Trends

Aviation Fuel Consumption Up 2.9% from Pre-Pandemic October 2019

For the first nine months of 2023, 1.6% of flights have been canceled, far below the 2.8% cancellation rate for the first nine months of last year and the 2.2% cancellation rate for first nine months of pre-pandemic 2019.

International tourism is on track to recover almost 90% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year. According to the latest data from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), an estimated 975 million tourists travelled internationally between January and September 2023, an increase of 38% on the same months of 2022.

New ASQ 2023 Global Traveller Survey report provides key insights into the evolution of traveller behaviours and expectations

The report found that economic uncertainty, inflation, and the cost of living are all having a significant impact on strategies, with more than 50% of respondents considering these to be areas that require careful planning.

Influencers become agents, business class fares unbundle, artificial intelligence matures, and musical tourism drives demand, while eVTOLs prepare for take-off

After a slower regional rebound over the last few years, business travel spending in Europe is expected to surpass its pre-pandemic spending level of $391.9 billion USD in 2025, when spending is forecast to reach $414.9 billion. This is later than the forecast for global business travel recovery, which is expected to reach $1.5 trillion in 2024 − and grow to nearly $1.8 trillion by 2027.

U.S. airlines carried 83.1 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in August 2023, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). When adjusted for seasonality, August enplanements are up 1.7% from July and down 4.2% from the all-time high reached in January 2020.

U.S. airlines are expecting nearly 30 million travelers over the 11-day Thanksgiving travel period (Nov. 17-27), which is an all-time high.

This year’s Thanksgiving forecast is an increase of 2.3% over last year and marks the third-highest Thanksgiving forecast since AAA began tracking holiday travel in 2000. The top two years were 2005 and 2019, respectively.