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

“We’ve seen some glimpses of hope over the last year, but they’ve been false hopes,” Bastian said. “But it looks like it’s real.”

Airline stocks rose Monday. Shares of United Airlines Holdings Inc.

UAL 8.26%

increased by 8.3%, while shares of the American Airlines group Inc.

AAL 7.70%

rose 7.7% and Delta shares rose 2.3%.

The pandemic caused a practical stop in travel last spring. Travel restrictions and fear of infection kept people at home and away from airports for most of the year: U.S. airlines carried 60 percent fewer passengers in 2020 than in 2019, which which brought passenger traffic to its lowest level since the mid-1980s, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

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

This was hard to imagine earlier this year. Airline executives said January and February were even weaker than expected as the high number of cases, the rise of more contagious variants and the new testing requirements for Covid-19 for people arriving from abroad had a chilling effect.

Executives said they remain cautious. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still discourages travel and the number of people passing through U.S. airports is still half (or less) of what it was during most days of 2019, according to the Security Administration of transport.

But the numbers are rising. Airports surveyed about 1.36 million people on Friday and more than 1.34 million people 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 rules that require incoming travelers to be quarantined.

And there are more things to do once people arrive. California, for example, has paved the way for Walt Disney Co.

Disneyland and other attractions to reopen with limited capacity if certain test positivity criteria are met. State and local governments, even in very restrictive states like Michigan and Illinois, allow restaurants to re-seat some customers inside.

Southwest Airlines Co.

LUV 1.75%

and JetBlue Airways Corp. they also said Monday that more people are planning to travel, book vacations or travel to visit friends and family, which helps reduce projected revenue declines this quarter.

Amy Curtis, who lives in Arizona, has been vaccinated since late February. When she learned over the weekend that her mother in Pennsylvania had also received her second shot, Mrs. Curtis decided to book a visit.

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

Ms Curtis said she still doesn’t feel comfortable traveling just for fun or vacation. But others are reaching beaches and ski resorts, according to airlines and analysts. JetBlue last week sold more vacation packages for flights and hotels that it included last week, CEO Robin Hayes said at a conference hosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Bookings in destinations such as Florida and Hawaii, while still falling from 2019 levels, hold up better than other areas, according to data from ForwardKeys, a travel analysis company. National reserves accounted for 42% of 2019 levels in the first week of January, but stood at 64% of 2019 levels in the first week of March, according to their data.

“Since the beginning of the year, there has been a gradual growth of U.S. national reserves each week,” said Olivier Ponti, vice president of information for ForwardKeys.

The recent increase in flight bookings is helping to curb the amount of cash operators have been losing on a daily basis, executives said Monday. Airlines have been on track to earn $ 150 million in cash a day for the first three months of this year, according to the trading group Airlines for America.

United CEO Scott Kirby told the conference on Monday that the company expects its cash flow to turn positive, excluding debt payments, this month. Bastian also said Delta expects to stop burning cash as soon as this month.

“We know we still can’t put Covid in the rearview mirror,” said Kirby, who noted that the airline remains unprofitable and should focus on repaying the debt it has assumed. But he said he hopes there will be a steady travel boom after a year, when many people suspended or reduced leisure experiences.

Airline executives have long said travel demand would rise again once people were vaccinated. While many international borders remain closed and companies are in no hurry to resume customer meetings and conferences, executives said there are indications that accumulated demand is returning.

“Our last three weeks have been the best three weeks since the pandemic’s success,” American Airlines told AAL 7.70%

Said CEO Doug Parker.

Carriers also have a firmer financial base, as they have secured three rounds of government aid to cover workers ’payment costs, in addition to billions of dollars in private funding. The American Rescue Act that President Biden signed into law last week includes $ 14 billion to cover wages and benefits for airline workers in exchange for promises not to arrive or lay off employees until the fall. This brings the total amount of government payroll support for airlines to $ 54 billion.

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

Parker said, “For the first time since this crisis came just over a year ago, at American we don’t want to raise money.”

Write to Alison Sider to [email protected]