For the first time since the pandemic began, airplane ticket transactions by U.S. travel advisors have reached half of 2019 levels.
For the seven days that ended March 21, travel agencies sold 49.5% fewer tickets than they sold during the same week in 2019, ARC data shows.
That's an improvement from the previous week, when the transaction count was down 56.5% compared with 2019.
The ARC data follows positive signaling from the aviation community about 2021 and other encouraging upticks from the weekly ARC data. However, sales volume last week, hurt by especially weak sales for corporate and international travel, remained down 68.2% compared with 2019.