Delta Air Lines Inc. expects low ticket prices to be widely available as vaccines begin to corral the coronavirus pandemic over the next 90 days, triggering a spring surge in travel demand for the battered industry, Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said.
“There’s going to be great bargains,” Bastian said at Bloomberg’s The Year Ahead conference Wednesday. “When the demand comes, that’s when there will be an opportunity to firm up pricing. But for now, it’s OK. Pricing is going to lead the recovery,” including at hotels and cruise lines.
The U.S. on Tuesday began requiring negative coronavirus tests for anyone flying into the country from abroad. That’s creating some “choppiness in demand,” especially for popular beach destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean, because of a lack of widespread testing capacity, Bastian said.
In the longer term, the requirements are a prudent measure to give travelers confidence that it’s safe to cross borders. A testing mandate domestically wouldn’t be practical because of the large number of travelers, he said.