Quote:
Originally Posted by urban_encounter
Travis, since you work in the industry, where do you see the airline industry in a year considering everything going on in relation to Covid-19?
|
I haven't worked in the industry for years, but still know many people who do. I doubt this will come as a surprise to anyone, and we're already seeing the trend, but everyone I know says the same thing: Business travel stays low throughout 2021; leisure will explode this summer (2021).
So look for previously unheard of flights as airlines try to find something to do with their aircraft stock, even if that means robust creativity with new routes (see SMF-Cancun above).
So much business traffic depends on conventions/trade shows. Those appear to be dead through 2021.
Schedules are changing almost daily, but right now starting in June, SMF has 16 flights a day loaded for SEA. 8x/day on Alaska, 4x/day each on Southwest and Delta.
We'll see if that holds, but SEA has been the #1 destination out of SMF throughout 2020 averaging 60-70 flights a week since last summer.
Alaska also returns to the SMF-SAN market in April @ 3x/day going up to 4x/day in the summer. Alaska abandoned this route to Southwest early in the pandemic.
My contact at SMF says to look for Puerto Vallarta before the end of the year...
Btw - United's early morning flight to Denver is on the recently returned Boeing 737 Max. This SMF-DEN flight was one of the first regularly scheduled with the notorious aircraft...