Spring break travel demand is picking up, driving up airfare and hotel rates.
Travel app Hopper said in a report last week that domestic airfare is averaging $264 a round trip for March and April, up 20% from a 12 months ago and 5% above pre-pandemic levels.
Airlines, grappling with pilot shortages and aircraft delivery delays, have already limited capability growth, which is keeping airfare up from last 12 months.
Now travelers are going back to booking patterns common before the pandemic, flying on peak days to traditional destinations, airline executives say. That makes it much more vital for travelers to remain flexible in the event that they’re attempting to lower your expenses to avoid spikes in fares.
It’s excellent news for airlines which are attempting to make up for higher costs.
Spring break demand is “probably the perfect we have ever seen,” Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said in an interview. “Constrained capability is real. Once you couple that in with higher costs, most notably fuel, individuals are willing to pay [the higher fares], and the airlines must charge it.”
Matt Klein, Spirit Airlines‘ chief industrial officer, told CNBC that there was a travel lull following the brand new 12 months, when schools reopened after a longer-than-usual holiday break, but demand has perked up for trips through the spring, even beyond peak holiday weeks.
“The busiest days of the week are returning to your Fridays and Sundays,” Klein said in an interview. “The most effective deals and the perfect offers must be on Tuesdays and Wednesdays can be my expectation.”
But midweek during popular vacation periods, like when schools are off, could keep demand high all week, he added. “People will move around for the perfect opportunity,” he said.
Klein said that demand to Florida is especially strong and that Spirit has boosted capability to certain cities equivalent to Orlando, where it’s ramped up service to hit a near-record 96 each day departures on peak days.
“There are deals available, but what consumers won’t need to hear is that they will should be flexible,” said Hayley Berg, Hopper’s lead economist. She advisable alternative destinations to a number of the hottest places and book outside of the more traditional depart on a Thursday or Friday and return on a Sunday plan.
For instance, a Spirit flight from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is selling for $411.78 before fees, equivalent to seat selection or cabin baggage, from April 7-16, while a shorter April 8-15 trip was $233.78.
A flight from Latest York to Punta Cana within the Dominican Republic goes for $1,691.25 for normal economy on JetBlue from April 10-14. For a similar trip leaving and returning a day earlier that falls to $1,392.25.
That is the primary U.S. spring break season because the Biden administration scrapped a requirement that travelers show proof of a negative Covid test before flying to the U.S., making it easier for some people to travel abroad, while capability stays limited.
Hopper said roundtrip flights to Mexico and Central America from the U.S. are up 60% from last 12 months and 30% from 2019 at $536 in March and April. Fares from the U.S. to Caribbean islands are averaging $433, up 38% from last 12 months and 9% from 2019, while roundtrips to Europe are averaging $706, up 45% from 2022 and 16% higher than 4 years ago.
“It is not like a marriage. You have some flexibility on where to go,” Scott Keyes, founding father of Scott’s Low cost Flights, a flight deal site that the corporate recently renamed Going. “If low-cost flights are a priority, see where there are low-cost flights after which choose your destination.”
