US domestic air travel to normalise by 2022: report

A new report from consulting firm Oliver Wyman predicts US domestic air travel will fully recover by early next year. The company’s Airline Economic Analysis 2020-2021, published on 5 April, says air travel’s post-coronavirus recovery is moving more quickly than expected, as economic measures and the nationwide vaccine roll-out continue gaining traction. Domestic travel will normalise by 2022, with business and international travel to return to pre-Covid levels one year later. Early in the pandemic, aviation experts had feared the downturn would last five years or more. “A year ago, we would have thought that a full domestic recovery in this timeframe for the US was almost impossible, but the combination of pent-up demand, economic stimulus and access to vaccines is making a difference,” says Tom Stalnaker, Oliver Wyman’s global aviation practice leader. “We are still far from a full recovery for the overall industry, but we expect some of the airlines to start turning cash-flow positive in a matter of months, particularly in the US.”<br/>