The peak in passenger demand for air travel in the Summer 2023 season is boosting airlines' earnings. The volume of tickets sold globally is slightly below the performance of 2019, but in many cases airports and companies have seen the threshold of transits and bookings recorded in the period preceding the pandemic exceed. In some cases, profits have more than doubled compared to the same period in 2022.

This is what emerges from the publication of the latest quarterly data of the three main US airlines: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. Incidentally, these three companies posted record profits over the past weekend. High airfares therefore do not stop consumers, whose behavior has been defined by some as "tourism revenge", that is the "irrepressible" desire to travel after years of closures and lockdowns.

That said, airline and airport management say they are doing everything they can to keep up with the high travel demand, while trying to avoid the sudden chaos resulting from bad weather and the more predictable chaos triggered by congestion on the ground. In fact, the American Transportation Security Administration communicated that 2.9 million people traveled for the 4th of July celebration, never so many in the history of American aviation.