Here’s our weekly update on what’s happened with air travel last week and what to expect if you’re planning to travel for the upcoming Labor Day weekend.
Flight bookings declined throughout the last month because of the increase in COVID-19 cases caused by the highly contagious delta variant. Flight bookings are down for the second month in a row. Travelers spent approximately $5.3 billion in July, a 13% decrease from June when air travel approached pre-pandemic levels. According to an Adobe Digital Insights report, online users spent $2.9 billion on domestic flights in the first three weeks of August, a 33% decrease from the same period in 2019.
The data we collected via the TSA website shows that on August 24th, Tuesday, the agency screened less than 1.5 million tourists, the lowest day number in months. The numbers are a reality check for the airline and allied sectors and a fry cry from June when post-pandemic travel really took off.
Air travel statistics from August 23rd- August 29th, 2021
The past week saw even fewer Americans taking to the skies with just 11,920,165 travel screenings. This is way less than the 12,852,170 TSA travel screenings we saw last week. Weekend travel was a mixed bag. August 29th, Sunday saw the highest travel numbers of the week at 1,900 658, while August 28th Saturday saw the least with only 1,511,294 people traveling that day.
According to the Transportation Security Administration, the percentage of travelers passing through airport security checkpoints in the United States has remained at 77% in recent weeks. This is down from an average of 79% in mid-July when summer travel soared.
Labor Day weekend often sees an upsurge in demand as families scramble to get in one final excursion before school begins. This is not the case this year. It does appear that fewer people will vacation than what the travel industry predicted earlier this summer – when vaccination rates were rising, and people were returning to leisure travel in droves. This late-summer slowdown might hinder the industry’s full recovery. Early July saw a boom in air travel, but by late August, passenger numbers have fallen by 14%.
Airlines are using this downtime wisely, though. If you’ll recall, even as travel numbers spiked, airlines were plagued by cancellations, delays and were unable to handle the surge in demand. Right now, airlines are spending time and money setting their houses in order while crossing their fingers, hoping for a last-minute Labor Day getaway surge. The last-minute booking trend really took off last year due to the pandemic and tourists taking time to deliberate on where and when to travel, if at all.
On the flip side, quite a lot of people still intend to travel during the Labor Day weekend, by road, that is. Arrivalist, a travel data company, predicts that 42.9 million Americans will embark on road trips this year.
All things considered, it’s still a good idea to reserve your airport parking spot ahead of time. This is to snag parking spots while the prices are low and to ensure you have a safe and easy airport parking experience. This is especially true for those who may require SFO parking, EWR Parking, or Logan Airport parking during the Labor Day weekend. As always, we highly advise you to adhere to all of the CDC’s travel instructions to ensure the safety of your Labor Day trips.
Check out more blogs on the best parking spots in your city, the most affordable insurance for your car, and top-rated car washes near you.
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Renée Martin is a travel and car expert who focuses on smart car ownership and road travel in the U.S. For the past 6 years, she’s been helping make car ownership, driving, and trip planning easier for everyday travelers.
