The Latest Summer Air Travel Trends

Air travel rebounded significantly last summer with U.S. airlines carrying as many as 674 million passengers in 2021, which was 82.5 percent more compared to the pandemic-plagued 2020 (369 million). ValuePenguin recently analyzed 2021 data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) for the 100 largest airports in the U.S. to reveal some summer air travel trends to watch for in 2022. Naturally, most airports across the nation saw arrivals surge in the summer months compared to the remainder of the year but the data shows that these spikes vary from destination to destination and that the summer boom can also include significant flight delays.

The remarkable demand for air travel combined with staffing shortages and other factors have already led many airlines to cut their schedules in anticipation of disruptions. Therefore, travelers will want to understand the latest trends in summer air travel to avoid potential pitfalls in 2022.