Airline Bookings Start To Tumble Again As Coronavirus Cases Spike
New York (CNN Business) - Airline travel is bouncing back – but so are American coronavirus cases. That spike could put the aviation rebound in reverse.
United Airlines (UAL) presented sobering facts to employees Monday that bookings are tumbling as COVID cases soar. Also hurting travel demand: regulations in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that mandate travelers from the pandemic's US hotspots quarantine themselves for 14 days. The Wall Street Journal first reported the data in the employee presentation.
Near-term bookings at United's hub in Newark were only 16% of 2019 bookings as of July 1. That's about half the level of demand of just two weeks earlier, when United's bookings were at 35% of the year earlier levels. Bookings outside of the Newark hub also fell in recent days in the face of rising Covid-19 cases, though only by a few percentage points, according to a graph in the presentation.
