Articles tagged “omicron”

Allegiant Air's costs soared in the fourth quarter, as bad weather and crew shortages due to the Omicron variant forced it to cancel flights. The airline paid $23 million to passengers to compensate for cancelled flights in the quarter, compared with $4-5 million in compensation it pays in an ordinary year.

Recent U.S. travel data contains signs of optimism for 2022.

Travel agents should've been expecting a development would arise making the sale of cruises difficult since the cruise industry has been so volatile since the start of the pandemic. It's clear to many agents now to find ways to be less dependent on booking cruises.

In Skift's top stories this week, Marriott indicates W Hotels will get a makeover, Google Maps was the most downloaded travel app in 2021, and Omicron batters European hotels.

Although tour operators are wise to try to limit the risks their guests might face during trips longer than two weeks, they need to find ways to resume these profitable trips immediately because their businesses can't take the further financial hits.

Several travel-oriented, special purpose acquisition companies are out there that have not announced merger partners. A SPAC glut and the lackluster performance of several online travel or short-term rental companies that recently went public could have some of the hunters coming up empty.

Even if people are less likely to contract Covid on board a plane than in other environments, airline executives would be enormously foolish to downplay any risks Omicron provides — especially as they don't know how much more the variant could cripple the industry.

As bad as 2021 has been for tour operators, 2022 could be worse — especially if new variants emerge, which could spark a wave of even more travel restrictions that would cripple so many struggling companies.

Six months or a year seem like way longer than that in the Covid era, and anything can happen in the interim. But it is significant that the executive chairman of China's largest online travel agency is postulating that inbound and outbound travel curbs could be softened next year.