Covid-19: Airlines prepare for surge of travelers in United States – South West

Airlines are in order of battle to welcome on Monday vaccinated travelers from 33 countries, allowed to return to the United States after eighteen months of border closures. To cope, they have added flights, chose larger planes, made sure they had enough staff.

Flights taken by storm

The announcement by the White House of the lifting of restrictions was expected for months by separated families, business travelers or simple tourists. Because of the virus, Washington had drastically limited passengers from the Schengen area, the United Kingdom, China, India and Brazil.

Upon lifting, airline ticket reservations immediately jumped. British Airways thus saw the search for flights and stays explode by 900%, compared to the week before the announcement of the US government. At the house of American Airlines, bookings jumped 66% to the UK, 40% to Europe and 74% to Brazil. The flights of November 8, the date of the reopening, were stormed.

More flights and more seats

For airlines, “there is not a before / after November 8,” notes an Air France spokesperson. They have better filled their planes, which for a long time have traveled with empty seats, and are gradually adding additional seats. Air France has thus gone from three flights a day between Paris and New York to five and will also replace the Airbus 330s with Boeing 777s, for more seats.

The companies expect a resurgence in bookings in the spring and especially in the summer, the most profitable season. At some companies, the flight schedule has already returned to 2019 levels. United, for example, will open five new destinations in the spring, add flights and reopen links interrupted during the pandemic.

Staff uncertainty

Traffic should also resume on the trans-Pacific side, but more slowly. Singapore Airlines Still plans to return to 77% of its pre-Covid flights in December, including the reopening of lines to the northern United States and Canada. For Burkett huey, specialist in air transport at Morningstar, the companies have enough planes to cope with the influx of travelers, “a few large aircraft were withdrawn from the fleets in 2020 but nothing that completely changes the landscape”. In terms of employees, on the other hand, there are more uncertainties. In the United States, American and Southwest recently had to cancel thousands of flights due to lack of manpower to handle unusual disruptions.

The question above all remains to know when business travel, cash cows of companies, will return to their pre-Covid levels. With fewer business trips, companies could offer more direct trips to tourists, using new planes that are smaller but now able to cover long distances, like the A321neo.