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International travel is back, and operators are cashing in on years of pent-up demand.
After two years of putting off travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of passengers going through a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint is almost near pre-pandemic levels at nearly 2 million on average over the past week.
Eager to capitalize on this explosion of demand, international airlines are scrambling to not only restore pre-pandemic routes, but to also build up new routes. For instance, Qantas (QABSY) recently announced ultra-long-haul flights between Sydney and Melbourne to London and New York by the end of 2025.
Emirates, which hasn’t restarted its nonstop ultra-long Dubai to New Zealand flights, told the New Zealand Herald that it’s been “amazed” at how demand has been.
Singapore Airlines (SINGY), which also operates ultra-long nonstop flights from Singapore to various parts of the U.S. from Newark to San Francisco, has rapidly ramped up routes in recent weeks, now operating more than ten flights daily from multiple airports in the U.S.
The company operates six non-stop flights to North America from Singapore, which includes New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Newark, Seattle, and Vancouver.
Additionally, plane ticket sales are already on the rise reflecting the demand. According to travel booking site Kayak, domestic flight prices are up roughly 25% year-over year, while international flight prices rose by about 41%.
'Demand has been better' than expected
Joey Seow, who is Singapore Airlines' regional vice president for the Americas, told Yahoo Finance that passengers’ appetite for travel has been insatiable.
“Because the demand has been tremendous, we’ve been quick to scale up our services to the U.S.,” Seow told Yahoo Finance in an interview. “We’re probably one of the few carriers to the U.S. that has restored our capacity to our pre-COVID capacity.”
With many Asian countries like Singapore, which often serves as a jumping off point for travelers hoping to visit other countries in Southeast Asia, relaxing COVID restrictions such as pre-departure testing and on-arrival testing, there’s been a sharp uptick in travelers, Seow noted.
“It facilitates a lot more corporate travel,” he said of the country loosening entry requirements. As a result, he added, “our business class and premium cabins are doing extremely well." According to the company, the airlines’ luxury suites — which sets one back upwards of $15,000 — are sold out through the next month.
An economy class round-trip from JFK to Singapore is roughly $1,140, according to Hopper, which is up 19% from last year and up 8% from 2019.