Bloomberg Surveillance · Thursday, July 16, 2026
Despite current airfare prices, air travel remains 13% cheaper in real terms compared to pre-COVID levels, a trend that has significantly boosted demand. This is in contrast to hotels, cruise lines, and rental cars, which have seen substantial price increases.
“In fact, quarter yields are booked fourteen points higher at this point in time than they were at the same point in time for three Q. Corporate demand so far in July is up thirty percent. We really have it, and I think it's you sort of take a step back from it and look at what's really happened.”
“Even with fares where they are today, air travel is thirteen prices are thirteen percent lower in real terms than they were pre COVID, while hotels are up significantly, cruise lines and rental cars and everything else is up.”
“And so I think we're just returning to a normal historic share of the travel PI for air travel, so the total cost of the trip is staying consistent with inflation, but after under indexing to airlines, it's now over indexing to airlines, and so the total cost of the trip isn't changing nearly as much as just airfares, returning to the normal historical relationship that we've had to the total travel pie.”