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By DAVID KOENIG
The unofficial start of the summer travel season is here, with airlines hoping to recover from last year’s chaos and travelers looking for ways to save a few dollars on expensive airfares and hotel rooms.
Some travelers say they travel less than they intended or drive instead of flying. Others are finding a variety of money-saving offerings.
Stephanie Hanrahan thought she could save money by planning her daughter’s birthday trip to Florida’s Disney World in advance. Instead, it cost the same as a trip to California for a Dallas-area family last summer, so now her husband and daughter are staying home.
“We had to brush our teeth,” said Harahan, an author and speaker at the nonprofit, as she and her daughter Campbell waited for their flight at Love Field in Dallas last week.
The number of people passing through US airports last weekend hit a pandemic high, and those records are sure to be broken over the Memorial Day holiday.
AAA predicts 37 million Americans will drive at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home this weekend, more than 2 million more than last year’s Memorial Day weekend, but still below the number seen in 2019 before the pandemic. The Transportation Security Administration is expected to conduct inspections of 10 million travelers between Friday and Monday, up 14% over the 2022 holiday and slightly more than in 2019.
With more travel comes more expense. The average rate for a U.S. hotel room last week was $157 a night, up from $150 a night in the same week last year, according to hotel data provider STR. And the average daily rate for other short-term rentals like Airbnb and Vrbo rose to $316 last month, up 1.4% from a year earlier, according to industry tracker ErDNA.
But there’s a bit of good news for drivers: The national average for a gallon of regular was $3.56 midweek, down from $4.60 this time last year, according to AAA. Renting a car at some popular destinations is also cheaper than before. Travel company Expedia says larger inventory allows companies to rent more cars at lower prices.
For Air Travelers, airline industry officials said last summer, when 52,000 flights were made between June and August, carriers had persistent problems that contributed to flight cancellations and delays. Airlines have since hired about 30,000 workers, including thousands of pilots, and using larger planes will reduce flights but not the number of seats.
“I don’t have the data to tell you exactly how the summer will go, but we’re prepared and have a solid plan for it,” said Andrew Watson, Southwest Airlines’ chief operating officer. In the year They faced a major setback, canceling around 17,000 flights in the 2022 winter and Christmas period.
American Airlines Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said his staff has tweaked the system used to predict damage from hurricanes at major airports and plan for recovery from disruptions. He said he is reducing cancellations.
“It’s going to be a tough winter for us,” Seymour said.
In a report released last month, the Government Accountability Office blamed airlines for an increase in flight cancellations as travel recovered from the pandemic. He said airlines are taking longer to recover from disruptions such as hurricanes.
Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the government would take responsibility to ensure passengers were treated fairly when carriers were forced to cancel or have long delays. But like the airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration — the agency that manages the nation’s air traffic — has had its own staff shortages and occasional technology failures that disrupt air travel.
The FAA this summer began urging airlines to reduce flights in the New York City area and opened new flight paths on the East Coast to reduce congestion.
Travel analyst Henry Hartevelt said: “It will be a tough challenge – it’s always tough to travel in the summer, but the airlines have done a lot to improve their ability to perform well this winter.
Airlines hope that limiting the number of flights will improve reliability and reduce delays. It seems to be working so far. About one in 70 U.S. flights have been canceled this year — half the number a year ago and fewer than in 2019.
Limiting the number of flights will keep prices above pre-pandemic levels.
Travel information provider Hopper predicts that the average airfare will increase to $328 for a one-way ticket next month, up $400 from last summer’s record high of $400 in 2019.
Hopper found there were some last-minute deals on domestic flights, but international fares were the highest in more than five years, with prices to Europe up 50% from a year ago.
The same thing is happening in Europe as airlines keep routes at capacity during periods of strong travel demand.
“There is no prospect of seeing cheaper fares in Europe in the next seven to eight months,” says an analyst at OAG, a UK-based travel information provider.
The big question for the travel industry is how long consumers will continue to pay for airline tickets and hospitality amid fears of stubbornly high inflation, job layoffs and bank failures, and a recession.
Industry executives say consumers are increasingly favoring the travel experience over other forms of spending, but some analysts see a spike in travel demand starting as early as 2022.
Bank of America analysts said data from credit and debit card customers showed a slowdown in spending in April as card usage fell below year-ago levels for the first time since February 2021. As the epidemic deepened this spring, the late-recovering shipping industry is still moving forward — spending on charters for cruise ships rose 37% last month, though it was much lower than a year earlier.
“Travel remains a bright spot relative to other sectors, but we are seeing signs of moderation in the travel space,” said Anna Zhu, the bank’s chief economist.
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