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Summer Travel Season Begins: Airlines Hopeful for Chaos-Free Season
The unofficial start of the summer travel season has begun, and airlines are hopeful for a chaos-free season. Travelers are still searching for ways to save money on expensive airfares and hotel rooms, while some are settling for fewer trips or choosing to drive instead of fly.
Travel Expenses on the Rise
With the increase in travel, expenses are also rising. The average hotel rate in the US has increased from $150 in the same week last year to $157 last week. The average daily rate for Airbnb and Vrbo rose to $316 last month, an increase of 1.4% from a year ago. However, there is good news for drivers, as the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.56, down from $4.60 at the same time last year, according to AAA. Rental cars are also cheaper than a year ago, with larger inventories allowing companies to rent more cars at lower prices.
Airlines Fixing Last Year’s Issues
Airline industry officials say that the carriers have fixed the issues that caused surges in flight cancellations and delays last summer. Airlines have hired around 30,000 workers, including thousands of pilots, and are using bigger planes to reduce the number of flights but not the number of seats. Andrew Watterson, the chief operating officer at Southwest Airlines, said they had a robust plan for the summer, and David Seymour, the chief operating officer of American Airlines, said they had fine-tuned their system for predicting the impact of storms on major airports and devised a plan for recovering from disruptions.
Inflation and the Travel Industry
The big question for the travel industry is how long consumers can keep paying for airline tickets and accommodations while dealing with stubborn high inflation, news about layoffs and bank failures, and fear of a recession. Industry executives say consumers are favouring the experience of travel over other types of spending. However, some analysts see cracks in the strong demand for travel that began in early 2022. Data from Bank of America’s credit and debit card customers showed a slowdown in spending in April, as card use fell below the year-before levels for the first time since February 2021. They also reported that spending on hotels dipped this spring, while card spending on cruises rose 37% last month but from very low levels a year ago.
