Skift Take
There is still some weak point in the healing of the airline company sector, particularly in flight search levels and the prices power of airlines. Nevertheless, information from the Skift Healing Index shows that flight reservations and capacity are making major strides toward pre-pandemic levels.
Wouter Geerts
In Skift Research’s most current report, Skift Healing Index: October 2021 Emphasizes, we see the travel industry come another couple of points better to healing. The global index now stands at 64, which suggests that the global travel performance is 64 percent compared to October 2019.
Many regions moved into black numbers once again after a few frustrating months, suggesting that worries over the Delta version might be subsiding. The air travel market has actually been underindexed for the majority of the healing period, but we are finally starting to see some positive developments, in spite of some weakness staying. Below is an extract from the most recent report which dives into the most recent performance of the air travel industry.
Air Travel Market Lastly Sees Favorable Movement
Flight scheduling information from our data partner ForwardKeys reveals that booking levels have actually increased significantly given that the start of the year, and in Europe and the Americas levels are nearing pre-pandemic levels.
Also when we take a look at seat capability information from OAG, the same areas are revealing the greatest performance, with capacity levels in October back to 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels in Europe, North and Latin America.
The Index likewise includes airport lounge go to information from Collinson, which has seen a constant boost in sees because the beginning of the year. This highly likely signals the return of company travel demand and high-end leisure demand. Europe stands out here, which is mainly driven by Russia, where airport lounges have been open all year (not the case in many other countries) and need has been back to pre-pandemic levels because July 2021.
In spite of these enhancing indications, there stays weak point in other areas which highlight that the industry continues to run in uncertain times. To start with, the amount of flight searches that our data partners Amadeus, Skyscanner and Sojern are seeing remains reduced. Europe is carrying out best at still just 52 percent of pre-pandemic levels, and there has actually been very little upward movement since the beginning of the year. The situation clearly does not call for people to shop around and dream about their next trip just yet.
Second of all, according to information from Skyscanner, virtual interlining or self-connection, where people need to book 2 separate flights to get to their destination, has been up considerably given that the start of the pandemic, however there has actually been little enhancement in this. Route networks are clearly not back to optimum levels yet.
< img src ="https://research.skift.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-1024x608.png" alt=""width="768 "height= "456"/ > And finally, if we look at the most recent publication from the Bureau of Labor Data in the U.S., we see that inflation rates are at the highest they have actually been for 30 years, but airline fares are bucking the trend by seeing strong declines in prices. This highlights that airlines continue to do not have pricing power which capacity continues to overtake need.
Weighing up all these restored strengths and some continuing weak points, there does seem to be a real sense in the market that it will see a real boost next year, putting the market in a prime position to accomplish pre-pandemic volumes and revenues by 2023 or 2024. Simply put, things will go back to typical, faster than numerous had expected.
Skift Research’s most current report, going over the October 2021 Emphasizes from the Skift Healing Index is now offered to our customers, containing more insights into the recovery of specific countries and sectors.