Delta Airlines CEO: Record bookings by Americans travelling to Europe despite the war in Ukraine

Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian announced the coronavirus crisis is effectively over as far as the travel sector is concerned, with demand comfortably outweighing any impact from Russia’s war in Ukraine, bnnbloomberg.ca reports.

Delta had the two busiest days for sales in its nearly 100-year history last week, while the North Atlantic market has been swamped with bookings despite the outbreak of hostilities in eastern Europe, Bastian noted Tuesday in a briefing in London.“People have decided to start travelling again,” he said. “

And in the last three weeks, the governments of the world have decided it’s time to go, that the Covid era is over. We’re moving into a period where we’re managing this virus, rather than being managed by it.

”The CEO was also sanguine about the impact of the war on jet-fuel prices, saying that while the hit from crude is a “significant one,” carriers have had to cope with kerosene at similar levels before. The pent-up desire to fly is such that costs can be passed on in higher fares, he noted.