Arnie Weissmann
Item: A shortage of available vehicles pushed April rental car prices up 70% compared to April 2019. -- CNN Business
Item: Consumers spent $8.8 billion on domestic U.S. airline tickets last month, up 28% compared with March 2019, before the Covid pandemic, while fares surged 20%, according to data from the Adobe Digital Economy Index that was published Tuesday. Bookings only rose 12%. -- CNBC
Item: In 2019, you could get a room at the Breakers, a five-star resort in Palm Beach, for $350 a night in June -- proof that, once upon a time, Florida's unbearable summer humidity made for outstanding deals. Check a weekend in June 2022, and you'll find that the prices have quadrupled, with entry-level rooms going for $1,450. -- Bloomberg
Quite understandably, when media and travel industry executives try to gauge the industry's recovery from the pandemic slowdown, comparisons are made to 2019. For many travel advisors and suppliers, 2019 was a record-setting year, and as it drew to a close, many had hoped the momentum of a decade of industry growth would continue into 2020. At worst, many predicted, growth might slow a bit.
At both IPW and the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference this month, 2019 was still often cited as the touchstone.
But are these comparisons in any way apples to apples? From March 2020 through 2021, year-over-year performance measurements were a clear indication of how far the industry had fallen (or, in regard to some aspects of domestic travel, had risen). 2019 may still be a benchmark, but is 2022 pricing a meaningful measurement of progress?
Even if one attempts to make adjustments for dynamic external influences such as inflation, staffing shortages, supply chain issues, auto-fleet miscalculations, the invasion of Ukraine, higher-than-normal household savings during the pandemic years and lingering testing protocols, 2022 would be seen as an anomaly, its meaning complicated by pent-up demand for leisure travel and a corporate-travel landscape that's still in flux.
As an indicator of things to come, 2022 is perhaps best viewed as transitional, the third in a series of abnormal calendar years. The ongoing impact of the pandemic on people's willingness to travel for vacation has certainly lessened, and unless a more serious new variant emerges, that's not likely to change. Even so, pent-up demand, by definition, fades.
As has been said, Covid may not be done with us, but apparently we're done with Covid. Nonetheless, it's unlikely we can yet reset the pricing, revenue and profit trendlines in a meaningful way based on industry performance in 2022.
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Our aviation editor Robert Silk's coverage of changes in airport design ("Now departing from the ordinary," June 5) has me rethinking what I love and hate about airports.
My favorite terminals have always been compact, particularly when they're in a major city. I'll take London City Airport over Heathrow or Gatwick, Hobby over Houston Bush, Dallas Love Field over DFW, Washington Reagan National over Dulles.
My heart sank when I heard the news that LaGuardia was going to be overhauled after then-Vice President Biden called it a "third-world" airport. I would rather he had called for its terminals B, C and D to scale back to the size of Terminal A, also known as the Marine Air Terminal, an art deco gem whose entire length could be walked in less than 10 minutes. I'd happily forgo the soaring water features, food venues and roomier lounges to be able to sleep in for another 20 minutes before an early morning flight.
But my thinking shifted after a multi-hour flight delay had me stuck in San Francisco Airport and I killed time exploring the present state of its renovation, which began in 2016 and won't be completed until 2024.
It wasn't the wayfinding features or retail that caught my attention but the art and design, which thoroughly permeated the redone terminals. The San Francisco Arts Commission has overseen the installation of permanent and rotating collections of paintings, photographs, sculptures and mosaics between gates and in actual galleries.
I discovered a yoga room. Though my repertoire is limited to a graceless child's pose, I managed to stretch out some long-haul kinks and, it turned out, expanded my view of a large airport's potential virtues.
I haven't changed my mind that I want my hometown airports and the hubs where I have tight connections to be as compact as possible. But despite the best-planned itineraries allowing for reasonable connecting times, 2022 has turned out to be a year of unprecedented flight delays and cancellations.
Given that we'll all likely be spending more time in airports this year than we had planned or hoped for, they may as well be interesting destinations in themselves. What "interesting" is will no doubt be highly variable by individuals, but despite my beliefs expressed above that this year is anomalous, should delays and cancellations stick around for a while, I'll view the new airport designs as a welcome development.