Post 2012 Olympic Games, air bookings in UK fell during August 2012 from 2011 levels.
Guild of Travel Management Companies, a UK-based professional association of travel companies, reported a 4.7% fall in overall air bookings in August 2012, through its BSP system of selling airfares, compared to the levels in August 2011. Bookings in August 2012 generated around GBP227 million.
Calling the fall in airline bookings the ‘Olympic Effect’, the association has recorded a decrease in the total number of transactions by 2.4% to 499,600 in August 2012, with average transaction value down by 2.4% to GBP455.06, compared to the same month of the preceding year.
GTMC chairman, Ajaya Sodha, said, ‘The drop in air sales by GTMC members was probably due to the Olympics’ effect combined with the traditional holiday season.
August is always traditionally slow and now UK PLC is back at work full on we await the September figures to get a truer picture.’
Earlier, for the second quarter of 2012, the association reported that air, rail, car hire and ancillary services registered a growth, on comparison with the same quarter last year; while hotels have only registered a stationary level from that in the same period last year.
Air travel is up by 2% in the second quarter of 2012, compared to the same quarter of 2011.
John Williams, the general manager at GTMC, commented on the 2012 second quarter results, ‘The static figure for hotel transactions may reflect anomalies due to the Olympics. It will be interesting to see what happens in the third quarter.’
