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Virgin Atlantic sees signs of slowing demand for US travel
Virgin Atlantic recently reported a first annual profit since the pandemic, but not everything is rosy.
The airline has flagged ‘some signals that US demand had been slowing’ CFO Oli Byers said.
“We think that is quite a natural reaction to general consumer uncertainty.”
The comments triggered a drop in BA owner IAG’s stock price.
They fell about 7%.
It comes as transborder travel demand from Canada to the US has seen a huge drop by more than 70% for this summer.
That is specifically down to the trade war and like-for-like tariffs, which could soon impact transatlantic traffic due to political and economic factors.
Europe’s top airlines have cited concerns but that has yet to translate into a fall in bookings.
“It is concerning for us but as of today, we don’t see any material change in forward bookings,” Air France-KLM’s CEO Ben Smith said.
US airlines recently cited a slowdown in domestic travel demand but this hasn’t yet spread to international routes.
Virgin Atlantic reported record passenger revenues of £2.6 billion in 2024, and is highly reliant on US-UK transatlantic bookings.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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