American Travelers Are Shunning the U.S. for Europe
domestic flights slid 2% in July from the same month in 2019, while the number of passengers on trans-Atlantic routes increased 14%, according to Airlines for America, a trade group that represents several major airlines. Airline ticket prices reflect the shift. Domestic fares are down 11% from last year and tracking below 2019 levels, while international fares have risen 11% from a year ago and are up 28% from 2019, according to Hopper, a booking app.
The pivot is cutting into revenue for some U.S.-focused airlines that haven’t seen demand build to the heights it reached last summer, according to airline executives. To cope, carriers are rejiggering schedules and trying out new routes to better match the emerging patterns. “The current setup is simply not favorable to a domestic-focused airline," Spirit Airlines Chief Executive Officer Ted Christie said Thursday as the carrier reported weaker-than-expected earnings.
Dan Plotinsky and his family usually fly to New England to visit relatives over the summer. With his oldest daughter graduating from high school, they instead took a family trip to Europe. Plotinsky’s wife and daughters started in France, and he met them in London.
“I think we just decided, let’s try something new," he said. JetBlue Airways cautioned this week that it might see a loss in the third quarter and pared its guidance for the full year. Executives at Spirit, Frontier and Alaska Air have said in recent weeks that U.S.
airfares have cooled as more of their customers have spent their vacation budgets on trips abroad. “When we lose 5% of our people to go to Europe, that’s a lot of customers," Frontier Chief Executive Barry Biffle said Tuesday. Hotels are seeing a similar switch.
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