The airline recovery has been put on hold as Covid-19 strikes again

There were moments in the spring and early summer when US airlines saw a chance for domestic leisure air traffic to recover to 2019 levels by the end of this year — and for a significant pickup in both business and international travel. However, thanks to Covid-19's Delta variant, hospitalizations are once again approaching peak pandemic numbers in several parts of the United States, and those hopeful moments have been quashed for now. Even though the Delta variant has inconsistently affected various regions, it has managed to introduce an element of uncertainty that looks to reverse the comeback of business and international travel, and at least stall the growth in the domestic leisure market. After a busy summer season, US leisure travelers began hunkering down again last month, likely because of rising Covid cases. More than two million passed through TSA checkpoints each day for much of June and July, but the volume dropped well below the two million mark in the second half of August and almost every day in September so far. Airlines, meanwhile, are seeing an increase in cancellations and a decline in bookings. Earlier this month, major US carriers warned investors that third-quarter results would not be as upbeat as anticipated, blaming the weakness on a general deceleration in demand connected to the Delta variant and Hurricane Ida. And while children's return to school has always tended to shrink leisure travel demand, the industry would normally expect some of that to be offset by an uptick in domestic and international business travel. That's not happening this year. Story has more. <br/>