The gradual recovery in US domestic aviation is set to be boosted further as flight bookings pulse ahead of the forthcoming Independence Day (4 July) holidays.

Research from ForwardKeys reveals new flight tickets have steadily climbed since the US travel market bottomed out in the first week of April.

The recovery is being driven more strongly by leisure bookings, says the data analytics firm, with these ‘substantially’ outpacing business bookings since flights collapsed in early March.

REBOUND ‘INSPIRING’

As of 23 June, the number of new US domestic air tickets issued for travel between 20 June and 18 July – a fortnight before the Independence Day holiday – were 55.8% behind the equivalent period year-on-year.

But bookings for Independence Day have showed improvement, at 16.9% behind the same day year-on-year.

ForwardKeys suggests Independence Day’s fall on a Saturday this year likely explains why travel bookings are not as badly affected, especially given the US will enjoy a public holiday – and subsequent long weekend – on Friday 3 July.

Olivier Ponti, VP, Insights, ForwardKeys, said: “It’s inspiring to observe that a rebound is underway and that Independence Day is the high-water mark. However, a major unknown is how the Covid-19 outbreak will progress and how significantly the latest spikes could arrest the recovery in flight bookings.”