Americans with an itch to travel, an optimistic attitude and a belief they can follow measures to ward off the coronavirus are booking for summer vacations, according to a story in the New York Times.
The paper cited hard numbers and anecdotal evidence to support the belief in much of the industry that the recovery of travel - severely damaged by an almost three-month shutdown due to restrictions and shelter-in-place notices - is already underway.
The famed Fontainebleau hotel and resort in Miami Beach said it was pleased that its property, with almost 1,600 rooms, was a third full last weekend and looking like it will be close to sold out for the 4th of July holiday.
"California and Texas and New York and New Jersey are the top four markets, all before Florida," Phil Goldfarb, president and chief operating officer of hospitality at Fontainebleau Development, told the Times. "People are getting in planes and social distancing but coming here."
On Sunday, June 7, the Transportation Security Administration said it screened more than 440,000 people - still 83 percent lower than last year but 11 percent greater from the worst day of the calendar year 2020 in March.
"We're seeing a slow but steady rise in domestic demand," Vasu Raja, American's senior vice president of network strategy, said in a statement. "After a careful review of data, we've built a July schedule to match."
American plans to operate about 55 percent as many domestic flights as it did last July but in the context of the virus that would be up from just 20 percent in May.
United is planning to add flights to several cities, including vacation destinations such as Las Vegas; Portland, Maine; Aspen, Colo.; and Jackson, Wyo.
Delta expects to fly twice as many passengers next month as it did in May, its chief executive, Ed Bastian, said.
"I think leisure will come back first," Mr. Bastian said in an interview broadcast last week by Business Travel News. "We already see it. You look at the areas that we have the greatest demand currently: Florida has got a fair bit of demand. The mountain states have a fair bit of demand. Arizona, another Sun Belt area, has got a fair bit of demand. Places where people feel like they can go to escape the virus for a bit."
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