Demand for global flights falls after Hamas attack on Israel

Demand for international flying has fallen in recent weeks, according to new data, with a significant hit to bookings to the Middle East in the first signs that the war between Israel and Hamas is affecting air travel. Global flight bookings made in the three weeks after the October 7 Hamas cross-border raid on Israel were 20% below 2019 levels, according to travel industry data company ForwardKeys. The decline reverses a trend in which demand had been increasing sharply after international air travel plummeted during the pandemic. Before the attack, bookings were tracking at 15% below 2019 levels, the last year before Covid-19 disrupted the industry. Airlines have reaped bumper profits over the past six months on strong demand for travel at high ticket prices, but have faced persistent questions over whether bookings will weaken into the northern hemisphere winter. Few airlines have reported a slowdown in demand, although several, including Ryanair, have warned their outlooks were dependent on geopolitical events. Olivier Ponti, a senior executive at ForwardKeys, said the war had “jeopardised the strong recovery trend in demand” seen throughout the year. “This war is bound to put people off travelling to the region, but it has also dented consumer confidence in travelling elsewhere too,” he said. Many airlines had cut flights to Israel following the attacks and heightened fears of a broader regional war. But the flight data offers one of the first indications of how the geopolitical uncertainty appears to have affected air travel more broadly. The data is drawn from the industry-wide ticketing database from the IATA, and includes big national carriers in Europe, the US and Gulf. However, it does not have sales from low-cost carriers such as Ryanair or easyJet.<br/>