Will traveling come back? Airports have the busiest days since March 2020

“We’ve seen a glimmer of hope in the last year, but it was false hope,” said Mr. Bastian. “But this looks like it is real.”

Shares of airlines rose on Monday. Shares of United Airlines Holdings Inc.

UAL 8.26%

rose 8.3%, while shares of American Airlines Group Inc.

AAL 7.70%

climbed 7.7% and Delta shares were up 2.3%.

The pandemic almost brought travel to a halt last spring. Travel restrictions and fear of infection kept people at home and out of the airport for most of the year: U.S. airlines carried 60% fewer passengers in 2020 than in 2019, pushing passenger traffic to its lowest level since the mid-1980s, it said. Desk. of transport statistics.

Major US carriers lost about $ 35 billion in 2020. But on Monday, United and Delta said they could stop bleeding cash this month.

That was hard to imagine at the beginning of this year. Airline drivers said January and February were even weaker than they expected, as a high number of cases, the emergence of more contagious variants and new Covid-19 testing requirements for people coming from abroad had a chilling effect.

Executives said they remain cautious. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still discourages travel, and the number of people passing through U.S. airports is still half – or less – of what it was for most days in 2019, according to the Transport Security Administration.

But the numbers are on the rise. Airports screened nearly 1.36 million people on Friday and more than 1.34 million people on Sunday, two of the busiest days since March 2020.

The number of new Covid-19 cases is declining and the distribution of vaccine doses has increased. President Biden said earlier this month that the US will have enough vaccines for all American adults by the end of May.

Some states, including New York and Connecticut, have relaxed rules requiring incoming travelers to be quarantined.

And there is more to do once people arrive. California, for example, set the stage for Walt Disney Co.

Disneyland and other attractions to reopen with limited capacity if certain benchmarks for test positivity are met. State and local governments – even in highly restrictive states like Michigan and Illinois – allow restaurants to put some customers back indoors.

Southwest Airlines Co.

LUV 1.75%

and JetBlue Airways Corp. Also said Monday that more people are planning to travel, book vacations or take trips to visit friends and family, helping to accommodate the expected revenue declines this quarter.

Amy Curtis, who lives in Arizona, has been vaccinated since late February. When she learned this weekend that her mother in Pennsylvania had also received her second injection, Mrs. Curtis decided to book a visit.

“It was one of those impulsive things,” she said. ‘Life is so short – I feel like I should take this opportunity. I don’t know when I might get it again. ”

Mrs. Curtis said she is not yet comfortable traveling alone for fun or vacation. But others hit beaches and ski resorts, according to airlines and analysts. JetBlue sold more bundled flight-and-hotel vacation packages last week than ever before, said Chief Executive Robin Hayes at the conference hosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Bookings to destinations such as Florida and Hawaii, while still lower than 2019, are holding up better than other areas, according to data from ForwardKeys, a travel analytics company. Domestic bookings were 42% of the 2019 level in the first week of January, but were 64% of the 2019 level in the first week of March, according to data.

“Since the start of the year, there has been progressive growth in US domestic bookings every week,” said Olivier Ponti, vice president of Insights at ForwardKeys.

The recent surge in bookings is helping curb the amount of cash airlines lose on a daily basis, executives said Monday. According to trading group Airlines for America, airlines are on track to burn $ 150 million a day in cash for the first three months of this year.

United CEO Scott Kirby said at the conference on Monday that the company expects its cash flow to turn positive this month, excluding debt payments. Mr. Bastian also said Delta expects to stop burning cash this month.

“We know we can’t put Covid in the rearview mirror just yet,” said Mr Kirby, noting that the airline remains unprofitable and should focus on repaying the debt it has taken on. But he said he expects a steady travel boom could come after a year when many people have suspended or restricted their free time.

Airline drivers have long said demand for travel would roar back if people were vaccinated again. While many international borders remain closed and companies are not rushing to resume client meetings and conferences, executives said there are signs that pent-up demand is returning.

“Our last three weeks have been the best three weeks since the pandemic hit,” said American Airlines AAL 7.70%

CEO Doug Parker said.

Carriers also have a firmer financial base, as they have received three rounds of government support to cover the costs of paying employees, in addition to billions of dollars in private funding. The American Rescue Act that President Biden signed into law last week includes $ 14 billion to cover salaries and benefits for aviation personnel in exchange for pledges not to grant time off or lay off employees until the fall. That brings the total amount of government support for airline payroll to $ 54 billion.

American Airlines also said last week it would raise $ 10 billion by pledging its frequent flyer program as collateral.

Mr. Parker said, “For the first time since this crisis hit just over a year ago, we at American have no intention of raising money.”

Write to Alison Sider at [email protected]