MaxTrimm wrote:

Well, CDC just announced that fully vaccinated individuals shouldn’t need masks indoors or outdoors, regardless of the size of the group. Obviously public transport will still need masks until it gets more under control globally, but this should further bolster what we already know will be a massive travel summer within the States.

Full attendance games and concerts should help travel!

MaxTrimm wrote:

Well, CDC just announced that fully vaccinated individuals shouldn’t need masks indoors or outdoors, regardless of the size of the group. Obviously public transport will still need masks until it gets more under control globally, but this should further bolster what we already know will be a massive travel summer within the States.

This has been obvious to anyone who wasn't a complete idiot for months now.

MaxTrimm wrote:

Well, CDC just announced that fully vaccinated individuals shouldn’t need masks indoors or outdoors, regardless of the size of the group. Obviously public transport will still need masks until it gets more under control globally, but this should further bolster what we already know will be a massive travel summer within the States.

I'd think this would impact corporate travel much more than leisure. Most people vacationing are going to outdoorsy places where you wouldn't be wearing a mask anyway.

Yep this is going to make it a lot easier for corporate travel and doing a lot more in person working sessions and meetings. I don’t think this really unlocks or changes the trajectory of demand for domestic vfr or leisure but this should help step up some corporate travel.

Fwiw the general senitment is we are pretty much done with this thing here.

piedmontf284000 wrote:

Montana and Wyoming are in a totally different playing field this summer... according to the OAG schedule, Bozeman is the third fastest-growing domestic airport at the moment, just behind EYW and SRQ

BZN will see nearly 87% more seats in July 2021 compared to two years ago. JAC is seeing a 40% increase in seats compared to 2019.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/aa-leisur ... extension/

As for the rental cars in Montana. A five day rental in BZN for an intermediate car in June is running $460...a day! Total with fees is almost $2400. Kalispell and Missoula? Forget it, sold out everywhere.

The rental car companies might be short on supply, due to liquidation, but the demand is so high they're making up for it by rates some 200 percent higher then 2019

Really curious how this will play out as BZN--and MT--certainly does not have 87% more hotel rooms than two years ago.

MaverickM11 wrote:

piedmontf284000 wrote:

Montana and Wyoming are in a totally different playing field this summer... according to the OAG schedule, Bozeman is the third fastest-growing domestic airport at the moment, just behind EYW and SRQ

BZN will see nearly 87% more seats in July 2021 compared to two years ago. JAC is seeing a 40% increase in seats compared to 2019.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/aa-leisur ... extension/

As for the rental cars in Montana. A five day rental in BZN for an intermediate car in June is running $460...a day! Total with fees is almost $2400. Kalispell and Missoula? Forget it, sold out everywhere.

The rental car companies might be short on supply, due to liquidation, but the demand is so high they're making up for it by rates some 200 percent higher then 2019

Really curious how this will play out as BZN--and MT--certainly does not have 87% more hotel rooms than two years ago.

Air bnb and camping

MaverickM11 wrote:

piedmontf284000 wrote:

Montana and Wyoming are in a totally different playing field this summer... according to the OAG schedule, Bozeman is the third fastest-growing domestic airport at the moment, just behind EYW and SRQ

BZN will see nearly 87% more seats in July 2021 compared to two years ago. JAC is seeing a 40% increase in seats compared to 2019.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/aa-leisur ... extension/

As for the rental cars in Montana. A five day rental in BZN for an intermediate car in June is running $460...a day! Total with fees is almost $2400. Kalispell and Missoula? Forget it, sold out everywhere.

The rental car companies might be short on supply, due to liquidation, but the demand is so high they're making up for it by rates some 200 percent higher then 2019

Really curious how this will play out as BZN--and MT--certainly does not have 87% more hotel rooms than two years ago.

Mountain West is out of the question for us this summer except for SLC & DEN, rental cars are just insane right now:

"799/day excellent value"

The mountain town / national park areas like JAC, BZN, FCA, GEG, ASE already top out on full lodging and campgrounds in a normal summer. Most people flying in aren’t camping for a variety of reasons.

The one thing that may help a bit is more of the quasi seasonal residents spending more time in their owned properties and having more extended families fly in and out during the summer.

It’s not Ma and Pa Kettle from podunkville thinking it’s a good year to fly in to BZN to visit ole faithful and pay $600/night for lodging and $700/day to rent an suv even if they scored $400 r/t from somewhere back east. Not to mention the park reservation systems

32andBelow wrote:

MaverickM11 wrote:

piedmontf284000 wrote:

Montana and Wyoming are in a totally different playing field this summer... according to the OAG schedule, Bozeman is the third fastest-growing domestic airport at the moment, just behind EYW and SRQ

BZN will see nearly 87% more seats in July 2021 compared to two years ago. JAC is seeing a 40% increase in seats compared to 2019.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/aa-leisur ... extension/

As for the rental cars in Montana. A five day rental in BZN for an intermediate car in June is running $460...a day! Total with fees is almost $2400. Kalispell and Missoula? Forget it, sold out everywhere.

The rental car companies might be short on supply, due to liquidation, but the demand is so high they're making up for it by rates some 200 percent higher then 2019

Really curious how this will play out as BZN--and MT--certainly does not have 87% more hotel rooms than two years ago.

Air bnb and camping

Of course, but those existed before as well, and certainly have not nearly doubled since 2019. I'm just curious what unintended consequences we'll see, of which $460/day rental cars are one.

MaverickM11 wrote:

32andBelow wrote:

MaverickM11 wrote:

Really curious how this will play out as BZN--and MT--certainly does not have 87% more hotel rooms than two years ago.

Air bnb and camping

Of course, but those existed before as well, and certainly have not nearly doubled since 2019. I'm just curious what unintended consequences we'll see, of which $460/day rental cars are one.

I know people that never would have, start to put their properties in air bnb cus it’s such easy money. You can almost pay your mortgage for the year in some of these locations.

The first part of my Grand Teton trip in August was the room. The absolute second was Avis.

And the third was buying a ticket there...because standby travel doesnt work if you cant get a freakin car when you land!

Travel was messy last summer (we kept traveling) It will be much worse this summer...for different reasons

Yesterday was a new record for travel since COVID. 1,743,515 people passed through TSA checkpoints on Thursday. Looking at this week (Sunday-Saturday) travel is already up 711,474, we will surpass 11 million this week! With the CDC change in facemask requirements (I know you wear when on a plane) I think even more people will be willing to travel. It will be interesting to see if airlines add more capacity for July/August or continue to push fares up.

RicFlyer wrote:

Yesterday was a new record for travel since COVID. 1,743,515 people passed through TSA checkpoints on Thursday. Looking at this week (Sunday-Saturday) travel is already up 711,474, we will surpass 11 million this week! With the CDC change in facemask requirements (I know you wear when on a plane) I think even more people will be willing to travel. It will be interesting to see if airlines add more capacity for July/August or continue to push fares up.

You'll see some add service - others like United, who is intent on keeping capacity low, will try to push up fares.

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

The mountain town / national park areas like JAC, BZN, FCA, GEG, ASE already top out on full lodging and campgrounds in a normal summer. Most people flying in aren’t camping for a variety of reasons.

The one thing that may help a bit is more of the quasi seasonal residents spending more time in their owned properties and having more extended families fly in and out during the summer.

It’s not Ma and Pa Kettle from podunkville thinking it’s a good year to fly in to BZN to visit ole faithful and pay $600/night for lodging and $700/day to rent an suv even if they scored $400 r/t from somewhere back east. Not to mention the park reservation systems

Park reservations have been mostly sold out since last year, but that is not unusual. Some of this will replace people who would have driven, but I am not sure where the rest will go. I guess we will find out. Glad I made my reservations a long time ago (things were really cheap last fall).

Pro tip......go to all these places off peak, particularly after the kiddos go back to school.
Honestly, unless you are tied to a school break schedule, not sure what some people would want to go during peak summer. I asked my parents why in the heck they were trying to travel somewhere popular during late-June this year, I said do you realize how crowded its going to be? They seemed somewhat clueless and or indifferent. I'm sure they will complain to me about how crowded it was, and everything was short-staffed......you can see this train coming miles away.

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

Pro tip......go to all these places off peak, particularly after the kiddos go back to school.
Honestly, unless you are tied to a school break schedule, not sure what some people would want to go during peak summer. I asked my parents why in the heck they were trying to travel somewhere popular during late-June this year, I said do you realize how crowded its going to be? They seemed somewhat clueless and or indifferent. I'm sure they will complain to me about how crowded it was, and everything was short-staffed......you can see this train coming miles away.

There isn't a whole lot of time after the kids are back in school when we are talking about the mountains of Montana.

yes.....as in September. Early-Oct gets dicy with snow.
Actually peak summer vacations tapper off a bit after mid-August as that is when a lot of school activities, sports, camps start to ramp up; and when colleges go back.
Plus schools in the South / Southeast all typically start in mid-August.

Flew MCO-LAX yesterday. Traffic to MCO arrivals was backed up some 100+ cars in terminal B. There was actually a line at TSA precheck, I've flown this route 18 times since pandemic began, always just walk right through. LAX T2 was a madhouse. Hundreds of people trying to exit terminal at same time. People laying on the floor all over the terminal, looked like DXB. Every seat on my shuttle to the Marriott LAX where I parked was taken. Very happy to see the return of travel, but also kind of missing the empty seat next to me.

Nice continued growth in international bookings:



Nice growth in mid June-early July bookings, 4th of July should be big, airline have said they are keeping fares high for this time period so they don't sell out too quickly.

https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/repor ... page/BUtIB

HA website getting overwhelmed with all the bookings & searches to Hawaii :

"In a letter to HawaiianMiles members, the airline apologized for the inconvenience and admitted that the issues stemmed from “an unexpectedly sharp surge in demand to book or rebook travel.”

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2021/05/1 ... g-flights/

mcogator wrote:

There was actually a line at TSA precheck, I've flown this route 18 times since pandemic began, always just walk right through.

This is good since I'll actually get to finally use my CLEAR, the past year it has been worthless except for one time at DEN

For the week May 9-15 (Sunday-Saturday) the TSA screening total was 11,019,027 a 748,378 increase from the previous week, a record since COVID. Saturday's total of 1,453,267 was the largest Saturday total since March 14, 2019. The big question is will we hit 12 million over Memorial Day week???? I am not sure there is enough capacity to it that number?

RicFlyer wrote:

For the week May 9-15 (Sunday-Saturday) the TSA screening total was 11,019,027 a 748,378 increase from the previous week, a record since COVID. Saturday's total of 1,453,267 was the largest Saturday total since March 14, 2019. The big question is will we hit 12 million over Memorial Day week???? I am not sure there is enough capacity to it that number?

We will hit it for sure. Capacity is ramping up and up. I’m curious if the big 3 are going to be adding sections and maybe bigger equipment as stuff gets full.

Capacity is NOT an issue, we’re still seeing only a 70%+/- LF.

32andBelow wrote:

RicFlyer wrote:

For the week May 9-15 (Sunday-Saturday) the TSA screening total was 11,019,027 a 748,378 increase from the previous week, a record since COVID. Saturday's total of 1,453,267 was the largest Saturday total since March 14, 2019. The big question is will we hit 12 million over Memorial Day week???? I am not sure there is enough capacity to it that number?

We will hit it for sure. Capacity is ramping up and up. I’m curious if the big 3 are going to be adding sections and maybe bigger equipment as stuff gets full.

What extra capacity? Between the huge number of AC permanently parked, pilots offered early retirement, and at some airlines, pilots still not re-qualified from the displacements - I can’t imagine there is much big 3 capacity on the shelf right now. And the ULCC are basically in the ballpark of 2019 capacity or will be very soon. The math just doesn’t add up to there being enough seats flying this summer to hit 2019 numbers.

32andBelow wrote:

RicFlyer wrote:

For the week May 9-15 (Sunday-Saturday) the TSA screening total was 11,019,027 a 748,378 increase from the previous week, a record since COVID. Saturday's total of 1,453,267 was the largest Saturday total since March 14, 2019. The big question is will we hit 12 million over Memorial Day week???? I am not sure there is enough capacity to it that number?

We will hit it for sure. Capacity is ramping up and up. I’m curious if the big 3 are going to be adding sections and maybe bigger equipment as stuff gets full.

It is not ramping up and up. For most airlines capacity is deployed on a monthly basis, with some variations around holidays. Airlines have one schedule for an entire month, for example AA's June schedule starts on the 3rd of June & their May schedule started on the 6th.

In short, it's not like each passing week sees noticeably more flights than the previous.

See below, the black line stays relatively flat over the course of a given month:


https://www.airlines.org/dataset/impact ... -updates/#

Nicknuzzii wrote:

Capacity is NOT an issue, we’re still seeing only a 70%+/- LF.

Capacity is always a key point of recovery.

Domestic LF was around 77% last week (only 8 percentage points lower than 2019), leisure destinations are much higher than that.

Plus, as long as you are only offering X% of 2019 capacity, then you can really only expect to see total passengers max out around X% of 2019.

IdlewildJFK wrote:

What extra capacity? Between the huge number of AC permanently parked, pilots offered early retirement, and at some airlines, pilots still not re-qualified from the displacements - I can’t imagine there is much big 3 capacity on the shelf right now. And the ULCC are basically in the ballpark of 2019 capacity or will be very soon. The math just doesn’t add up to there being enough seats flying this summer to hit 2019 numbers.

There isn't enough capacity to match 2019, although many of the aircraft that are operating now could do more turns I suspect. The US4 got rid of many of the early morning/night departures that were targeted at business travelers, I've been seeing more of these flights return but not to the extent they were operated pre-covid. I'm doubtful these flight times are that lucrative for airlines right now, but that's one lever of additional capacity.

Regardless, the US needs some time before the 2019 numbers are hit.


https://jettip.net/blog/25-april-us-can ... fic-report

IdlewildJFK wrote:

32andBelow wrote:

RicFlyer wrote:

For the week May 9-15 (Sunday-Saturday) the TSA screening total was 11,019,027 a 748,378 increase from the previous week, a record since COVID. Saturday's total of 1,453,267 was the largest Saturday total since March 14, 2019. The big question is will we hit 12 million over Memorial Day week???? I am not sure there is enough capacity to it that number?

We will hit it for sure. Capacity is ramping up and up. I’m curious if the big 3 are going to be adding sections and maybe bigger equipment as stuff gets full.

What extra capacity? Between the huge number of AC permanently parked, pilots offered early retirement, and at some airlines, pilots still not re-qualified from the displacements - I can’t imagine there is much big 3 capacity on the shelf right now. And the ULCC are basically in the ballpark of 2019 capacity or will be very soon. The math just doesn’t add up to there being enough seats flying this summer to hit 2019 numbers.

The remaining international wide body fleets can’t be fully deployed yet. It might work out really well to deploy them domestically over the summer. For capacity and so the crews can get re qualified for the international recovery.

Sunday is going to be a big day.

seatown1 wrote:

Sunday is going to be a big day.

1.85M, smashing the previous busiest day since last March

32andBelow wrote:

IdlewildJFK wrote:

32andBelow wrote:

We will hit it for sure. Capacity is ramping up and up. I’m curious if the big 3 are going to be adding sections and maybe bigger equipment as stuff gets full.

What extra capacity? Between the huge number of AC permanently parked, pilots offered early retirement, and at some airlines, pilots still not re-qualified from the displacements - I can’t imagine there is much big 3 capacity on the shelf right now. And the ULCC are basically in the ballpark of 2019 capacity or will be very soon. The math just doesn’t add up to there being enough seats flying this summer to hit 2019 numbers.

The remaining international wide body fleets can’t be fully deployed yet. It might work out really well to deploy them domestically over the summer. For capacity and so the crews can get re qualified for the international recovery.

That's somewhat happening to the extent possible but there are some complications. DL for example has some widebodies (A332, B764, and maybe a few A333) that are going to stay in storage until next summer. Some are due for heavy maintenance, and there is a huge backlog on catching up on maintenance work from when so much of the fleet was parked in 2020. Some of that also is that they aren't going to be needed for international routes until Summer 2022. They are kind of planning what they thing their widebody needs are going to be for the rest of 2021 and early 2022 when more international opens up, but after the peak summer spike of leisure travel declines in the fall.

We are able to get these bigger numbers in May because of:
1) More capacity added in beginning of the month, including DL opening up middle seats
2) Higher load factors

Like said, additional capacity is going to come from primarily increased utilization of aircraft already in service. Extending the operating day, but only were it makes sense.
Like said, at DTW there used to 30+ departures prior to 7am, including several in the 5-6am hour. Right now there are less than 10 flights that depart before 7am, and the first departure is 6:00am
Same thing in the evening, DL used to have 30-40 departures after 10pm, now the last flights depart between 9-9:30pm.

The biggest days in 2020, typically Summer Fridays, were above 2.7 M passenger screening. My guess is this summer will probably see some of those days approaching 2.2-2.3 M.

Notable increase in corporate travel last week, 30% of 2019 by end of May?


https://www2.arccorp.com/about-us/newsr ... y-16-2021/

2 million next Sunday?

An interesting discussion I was having with a friend of mine last night. Is this spike in demand going to be long term or will is wane come September when kids are back in school?

First full month of travel since February 2020 for me and summer is already filling up. Good to be out and about of course, but man I've enjoyed this no air travel thing.

chrisair wrote:

An interesting discussion I was having with a friend of mine last night. Is this spike in demand going to be long term or will is wane come September when kids are back in school?

First full month of travel since February 2020 for me and summer is already filling up. Good to be out and about of course, but man I've enjoyed this no air travel thing.

I think we will fall back into a more normal seasonal pattern since a lot of work from home will end. A lot of businesses are talking about a hybrid model tho. So I wonder if that will lead to increases in leisure or people commuting into the city for their 2 days in the office.

32andBelow wrote:

2 million next Sunday?

Memorial Day weekend.

Scarebus34 wrote:

32andBelow wrote:

2 million next Sunday?

Memorial Day weekend.

That’s what I thought originally but we hit 850 yesterday and we are increasing by like 100k week over week

32andBelow wrote:

Scarebus34 wrote:

32andBelow wrote:

2 million next Sunday?

Memorial Day weekend.

That’s what I thought originally but we hit 850 yesterday and we are increasing by like 100k week over week

We hit 1,850,531 yesterday with an increase of 142,726 people. I think maybe 2 million one day this week, but sure we will hit 2 million one day, if not two May 28-31.

MaverickM11 wrote:

piedmontf284000 wrote:

The rental car companies might be short on supply, due to liquidation, but the demand is so high they're making up for it by rates some 200 percent higher then 2019

Really curious how this will play out as BZN--and MT--certainly does not have 87% more hotel rooms than two years ago.

They also don't have the rental cars. This is going to end badly for a lot of people. Either airlines are stuck with empty seats because fliers can't rent a car and decide not to go. Or some people will show up and not have a car they thought they had reserved. Montana and Wyoming are not exactly the kind of place you can visit without a rental car. I'm really glad we took our vacation there last Summer. It was already quite busy and hard to find a rental car. I can only imagine what this Summer will look like.

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

The mountain town / national park areas like JAC, BZN, FCA, GEG, ASE already top out on full lodging and campgrounds in a normal summer. Most people flying in aren’t camping for a variety of reasons.

We flew in last Summer and camped. Lots of people travel by plane to go camping. We camped at Colter Bay Village in the Tetons. Gorgeous place.

airbazar wrote:

[They also don't have the rental cars. This is going to end badly for a lot of people.

I don't think people ever think about rental cars. I know I never did, except in certain places (CLT during a NASCAR race for example), but now I'm finding myself booking a car first then flights. Kind of weird doing it that way.

Last week I had a choice of a mini van, a car with no keys and two other cars.

chrisair wrote:

airbazar wrote:

[They also don't have the rental cars. This is going to end badly for a lot of people.

I don't think people ever think about rental cars. I know I never did, except in certain places (CLT during a NASCAR race for example), but now I'm finding myself booking a car first then flights. Kind of weird doing it that way.

Last week I had a choice of a mini van, a car with no keys and two other cars.

I get it for somewhere like Montana. But when I’m going somewhere else I figure I’ll just take ubers if the rentals are too much. And most people I know aren’t going to drive on a vacation because you can’t .

RicFlyer wrote:

32andBelow wrote:

Scarebus34 wrote:

Memorial Day weekend.

That’s what I thought originally but we hit 850 yesterday and we are increasing by like 100k week over week

We hit 1,850,531 yesterday with an increase of 142,726 people. I think maybe 2 million one day this week, but sure we will hit 2 million one day, if not two May 28-31.

Yesterday (5/17) was 1.74 million. I flew out of BWI and it was an absolute madhouse. Lines into every restaurant, people sitting on the floor, baggage claim at ORD was 4 deep. Mind you, this was a Monday night on a non-holiday weekend. I think the summer season has officially started.

A few things are going on I think that antidotally give the perception of "packed" airports despite passenger levels and flight still being down 30% from 2019.:
- Shorter operating day; as mentioned a bit up-thread in many airports there are fewer flights departing early-morning (pre-6am) or late-evening (after-10pm).
- With fewer flights, more highly banked operations; in part a function of compressed operating day but also running more banked hubbing operations resulting in more peaks/valleys throughout the day
- Due to less demand and the current employment shortage, a lot fewer restaurants and shops open in most airports; causing long lines at the ones that are open
- Different passenger mix; less business travel more discressionary leisure - more checked bags and less rollerboards

Tuesdays and Wednesdays tend to be noticably light. Monday mornings are obviously a lot lighter without the bread-and-butter business travelers, but Monday afternoon/evenings are busy with the long-weekend crowd.

Flew MSP-->DEN-->SAT and then back this last weekend on Southwest.. All 4 planes 100% filled. Not a single seat open. DEN terminal was zoo.

Counterpoint....flew DL DTW-ATL this evening on a 757; less than 50 people on board. It was more of a repo flight than anything.
DTW was crickets when I got to the airport between banks and then got super busy as we were boarding as it was a peak arrival bank.
ATL was dead when we got in, but it was 10:30pm. Tons of off-site parking lots still closed and off-site hotels are still pretty dead.

Anything touching a leisure destination is going out near full. The other stuff is very hit-or-miss depending on the day/time.

Another record! Tuesday TSA number 1,408,017. So far this week (Sunday-Tuesday) we are up 312,069, 6%. If the week total is up 6% that puts us at 11,680,168. We could see next week the numbers starting to hit the numbers from March 8-14, 2019. Technically we already surpassed the Friday number from March 13, 2019 last Friday by 2,189 people. Let's see where we go!!!

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

- Due to less demand and the current employment shortage, a lot fewer restaurants and shops open in most airports; causing long lines at the ones that are open
- Different passenger mix; less business travel more discressionary leisure - more checked bags and less rollerboards

From a WN ops agent I talked to yesterday: “this no business travelers thing is driving me insane.”

Inadvertently was on a flight with a customer yesterday. His Fortune 100 company is still requiring a few layers of approval for air travel. “It still takes an act of god for flights to get approved.”

chrisair wrote:

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

- Due to less demand and the current employment shortage, a lot fewer restaurants and shops open in most airports; causing long lines at the ones that are open
- Different passenger mix; less business travel more discressionary leisure - more checked bags and less rollerboards

From a WN ops agent I talked to yesterday: “this no business travelers thing is driving me insane.”

Inadvertently was on a flight with a customer yesterday. His Fortune 100 company is still requiring a few layers of approval for air travel. “It still takes an act of god for flights to get approved.”

It’s coming. Just need some first movers. You can see what happens with first movers on dropping the masks. Now everyone else is falling in line.

32andBelow wrote:

chrisair wrote:

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

- Due to less demand and the current employment shortage, a lot fewer restaurants and shops open in most airports; causing long lines at the ones that are open
- Different passenger mix; less business travel more discressionary leisure - more checked bags and less rollerboards

From a WN ops agent I talked to yesterday: “this no business travelers thing is driving me insane.”

Inadvertently was on a flight with a customer yesterday. His Fortune 100 company is still requiring a few layers of approval for air travel. “It still takes an act of god for flights to get approved.”

It’s coming. Just need some first movers. You can see what happens with first movers on dropping the masks. Now everyone else is falling in line.

Friend's travel agency surveyed their corporate accounts and most said they'd resume traveling in Q3.
Their business is picking up, enough that they've started the process of recalling corporate agents.
Problem is a lot of their furloughed staff either found new jobs outside travel or have chosen to retire.

Sooner787 wrote:

32andBelow wrote:

chrisair wrote:

From a WN ops agent I talked to yesterday: “this no business travelers thing is driving me insane.”

Inadvertently was on a flight with a customer yesterday. His Fortune 100 company is still requiring a few layers of approval for air travel. “It still takes an act of god for flights to get approved.”

It’s coming. Just need some first movers. You can see what happens with first movers on dropping the masks. Now everyone else is falling in line.

Friend's travel agency surveyed their corporate accounts and most said they'd resume traveling in Q3.
Their business is picking up, enough that they've started the process of recalling corporate agents.
Problem is a lot of their furloughed staff either found new jobs outside travel or have chosen to retire.

Well you always hear about college grads being under employed so maybe people can move up!

32andBelow wrote:

It’s coming. Just need some first movers.

Yep. It is. It'll happen at some point this year. Just from my situation, I've gone from 1x a month in March/April to a full May, a mostly full June and a full July.

EU is reopening to vaccinated Americans. Let's see if it's reciprocal.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-countries-agree-ease-travel-restictions-non-eu-visitors-2021-05-19/