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- Airlines are bracing for a fall travel season with fewer business travelers after a lucrative summer.
- As a result, air fares from September to November are expected to be lower than normal.
- But vacation travel prices are likely to be similar to last year’s levels as demand for recreation rebounds.
Travelers who have missed the basement of pandemic airfare prices have another opportunity to get deals on flights this fall.
As summer draws to a close and leisure travelers hibernate for the fall, airlines face a shortage of business travelers who would normally help fill the void until travel season. Thanksgiving or Christmas. Big spendthrift companies, including Google, are still keeping their employees at home and largely withholding travel budgets as the Delta variant plagues the United States.
As a result, airfares this season are expected to be lower than fall 2019 levels as airlines encourage leisure travelers to take to the skies again in their off-season.
September may be the cheapest season of fall, according to travel data company Hopper. Airfares are estimated to drop 10% in September, with the average round-trip flight costing $ 260 for domestic travel.
However, vacation travel may not be as good a deal this year, as Hopper expects air fares to rise 11% from September through December levels. As a result, the average round-trip airfare is expected to be $ 289.
“This would make domestic air fares during the holiday season equivalent to summer air fares, similar to what we saw in 2019 and 2020,” Hopper told Insider. Holiday travel increased in 2020 despite calls from public health officials about a second wave, with airlines likely estimating similar demand this year.
Travelers looking to travel abroad can also expect to spend less on airline tickets this fall. Hopper estimates that September through November airfares will be 15% lower than fall 2019 levels and that the average round trip fare will be $ 734.
International round trips in fall 2020, for comparison, averaged $ 717. These prices are still below fall 2019 levels, when the average airfare was $ 859 round trip.
September is also expected to be the cheapest month for international travel in the fall season months. Hopper expects September airfares to be 8% lower than July levels for an average $ 700 round-trip airfare.
Travelers may not see deals as good as those of 2020, but cheap plane tickets can still be had until the winter vacation rush.
United Airlines showed just how cheap airfares can be with $ 113 roundtrip fares between New York and Los Angeles from late September through November, quickly matched by JetBlue Airways. Even more budget-conscious passengers can also find Spirit Airlines round trips on the same route for under $ 100.
United, American Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines also sell round-trip flights between Los Angeles and Maui, Hawaii, for as little as $ 168.
Inexpensive flights, however, signal how bad the drop will be for airlines with fewer business customers. United’s New York-Los Angeles route will be served by a narrow-body Boeing 757 instead of the premium-configuration Boeing 767 that debuted the route in March, likely because business-class seats are more difficult to sell when companies do not settle there. The law project.
Business travel bookings, however, have trended upward throughout the summer and increased in the week leading up to Labor Day weekend, according to data from TripActions, which the company calls “an encouraging start” for the resumption of business travel.
This fall will be the first since the start of the pandemic when domestic travelers also don’t have to worry about regional travel restrictions. Vaccinated travelers have also been given the green light from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to travel to the United States.
The CDC, however, advises unvaccinated travelers to take additional measures, including getting tested before and after travel, as well as self-quarantining for seven to 10 days after travel.
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