Gallup: U.S. air travel still down as working adults curtail trips

Jan. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. air travel remains subdued, with 38% of adults flying in 2021 -- down from up to 48% in 2015, Gallup said in a survey released Thursday.

The decline was largely attributed to a drop in business travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gallup said that's down from 2006 to 2015, when between 43% and 48% American adults reported traveling by air between 2006 and 2015.

The Gallup survey was done Dec. 1-16 with random sample of 811 adults 18 and older, living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

It found air travel of employed adults was down sharply in 2021, to 41% from 54% in 2015. For non-working adults, air travel was at 34% compared with 33% in 2015.

According to the Transportation Security Administration, 1.4 million to 2 million have traveled every day of 2022 so far -- a period disrupted by bad weather and COVID-19 related staff shortages across the nation.

TSA data show that air travel plunged at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, from more than 2 million a day to below 100,000.

Gallup said commercial air travel is still "subdued" amid the pandemic, marked by a surge in cases driven by the new Omicron coronavirus variant, which emerged in November. They said a reduction in business travel is likely most responsible for that decline.

Personal air travel, Gallup said, seems to be holding up better but is less common than business trips by air.

One promising bottom line for airlines, the survey said, is that those who are flying these days are making multiple trips.