Daily Podcast: U.S. Airfare Prices Pass Pre-Pandemic Highs

Skift Daily Briefing Podcast

Listen to the day’s top travel stories in under four minutes every weekday.

Presented by Criteo.

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast explains why airfares are so high in the United States, what Qatar’s tourism boss expects to get from the World Cup, and why some hotels are pushing camping.

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Episode Notes

Airline executives for months now have predicted a rise in summer airfares this year, but flying in the U.S. is already on average more expensive than it was prior to the pandemic. Surging travel demand and a decrease in flights are driving the increase in fares, writes Airlines Reporter Edward Russell.

The domestic airfare for the three largest U.S. carriers — American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines — was $384 during the week of April 11, according to a survey by analysts at banking firm Cowen and Company. That’s a 3 percent jump from 2019 figures. While the data does not measure summer airfares, that increase — which occurred during the peak spring break travel period in the U.S. — is a sign of what airline executives expect to see this summer.

Travel demand, as measured by U.S. Transportation Security Administration screenings, is roughly 90 percent of 2019 levels. However, Russell writes there are fewer domestic flights than there were three years ago. Flight departures have only recovered to 87 percent of pre-pandemic figures, according to airline industry data company Cirium.

We go next to Qatar, which will host soccer’s World Cup in November and December. The country expects to attract 1.5 million overseas visitors for the tournament. But Berthold Trenkel, the chief operating officer of Qatar Tourism, believes the biggest payoff from the event will be putting the Gulf State on the map as a major tourist destination in years to come, reports Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia.

Trenkel said in an exclusive interview with Skift that the infrastructure improvements Qatar has made for the 2022 World Cup will help the country accomplish its future tourism goals, such as becoming a venue for major meetings, conferences and exhibitions. Trenkel added that new attractions such as the Quest theme park, home of the world’s tallest indoor roller coaster, will become popular tourist destinations in the country.

Finally, as glamping has grown in popularity since the start of the pandemic, hotels are looking to attract the growing number of travelers eager to spend time in nature. But how are they doing it? Contributor Carley Thornell writes that hotel companies are increasingly designing cabins to contain features of the outdoors.

One property Thornell cites is the Eastwind Hotel & Bar in the Catskills in upstate New York. The 26-room Eastwind includes insulated glamping cabins and new suites that have their own decks and unobscured views of mountains and meadows. The Eastwind also doesn’t have any TVs on its property, which a company executive said is meant to encourage guests to disconnect from the outside world.

Thornell adds that incorporating elements from the outdoors into the design of cabins is expensive as Rob Blood, founder and president of Lark Hotels, said features like larger windows increase construction and operating costs. But Blood believes that such costly additional work is absolutely worth it, citing a former Lark property in Nantucket that was able to charge $200 more a night following extension renovations.