The challenge
The outbreak of the global pandemic, COVID-19, saw an immediate impact on the travel industry. Not one region was left untouched nor sector unblemished.
When China imposed travel restrictions there was an immediate and quantifiable impact on the number of flights from the USA to the APAC region, then to European nations with Schengen Agreement.
The domino effect of flight cancellations has since adversely impacted the seat capacity of the airline carriers, air routes, and airport closures.
All sectors, from airlines to travel retail, are now feeling the full impact of the travel bans and the COVID-19 contagion.
The data solutions
Smart Technology, such as the ForwardKeys datasets, offers you the required goggles to see through the current fog of chaos and grounded flights.
With airline booking sources covering GDS-based suppliers, including Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport; only ForwardKeys has such comprehensive coverage of the globe.
The full database compromises of bookings made from 2012 until the present, as the data is updated daily. In fact, over 17 million air bookings are processed by the analysts, every day.
The immediate impact of the bookings data can be used by analysts and investors covering the aviation industry and travel retail. Private equity can use the data for similar purposes and/or to measure the overall health of the economy and consumer spending.
Tourism boards can use this information to craft relevant marketing campaigns per target nationality, especially when the cost of media is on the rise and government budgets are being downsized.
Case-Study
The Trump Administration’s 30-day ban on passengers from 26 European countries in the passport-free Schengen travel area from entering the U.S. has taken the European Union institutions and the continent’s operators by surprise.
Since the issue of the ban on March 12, 2020, 3.3 million airline seats are in jeopardy of being eliminated.
The airlines which look set to suffer the most are US airline carriers, Delta and United, which each stand to lose around 400,000 seats. BA is next, followed by American, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Aer Lingus, KLM, and Norwegian.
In terms of countries, the UK is set to be the worst hit, potentially losing over a million seats. It is followed by Germany, standing to lose around 500,000, France, around 400,000, the Netherlands around 300,000, Spain, around 200,000 then Italy, and Switzerland, each with around 100,000.
The use of ForwardKeys’ dataset is a powerful way to monitor bookings for airlines and how they can effect airline revenue several quarters ahead. Moreover, arrival numbers and future bookings can be gleaned from the data to enable analysts with actionable decisions based on consumer activity.