Air travel in the United States hit another pandemic-era record over the weekend as vacationers blocked airports, but stocks of airlines, cruise lines, hotels and almost everything else related to travel fell on Monday amid growing concerns about highly contagious Variants of the coronavirus.
The Transportation Security Administration said it screened more than 2.2 million people at airport checkpoints on Sunday, the highest number since early March 2020 when the pandemic began to crush travel in the US and peaked in July.
However, according to the TSA, the Sunday mark was still 18% lower than on the comparable Sunday in 2019.
Investors didn’t celebrate the latest evidence of a recovery in travel since vaccines for COVID-19 became widely available. Shares fell broadly on concerns over rising infections in many countries, and airline and cruise ship stocks were particularly hard hit.
American Airlines and United Airlines stocks fell more than 6%, Delta Air Lines fell about 5%, and Southwest lost more than 4% in morning trading.
Cruise ship shares fell to levels last seen before vaccines became available in the U.S. Carnival, and fell more than 5%, as did Norwegian Cruise Line.
The hotel sector also weakened, and Airbnb’s shares also fell.
Airlines say domestic vacation travel has returned to pre-pandemic levels, but international and business travel both remain significantly lower than in 2019. That’s especially bad for American, United, and Delta, which get a sizable chunk of their international and business travel revenues .
Airlines are frustrated that restrictions on international travel haven’t been eased any faster and the surge in coronavirus infections – the daily US rate of new reported cases has more than doubled in the past two weeks – could take steps to make travel easier delay.
After massive losses last year, airlines are doing better as more Americans book flights. Delta reported a profit for the second quarter last week, thanks to federal pandemic aid. United, American and Southwest are reporting the results this week.
