The pandemic will affect the airline business for years to come, but travel will return because it is an essential element of being human. This report sponsored by CarTrawler anticipates the changes that will occur as consumers return to airlines, hotels, and car hire companies. Here are some of the findings from the report:
- Southwest Airlines is among the most profitable airlines in the world, and has never charged change or cancellation fees. Making profits without these fees is possible.
- Weaker airlines will merge with others or simply disappear. Some hotels will close and be repurposed for other uses, or will sit empty waiting for travel to recover.
- “Safer close to home” will most certainly define the near-term psychology of leisure travel. Travel by automobile, passenger rail, and shorter flights will see the first indication of renewed demand, and this may occur in August 2020.
- Travelers will equate “rural and outdoors” with good health, and “crowds and public spaces” with higher risk.
- Protection against disease will become an expectation in the same manner that protection from terrorism has been built into the travel system.