- Pent-up leisure demand for airline travel continues to show up dramatically in the most recent bookings data from Bank of America.
- Domestic leisure tickets sold were 4.4% higher than the 2019 level. That is the first time leisure demand has topped 2019 levels in BofA's weekly tracking since the pandemic started.
- BofA says net sales were down -59.7% vs. 2019 for the week ending May 16 to improve from the -63.3% level the week before. Importantly, domestic pricing remained flat week over week and ahead of the 6-week trailing average.
- Also on the positive side, corporate tickets continued their slow climb and are now down -66.6% vs. 2019 vs. -69.8% last week.
- BofA analyst Andrew Didora says the bookings data aligns with takeaways from a recent airline conference hosted by the firm.
- Airline sector watch: American Airlines (AAL +1.2%), Delta Airlines (DAL +1.9%), Southwest Airlines (LUV +1.1%), United Airlines (UAL +1.3%), JetBlue (JBLU +2.0%), Hawaiian Holdings (HA +1.1%), Alaska Air Group (ALK +1.6%), Allegiant Travel (ALGT +2.6%), Spirit Airlines (SAVE +1.6%), Mesa Airlines (MESA -1.2%), SkyWest (SKYW -0.7%) and Frontier Group (ULCC +1.3%).
- Earlier: United Airlines turns promotional in COVID-19 vaccination push.