Data Shows COVID-19 Delta Variant Impacting Air Travel Demand

Concerns related to the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus are impacting the demand for air travel.

According to ABCNews.com, Southwest Airlines has reported an uptick in cancelations due to a rise in COVID-19 cases, while the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened 1.7 million people nationwide on Tuesday, the lowest number of passengers in nearly two months.

Officials from Southwest said they expect the surge in cancellations to continue into September.

Travel booking site Hopper released its full Consumer Airfare Index, which revealed domestic airline bookings have flatlined since the Fourth of July holiday period. International bookings were also lower than projected rates.

“What we saw was that mid-July was one of our best booking weeks ever, so the domestic bookings were really strong in mid-July, but on the domestic front we have seen bookings be pretty flat since then,” Hopper economist Adit Damodarn said.

“We’re seeing a significant drop in domestic and international airfare,” Damodarn continued. “It’s a little bit more than the seasonality that we have seen in prior years, and so that would suggest to us that there’s both the seasonal variation coming off the peak summer travel season, as well as the impact of the delta variant.”

Hopper is reporting a surge in demand this month for its flexible booking options, including a 33 percent increase for the Cancel for Any Reason program and a 9.3 percent increase for the Change for Any Reason program. Another 12 percent are adding a rebooking guarantee.

As for air travel booking prices, travel itinerary app TripActions is reporting the average cost is down $76 from the end of June.