People moved around Newar Liberty International Airport following a press conference by Transport Secretary Shawn Duffy at the airport, which announced the reopening of major runways at the airport on June 2, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey two weeks before schedule.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
While millions of travelers are expected to fly on the July 4 holiday, the outlook for the rest of the year remains vague as airlines have too many flights and insufficient demand.
“It’s on sale in the summer, which certainly means the fares are low.” Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said in an interview later last month.
According to Fare-Tracker Hopper, domestic airfares this summer averaged $265 on round trip flights, 3% last year, the cheapest since 2021. Airfares in the US Inflation Report in May fell by more than 7% from a year ago.
Southwest and other airline hosts – Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines – Drawing out the forecast earlier this year in 2025, denounced uncertain economic backgrounds with many other new challenges, including tariffs not covered by the Trump administration and fewer international visitors to the US.
Things may not be as clear as Delta launches airline revenue next Thursday and other airlines are expected to report later this month.
“We are stable where we are, but we don’t see the back of the inflection,” Jordan said.
In response, the airline outlined plans to reduce unprofitable flights, particularly on off-peak days after major summer travel seasons. The airline will make a large portion of its profits in the second and third quarters of this year.
From last Tuesday to next Monday, the Traffic Security Agency said it plans to screen more than 18.5 million travelers at U.S. airports, but no day is expected to exceed the nearly 3.1 million travelers who passed the agency’s record Checkpoint on June 22.
The sudden economic downturn has not been realized, but demand for air travel was not as strong as the industry members expected last year or early 2025. On Thursday, U.S. employment data was stronger than expected despite signs of a slower labor market a day ago.
“The broader macro environment was more resilient than feared, but the demand for the airline industry is slippery,” TD Cowen analyst Tom Fitzgerald said in a memo on Wednesday.
Debit and credit card spending tracked by Bank of America showed that air travel spending fell 11.8% from a year ago, a year ago, after a five-month decline from the previous year.
“Airline spending debit and credit card data have declined slightly more than in June than in April/May, so there is no signifiable sequential improvements in revenue trends,” Bank of America analyst Andrew Didora said in a memo on Tuesday. “We believe investors are looking for commentary on green shoots in demand, and we believe further commentary on 2H25 capacity reductions could be seen positively.”
International travel from the US is a powerful corner of air travel, including Delta, America, and America, and United Airlines.
However, fares have also been relaxed for overseas travel. According to Hopper, international flights from US airports have increased by 4.3% since last summer. Fares from the US to Europe averaged $817, down almost $100 from last year, rivaling 2019, Hopper said. Flights to Asia averaged $1,328 in June, July or August, down 13% from last year, Hopper Data shows.
