US airlines look toward air travel recovery

The six largest US airlines lost $34 billion in 2020 as they wait for a travel recovery whose timing will depend on the global battle against COVID-19. “I’ve got 10 straight months of data saying that people are ready to travel in six months,” American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told CNBC, predicting that “once people are comfortable, it will come back relatively quickly,” but “no one is going to travel until there are things to do when you travel, and until the vaccine is distributed and the pandemic is largely eradicated.” Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian suggested that as vaccines begin to slow the pandemic, low ticket prices could boost travel demand in upcoming months.