Searching for flights is almost back to 2019 levels

The recovery in demand in the aviation sector exceeded all expectations. This is now also supported by a study by “Amadeus Travel Pulse”. Accordingly, the global search for flights in the last week of April was only 3% lower than the 2019 figures – for North America, the volume of search for domestic flights was above the 2019 level.

In general, it can be said that the search volume in 2022 will clearly exceed the search volume in 2021; The first four months of 2022 average 69% more than the same period last year. The search volume in the first four months of 2022 reached roughly the 2019 level. The data also shows that in 2019 more than half of major city connections have fully recovered. Of the 16 most popular routes, nine had similar search volumes for 2019, including Delhi-Toronto (up 32%), Tel Aviv-New York (up 90%), Seoul-New York (up 10%), Buenos Aires-Madrid (49% increase) and Montreal-Paris (60% increase).

Searches for domestic flights are driving the recovery, reaching a positive result in the last week of April, up 4% from 2019. Markets such as India with 47% and Italy with 82% show the largest growth. While the domestic sector recovered the most, other sectors also showed a significant increase. In the last week of April, searches between regions were only 4% down from 2019, and the UK (+35%) and France (+38%) recorded impressive growth. International research is also developing well. Argentina is showing one of the best recoveries, up 24% from 2019 levels. The regional leaders are Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia/Pacific, with searches to and from London and Seoul dominating respectively.

Travelers’ confidence has returned, Amadeus analyzes in light of this willingness to travel. In fact, several major markets saw double-digit gains during the month of April. It is now hoped that aviation can meet the rapidly increasing volume of demand, which remains in doubt, at least in the summer of 2022.