The number of searches for air travel has increased by almost 35 percent in the past month, according to the website flygresor.se. However, travel companies report that the number of bookings is not increasing at the same rate.
– Customers are now waiting for the announcement about how they can travel this summer, says Tui's press manager Adam Györki.
Swedes are eagerly awaiting the announcement of recommendations for summer travel. Despite the current uncertainty, many are starting to dream of going away. This is shown by data from the comparison site flygresor.se.
In May and June, searches for air travel on the site usually decrease, only to increase sharply again in July. This year was different.
From the last week of April to the last week of May, the number of searches increased by almost 35 percent.
From week 15, which was the week with the lowest number of searches during the spring, the number of searches increased by 38 percent until the last week of May.
– A contributing factor may be that many countries are starting to open up for the summer. Many Swedes are probably starting to feel restless at the same time and we see that Swedes want to go abroad, says Sofi Cederlöf, marketing manager at flygresor.se.
In the last week of May, just over 435,000 searches were made, while in the same week last year, 1.7 million were made.
Week 15, which had the lowest number of searches during the spring, landed at just under 315,000. In the same week last year, 2.1 million searches were made on flygresor.se.
– If the Ministry of Foreign Affairs removes the advice against non-essential travel, I think more people will want to go, says Sofi Cederlöf.
Despite the increased search pressure, far fewer people are actually booking trips, according to both SAS and Tui.
– The summer is going extremely slowly. Bookings are at a much lower level than a normal year, of course. Customers are waiting for word from the Public Health Agency about what applies, says Adam Györki.
Bookings are coming in for trips in August and September, but not much more in the near future. The bookings are mainly for trips to Greece, Cyprus and Croatia, while interest in Spain is lower than usual.
– We see that the bookings are coming in, but no, there are not many. We believe that as soon as we get a clear message, the bookings will increase, says Adam Györki.
SAS will soon start to ramp up traffic, as demand is starting to increase. From mid-June, they will increase from 15 to 30 active aircraft, and will operate around 40 of their, normally, 290 routes. This includes domestic travel in and between the Scandinavian countries, but also flights to the USA from Copenhagen.
– We are noticing that demand for necessary travel is increasing, but it is too early to say more than that, because there is still great uncertainty about how we will get travel within and outside Sweden this summer, says Freja Annamatz, press manager at SAS.
Source:TT-svd
Facts: This is where the Swedes want to go this fall
The top list of popular destinations with departures in August and September, according to flygresor.se.
The top list of popular outbound travel destinations during the period October to December, according to flygresor.se.
