Is the trip coming back? Airports have busiest days since March 2020

“We saw some flashes of hope last year, but they were false hope,” said Bastian. “But it looks like it’s real.”

Airline shares soared on Monday. United Airlines Holdings shares Inc.

UAL 8.26%

rose 8.3%, while American Airlines Group shares Inc.

AAL 7.70%

rose 7.7% and Delta’s shares rose 2.3%.

The pandemic almost stopped travel last spring. Travel restrictions and fear of infection kept people at home and out of airports for most of the year: U.S. airlines carried 60% fewer passengers in 2020 than in 2019, bringing passenger traffic to the lowest level since the mid-1980s, according to the Bureau of Transport Statistics.

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

That was hard to imagine earlier this year. Airline executives said that January and February were even weaker than expected, as a large number of cases, the increase in more contagious variants and the Covid-19’s new testing requirements for people arriving from abroad had a frightening effect .

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

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

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

Some states, including New York and Connecticut, are relaxing the rules that require quarantine for incoming travelers.

And there is more to do when people arrive. California, for example, paved the way for Walt Disney Co.

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

Southwest Airlines Co.

LUV 1.75%

and JetBlue Airways Corp. also said on Monday that more people are making plans to travel, book holidays or visit friends and family, helping to reduce expected revenue drops this quarter.

Amy Curtis, who lives in Arizona, has been vaccinated since the end of February. When she learned over the weekend that her mother in Pennsylvania had also received her second chance, Mrs. Curtis decided to make an appointment.

“It was one of those impulsive things,” she said. “Life is so short – I feel like I need to take this opportunity. I don’t know when I’ll have it again. ”

Curtis said he still doesn’t feel comfortable traveling just for fun or vacations. But others are hitting beaches and ski resorts, according to airlines and analysts. JetBlue sold more vacation packages with flights and hotels in the past week than ever before, Chief Executive Robin Hayes said at a conference hosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Reservations for destinations like Florida and Hawaii, while still below 2019 levels, are holding up better than other areas, according to data from ForwardKeys, a travel analytics company. Domestic reserves were 42% of 2019 levels in the first week of January, but were at 64% of 2019 levels in the first week of March, according to their data.

“There has been a progressive growth in US domestic reserves every week since the beginning of the year,” said Olivier Ponti, vice president of insights at ForwardKeys.

The recent increase in flight bookings is helping to contain the amount of money that airlines have been losing daily, executives said on Monday. Airlines are on track to burn $ 150 million in cash a day for the first three months of this year, according to the commercial group Airlines for America.

United CEO Scott Kirby said at Monday’s conference that the company expects its cash flow to be positive, excluding debt payments, this month. Bastian also said that Delta hopes to stop burning cash later this month.

“We know that we still can’t put Covid in the rearview mirror,” said Kirby, noting that the airline remains unprofitable and would have to focus on paying off the debt. But he said he hoped there could be a continuous travel boom on the way, after a year in which many people suspended or reduced leisure experiences.

Airline executives have long claimed that travel demand will return when more people are vaccinated. While many international borders remain closed and companies are in no hurry to resume customer meetings and conferences, executives said there are signs that pent-up demand is returning.

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

CEO Doug Parker said.

Operators are also in a stronger financial position, having secured three rounds of government aid to cover workers’ payment costs, in addition to billions of dollars of private financing. The American Rescue Act that President Biden signed last week includes $ 14 billion to cover wages and benefits for airline workers in exchange for promises not to lay off or lay off employees until the fall. This raises the total value of government payroll support for airlines to $ 54 billion.

American Airlines also said last week that it would raise $ 10 billion by placing its frequent flyer program as a guarantee.

Mr Parker said: “For the first time since this crisis hit, just over a year ago, we at American do not intend to raise any money.”

Write to Alison Sider at [email protected]