Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Leisure travel’s peaks and valleys
Aerospace | Travel & Transportation
February 2, 2024 – As travel demand continues to ramp back up during the postpandemic recovery, leisure traffic has bounced back more quickly than business traffic in many regions. The divergence between the two categories has had a significant effect on the nature of monthly passenger demand, note senior partner Ludwig Hausmann and coauthors. That’s because leisure travel is linked far more closely to the seasons—with spikes and lulls corresponding with the Northern Hemisphere’s summer and winter, respectively. As a result, many airlines have had to manage the challenge of seasonal profitability swings, as well as a strain on operations and staff during demand peaks. Click through the interactive to see more.
Interactive
To read the article, see “How airlines can handle busier summers—and comparatively quiet winters,” January 8, 2024.
customizer here
Visual form
Six-panel line chart.
Layout / body structure
The source breaks the analysis into regional panels for Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East, so the reader moves panel by panel through the travel seasons.
What is being compared
It compares daily scheduled airline seats by month for 2005, 2019, and 2023 across major regions.
Measurement system
The charts use an indexed seat measure with the monthly calendar on the horizontal axis and a smoothed seven-day average line for each year.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Each panel contains three time-series lines for the three comparison years, letting the reader judge both the level and the seasonal amplitude of leisure-heavy travel demand inside each region.
Main takeaway from the visual
Leisure-led travel recovery brings back strong seasonal peaks and troughs, especially in regions where summer and holiday demand visibly dominate the year.
Key standout values or extremes
Europe and Latin America show the sharpest midyear surges and year-end drop-offs, while North America looks flatter and Africa and the Middle East show more moderate seasonal swings.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
The reader advances through six regional panels, keeping the same monthly line-chart structure while the geography changes from one panel to the next.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart is the full visual on this page.