A combination the rise in oil prices amid the Russia-Ukraine war and a travel demand rebound after the pandemic disruption of the last two years is leading airlines to confidently raise prices.
published March, a travel search engine, the average airfare from U.S. to Europe round-trip rose 16%, to $770, from the month prior.
At the conference, United Airlines officials noted that business is now booming again after the pandemic wrecked demand for both leisure and business travel in 2020 and continued to lag in 2021. “UAL notes business demand is tracking ahead of expectations, returning to ~70% of 2019 levels , [which is] +30 points vs peak of Omicron variant,” J.P. Morgan analysts wrote. "Exemplifying strong yields, revenue from business travel is 75% recovered. ... While UAL is currently not passing through 100% of the increase in fuel prices to fares, management believes they will have no problem doing so in 2Q22.