After a long, dark winter, airline executives say things are starting to get clear, but that is far from clear.
The Transportation Safety Administration selected nearly 4 million passengers this past Friday to Sunday, the highest levels since travel fell last year.
The future looks brighter for a return to air travel – at least for relaxation.
“As the number of counts drops significantly as vaccinations begin to grow, people are ready to claim their lives back,” Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian told Nester Lester Holt in an interview aired Tuesday. .
‘We see discussions picking up. “People expect what their spring and summer plans will look like and they are ready to get back the lost period they had,” said Bastian.
People living in the United States began receiving $ 1,400 stimulus checks this week as part of President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 billion coronavirus relief package, making it easier for passengers trained to buy tickets.
But business travel, where the airline’s largest profit margin is made, continues to decline by about 80 percent, Bastian said, and is currently dampening a complete recovery for the industry.
The total travel of passengers remains in March by more than half lower than in the same period in 2019, a year of record traffic and profitability for the airlines.
Airlines have received more than $ 44 billion in wage support from pandemic mitigation measures adopted by Congress since last March. A funding period in September led to tens of thousands of countries.
South West CEO Gary Kelly predicted in a Washington Post interview on Monday that the airline would reach a break-even point by June, “where many of the population has been vaccinated.”
In a regulatory filing, Southwest said March and April will beat expectations as traffic and fares rise, with passengers traveling to the beach and mountains.
“We are definitely seeing the beginning of what feels like a huge increase,” American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said on Monday at a JPMorgan virtual event.
The recovery appears to have ‘legs’, said Spirit Airlines CEO Ted Christie.
Wall Street has shown signs of optimism, with shares rising in the industry over the past few weeks, led by United Airlines and American. It made a profit Tuesday, with airline shares up 1.7 to 3.4 percent.
Airline executives believe business will eventually be at full strength again and have highlighted the intensive clean-up and safety measures they have added to protect passengers and crew and restore confidence in the face of the Covid threat.
“We have very few documented cases around the world, and even less in the US, of dispatch on board an aircraft,” Bastian said. ‘The filtering systems on board our aircraft are the safest air you can breathe anywhere. We all have HEPA filters and we make sure our planes are pristine. ”
The course of a federal mask mandate has slightly reduced tensions over wearing masks, and crew members have told NBC News that they do not have to write as many passengers. But there is still conflict. The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday helped maintain a zero-tolerance policy introduced in January. More than 500 cases of rioting passengers have been reported since December.
“Some people want to make a political statement,” Bastian said. “It’s really unfortunate because it endangers the customers sitting around them, they are uncomfortable and our employees follow a policy without apologies.” The airline added about 1,200 people to the list of non-flying aircraft over the fact that they do not comply.
“If you can wear a mask and you choose not to, you will not be flying Delta,” he said.
