Airline Ticket Sales on the Rise

For the third consecutive week – no doubt boosted by the holiday time period – airline ticket sales were up compared to the same time period last year, according to the Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC).

The transaction count for the seven days that ended Dec. 27 was down 63.8 percent from a year earlier, an improvement from the 66.1 percent year-over-year dip in agency ticket transactions for the week ending Dec. 20.

While still way off from 2019 numbers, the nearly 64 percent reduction is the best number achieved by travel agencies since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The boost was also likely triggered by the rollout almost three weeks ago of the two coronavirus vaccines that could be easing some concerns among the flying public about traveling on a plane again.

Air ticket volume was of a larger 76.4 percent for the week ending Sunday, Dec. 26, but that amount of money spent is also likely a reflection not just of far fewer sales, Travel Weekly said, but also of depressed ticket prices. Still, that number also improved from the previous week, when sales volume in the agency channel was off 80.1 percent year over year, ARC figures show.