Air travel becomes a luxury for many

The jet era that globalised air travel for half a century was brought to an abrupt halt with Covid. Now, planes are back in the skies but flying’s proliferation is in reverse: Fewer aircraft are plying a smaller network and fares are up. It’s more expensive to fly almost anywhere overseas. And while some markets such as the United States are just about back to pre-virus capacity, swathes of Asia and Europe are wallowing more than one-quarter below 2019 levels. A swift post-virus rebound in demand has overwhelmed an airline industry that has lost about US$187b since 2020 under the weight of travel restrictions. Short of planes and crew, the sector has dropped more than 2,000 city-to-city connections that existed in 2019 and carriers are charging more for tickets on many routes. Air travel, the data showed, is for the richer and the fewer. “Flying has moved upmarket,” said Simon Kuestenmacher, Melbourne-based co-founder of advisory firm The Demographics Group. It’s further evidence that the pandemic has drawn a clearer line between the world’s economic winners and losers, he said. There’s so much appetite to travel that airlines have been able to more than double fares on some routes, particularly for business class seats.<br/>