It is perhaps the most significant moment for international travel since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic: the reopening of the US to European nationals.
Travel associations, airlines and agencies who have campaigned long and hard for the safe reopening of the key travel corridor are hopeful it will prove a turning point – and early data from airlines and travel management companies demonstrates the extent of initial searches and bookings.
According to aviation data specialists Cirium, flights between the UK and US in November are up 21 per cent versus October – but remain 49 per cent down on November 2019 – with British Airways offering the most capacity, followed by Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines, United and Delta.
London Heathrow to New York is the route with the most flights, followed by Heathrow to Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington Dulles, Miami and Boston.
Heathrow also has the most US capacity lined up from Europe, more than twice that of Paris Charles de Gaulle in second. Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Istanbul offer the next most flights to the US this month.
Among the principal transatlantic carriers, Delta Air Lines experienced a 450 per cent increase in international point-of-sale bookings in the six weeks after the US reopening was announced compared to the six weeks before. It also expects many international flights to operate at 100 per cent capacity on Monday 8 November.
Travel management companies, many of whom are heavily dependent on transatlantic travel as a significant part of their busines, were pleased to report surges in bookings since the reopening was first announced on 20 September and the exact reopening date, 8 November, was subsequently confirmed on 15 October.
TripActions said that bookings for flights from the EU to US destinations leapt by 213 per cent month on month following confirmation of the reopening date. It also noted the seven-day average for all flight booking prices continues to climb and is now at $483 – the highest it’s been since late June 2021 and equivalent to pre-pandemic 2020 fares.
FCM witnessed a 92 per cent month-over-month increase in transatlantic bookings in October, while TAG, for whom transatlantic travel accounts for around half of its corporate UK business, says overall volumes have now rebounded to around 65 per cent of 2019 levels.
Diversity Travel, which specialises in charity, non-profit and NGO travel, said the US jumped from its 15th to third-most booked destination (after domestic UK travel and Kenya) since a date for reopening was announced.
Meanwhile, data from global distribution system Travelport, used by agencies serving both leisure and business travellers, demonstrated the ‘special relationship’ which exists between the UK and US, with flight searches in the UK for US travel outstripping those from all other European countries combined in recent weeks.
Flight searches also translated into bookings, with UK bookings for US-bound flights surpassing those from Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland and Denmark combined.
With Thanksgiving on 25 November, bookings for the occasion surged 2,200 per cent in the 24 hours following confirmation of today’s reopening date. Orlando, New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles were the top five destinations for US-bound Brits.