Business | Tourism
Searching for the cheapest route home
Beatriz Menanteau and 11 family members cancelled plans for a Thanksgiving gathering in Kansas City, Missouri, this week.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 23:15 November 25, 2008
Washington: Beatriz Menanteau and 11 family members cancelled plans for a Thanksgiving gathering in Kansas City, Missouri, this week. Two of them spent part of the past year unemployed, and one remains jobless.
"We just said this might not be the best year for this kind of big, family reunion trip," said Menanteau, a 32-year-old Minneapolis attorney.
The US recession is curbing travel for the November 27 Thanksgiving holiday, the start of a four-day weekend for many Americans. For the first time since 2002, fewer Americans will take to the roads, rails and air to celebrate, according to AAA, the largest US motorist group. About 1.2 per cent fewer people expect to travel during the period, and 7.2 per cent fewer plan to fly, AAA said.
That's a reversal from last year, when Thanksgiving travel reached a record even as gasoline prices surged and airfares had their biggest one-month jump. This holiday season, gasoline prices are at the lowest level since February 2005.
"It's telling us just how much the overall picture has deteriorated," said Nigel Gault, chief US economist at IHS Global Insight, citing lower consumer confidence, rising unemployment and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index's 41 per cent drop in the past year.
An expected 41 million people in the US will travel at least 80km from home starting tomorrow through November 30, AAA said. Travellers taking buses and trains may increase 5.8 per cent.
The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline is $1.91 (Dh7), down 54 per cent from a record $4.11 on July 15, according to AAA. A year ago, it was $3.09.
Airfares climbed an average of 4 per cent in the past 12 months, according to AAA, with Delta Air Lines Inc., the largest US carrier, and its competitors also adding or boosting fees for checking luggage, reserving certain seats and changing reservations. Some carriers are charging for beverages, pillows and blankets. The increased cost of flying compared with the reduced price of gasoline explains why air travel will decline more this week, Gault said.
Cutting back
"Consumers are cutting back on anything they perceive as not being essential," he said. "In particular, on big-ticket items."
Major US airlines also have trimmed capacity about 10 per cent to help stem losses from record fuel prices earlier this year.
"Travellers would rather stay home than face the many new charges, including increased ticket-change fees and baggage fees, that the airlines are now imposing on them," said Tom Parsons, chief executive officer of Bestfares.com, a discount travel website.
The Air Transport Association, the airlines' trade group, expects the number of travellers to fall 10 per cent to 24 million during an extended holiday period of November 21 through December 2. It would be the first drop in seven years.
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