Demand for travel and leisure erupted in the quarters that followed the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. The trend was so apparent that commenters took to coining the phenomenon “revenge travel”. “Revenge travel” refers to trips that individuals are taking that they were unable to commit to due to the pandemic. The “revenge travel” trend may have dissipated, but demand for travel is expected to hit a new high for this decade during the Thanksgiving season.
AAA began monitoring holiday travel trends since 2000. So far, the most congested years for Thanksgiving were 2005 and 2019. Most Thanksgiving travellers in the U.S. will be on the road. Meanwhile, over 4.5 million Americans are expected to opt for air travel during this period. That is good news for the burgeoning airline industry.
Few industries were harder hit during the COVID-19 pandemic than commercial airliners. Like movie theaters, airliners were forced to virtually shut down for months on end due to the global health crisis. The reopening of the United States and its peers around the globe has been a gigantic boost for airliners.
Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) is the second largest commercial airliner in North America. Its shares climbed 3.13% on Tuesday, November 15. Delta Air Lines stock has now increased 8% so far in 2023 at the time of this writing. Commercial airliners should see a boost due to the big bump in travel that Americans are gearing up for ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
