March global flight bookings 31% higher than in pre-Covid 2019 period: report

GLOBAL flight bookings rose 25 per cent year on year in March 2023, and were 31 per cent higher than the same period in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, data from the Mastercard Economics Institute (MEI) showed.

In its travel industry trends report released in May, MEI noted that the Asia-Pacific was a key contributor to the rise in flight bookings. Travellers were also actively departing from Europe, North America, Latin America and the Middle East.

Business travel also improved, rising 42 per cent in the year to date, compared with the year-ago period; it was up 33 per cent in March 2023 from the March 2019 level. Commercial flight bookings exceeded leisure travel for “a portion of 2022” and have tracked leisure travel’s improvements in 2023.

Prior to this, business travel lagged leisure travel’s growth due to remote work and an unpredictable macroeconomic environment, MEI noted, but said demand for in-person meetings “remains robust, with commercial flight bookings well above pre-pandemic levels”.

The Asia-Pacific and Europe drove business travel’s recovery. Commercial travel and entertainment expenses for Asia-Pacific were up 64.2 per cent, and up 42 per cent for Europe in the first quarter of 2023, compared with the worldwide average increase of 36.4 per cent.

MEI said the momentum of a global travel recovery could be stymied by elevated inflation, higher interest rates and an expected global macroeconomic downturn. Consumers travelling for leisure may rein in spending due to higher mortgage payments and tightening credit lending.

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In the near term, however, MEI said China’s continued recovery could provide a growth boost to closely linked economies such as Asean and the Asia-Pacific. It said Chinese travellers could deliver “a concentrated impact in the Asia-Pacific, expected to help the region outperform the rest of the world” economically.

The report was based on aggregated and anonymised Mastercard flight booking data provided by third-party partners and sourced by MEI.