In Travel News for December 13th, 2022 we take a look at the outlook for travel costs, United Airlines reaches a historic agreements with Boeing, and we have news from the small group tour company Collette.
United Commits to Historic Purchase of Aircraft
United Airlines has just announced that they have reached an agreement with Boeing to purchase up to 200 787 Dreamliners. United says that this is the largest order of wide-bodied aircraft in U.S. aviation history. The airline plans to retire their remaining 42 767 wide-bodied aircraft as well as most of their 777 fleet. United has also opted to purchase 44 more 737 Max aircrafts for delivery in 2026 and 56 for delivery in 2028. All in all the airline plans to take delivery of around 700 aircraft by the end of 2032, averaging two aircraft a week in 2023 and three a week in 2024. United has been aggressive recently, adding 13 new routes over the last two years and continuing to expand capacity along many existing routes.
Collette Opens Reservations for New Tour
Collette has recently announced that their new small group explorers tour the “Mediterranean Coast Journey: Spain, France, & Italy” is now open for bookings. This tour gives travelers the opportunity to explore cities such as Barcelona, Span; Marseille and Nice in France; and Genoa in Italy. The 14 day tour takes advantage of the many majestic Mediterranean views from along the coast. And that’s not the only thing interesting from Collette. The tour company has expanded their use of High-Speed Rail for many of their small group packages, allowing travelers to decrease travel time and maximize the time spent at each destination. One such tour, the Essence of France, travelers will depart Paris and in a few short hours will be tasting wines in the beautiful French countryside. For more information about Collette and their amazing small group Tours reach out to us or your Travel Advisor.
When Will Travel Prices Stabilize?
For most of this year prices, and demand for travel have been exceedingly high. According to the latest government inflation report, prices for hotels have dropped almost 5% and airfare by a little over half a percent between October and November this year. Year over year the price for lodging is still 3% higher and Air Travel is 36% higher. One of the reasons for the spike in pricing is that, coming out of the pandemic, the travel industry wasn’t able to accommodate the massive surge in demand. Supply shortages, inflation, and a tight labor market made ramping up difficult and slow process. With supply increasing and demand starting to stabilize it’s expected that travel prices will continue to stabilize or even decrease in the coming months.