Demand for Off-Peak Travel Rises in Post-Pandemic Recovery

The return of post-pandemic travel has been so robust that airlines and hotels are selling more seats and more rooms for times once designated as “off-peak.”

As a result, off-peak pricing has shown gains, which can burden travelers while benefitting airlines and hotels, even as historically more-profitable business travel has not yet fully recovered to 2019 levels.“We've been trying to catch up to this robust demand,” Delta President Glen Hauenstein said last week, as the premium U.S. carrier led off airline earnings reports. “When you look at where we're booked ahead, we have had (pricing) slightly ahead in peak days and peak travel periods versus off-peak. And we've seen the consumer demand that you would expect, travelers moving into the off-peak period, but at higher yields.”

One result for the airline industry has been that revenue