Passengers wait in line for TSA security check at Orlando International Airport.
Paul Hennessy | Images SOUP | LightRocket | Getty Images
The summer travel season is fading, air fares are declining and questions are being raised about demand in the coming weeks, when business travel will typically increase.
The Transportation Security Administration on Tuesday examined nearly 1.35 million people, the lowest since May 11. Demand for travel usually drops in late summer when children return to school, but frontier, Southwest, American and Spirit airlines warned last month that there would be a lack of revenue or profit forecasts in due to weaker reserves, a trend they blamed on growing cases of the Covid-19 delta variant.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, on Tuesday advised unvaccinated people not to travel during the Labor Day weekend.
Domestic airfares fell in the week ended Aug. 27 from the previous week for most U.S. airlines, according to a Deutsche Bank report. Fares vary widely depending on the airline’s service and network.
In the case of fares purchased 21 days in advance, national one-way and average fares fell to 30.6% per week, to $ 51 and $ 183 for Spirit and JetBlue, respectively.
Average U.S. national one-way fares fell nearly 23% to $ 158, Delta’s fell more than 20% to $ 150, and United’s more than 25% , up to $ 199.
United said on Wednesday it expects to carry 2 million passengers between September 2 and 7, which includes Labor Day weekend, about three times as many as last year, but below 2.6 million people which he transported during the 2019 holiday weekend.