Scott Keyes, founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, tells Axios. “You’re especially seeing that on routes toward vacation favorites.”Pilot shortages threaten to lead to chaos for the onslaught of travelers if airlines can’t meet demand.Alaska Airlines said last week it’s slashing 2% of its flights through June.
“The airlines that are seeing impending staffing shortages are starting to make their cuts now rather than wait until the last minute,” Keyes says.“There appears to be no concerns, candidly, about any variant or the virus,” Bastian
then prices sure as heck aren't going down any time soon
Don't fly unless you have to due to an emergency, otherwise you have no one to blame but yourself.
...with higher jet fuel prices.