More than 40 airlines have ceased operations since the Covid 19 pandemic began, and more will follow in their contrails.
The holidays helped, but that’s where they bank their money, and airlines aren’t expected to reach a cash break-even point in the first half of 2021.
On January 14, 2021 the TSA checked a little over 803,000 passengers through airport security, compared to 1.87 million on the same date in 2020. Air travel is still severely depressed.
First quarter of each year generally sees a lot of business travelers, but the virus has all but eliminated the practice, and Daniel McCarthy, editor of Travel Market Report suspects vacations will be back but frequent business fliers may not ever. “Industry experts expect leisure travel to return a lot quicker than business travel. One, because of corporate budgets being cut back, but they also expect all these network and video conferencing tools to have a place in the future.
Oddly, the wonderful machines that would zoom into the skies are being replaced by new technology called Zoom.
The industry’s future needs a shot in the arm, and they’re counting on vaccinations to be their saving grace. Current passenger levels are down 58% from this time last year, but some of that could come back by Spring Break as vaccinations become more widespread.
The one silver cloud in the sky for the airline business has been cargo. It reach an all-time high in 3rd quarter of 2020, and when the numbers come, 4Q could be another record breaker.
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