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A woman uses an umbrella to protect herself from the sun as she walks past the Colosseum on an extremely hot day in Rome, Italy, July 11, 2024.
Riccardo DeLuca | Anadolu | Getty Images
Summer travel in Europe is getting too hot for thousands of tourists.
Delta Airlines President Glen Hauenstein said travelers are opting out of flying to Europe during the traditional summer travel peak season. Instead, they are shifting their trips to cooler months, a trend airline officials have noticed over the past two years as consumers seek to escape the crowds and record heat of popular destinations. .
“The weather in Europe in August is really hot and people who have a choice of when they can vacation are heading to, let’s say, more temperate months,” Hauenstein said in a conference call Thursday. Business [travel] we haven’t seen much change year over year, but travel to Europe continues to shift, particularly from the peak in July and August to a peak in September and October. »
This year’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere was the hottest on record, according to the European Union’s climate watchdog.
Airlines have extended their robust transatlantic schedules through much of the fall to respond to changing trends.
“What we are doing at United is extending the season,” said Patrick Quayle, United Airlines‘ senior vice president of global network planning and alliances, said in an interview earlier this year.
He said the carrier had chosen to start some European routes in March and April this year and would operate some until the end of October and early November. “What we’re seeing is more and more travelers are going in the shoulder seasons where you can get a little more value, and I think the weather is a little better,” he added.