Is The Travel Recovery Faltering?

April and Early May were not good months for the Travel Industry across the pond. The latter half of the month saw the Ash Clouds from the angry Icelandic Volcano.

But it seems that the surge in bookings we saw from the beginning of the year was not being sustained.

ARC's April numbers - total transactions - show a decline in growth.


But we are not going to see a boost in May either. We have more ash disruptions and BA strikes. But this should not materially affect the bigger picture of travel in the USA market.

So there is something going on. The economy is beginning to feel the heat of the Eurozone crisis. But the Europeans should not be affecting the US point of sale. The high cost of travel across the Atlantic with Eastbound traffic is beginning to bite. Perhaps the US carriers have cut back too much and more capacity needs to be added for the summer. Checking on flight prices across the Atlantic in both directions doesn't give much comfort despite the dramatic fall of the Euro against the dollar.

As I reported earlier the Pow Wow delegates are now trekking their way home probably less enthused than they could be.

Let's see how the Summer 2010 will progress. I am not terribly optimistic that we are going to see that bounce being sustained

And what do you think?

Cheers