As daily Covid-19 cases in the United States reached new heights in January, the total air tickets sold last month by U.S. corporate travel agencies declined on a year-over-year basis by the largest percentage since August 2020, according to Airlines Reporting Corp. data.
Total tickets sold in January by U.S. corporate agencies, those with at least 70 percent self-reported corporate and government business, fell 88.7 percent year over year, following an 85.1 percent drop in December. That's the largest drop since a 90 percent decline in August and compares with January year-over-year declines of 55.4 percent for online travel agencies and 74.3 percent for leisure agencies.
Still, ARC sees better days ahead. "January 2020 was the last month before Covid-19 started to impact the air travel industry, so the year-over-year decrease isn't surprising given continued travel restrictions and vaccine availability," said Chuck Thackston, ARC's managing director of data science and research, in a statement. "Our current data shows both leisure and corporate travel recovering substantially in the fall of 2021."
The total consolidated value of January air ticket sales by U.S. agencies was $1.28 billion, down 85.6 percent year over year but up from $1.06 billion in December.
The total number of passenger trips settled by ARC in January for its agency clients fell 71.8 percent year over year to nearly 8 million. U.S. domestic trips in January declined 68.9 percent year over year to nearly 5.6 million, according to ARC.
The average January U.S. round-trip ticket price was $335, down from $478 in January 2020.