13 February 2011

US Travel Up But Still Below Historic Highs


The US world of travel is growing again. We are seeing better numbers than last year. However we are still below the historic highs of 2006, 2007 and 2008.

ARC's numbers are looking healthy. Remember there are a couple of interesting elements you need to consider.

Ancillaries - those evil things - are hardly reflected in here as the revenue is currently only collected by the airline directly not via ARC.

The percentage of direct revenue is back to increasing. It has hovered at around 50% in recent months. Anecdotal evidence says that American experienced an increase in direct traffic as a percentage measurement of total sales. How that did compared to other airlines will have to be seen.

Finally the increase Y/Y is not as rosy as perhaps it could be. This is both a good sign and a bad sign. On the plus side it shows continuing restraint by the airlines. The bad news is that the passengers are not diving into their wallets and splashing out the cash.

So another year of a certain degree of uncertainty is ahead.

Cheers

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