Fewer than four in 10 American adults traveled by air in 2021, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.
According to the poll, 38 percent of American adults surveyed reported that they took at least one commercial airline trip in the past 12 months. This is the lowest percentage recorded in any year Gallup recorded between 2003 and 2015.
In 2006 and 2015, 43 percent and 48 percent of adults reported traveling by air in the past year, respectively. In 2003 and 2005, the figures were closer to today’s level, at 40 percent and 41 percent, respectively.
“The percentage of Americans traveling by air in 2021 was depressed among employed adults, at 41 percent, down from 54 percent in 2015,” the survey write-up stated. “The current figure is the lowest for employed adults in Gallup’s trend.”
According to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the number of passengers passing through airport security tanked at the start of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic from over 2 million daily to under 100,000. TSA data reportedly shows that travel increased in 2021, but not to its pre-pandemic level.
Gallup then asked the respondents who traveled by air to estimate the amount of trips they took on a commercial airliner in the past 12 months. Out of the 38 percent of travelers who reported that they’d traveled by air in the past year, 23 percent took one or two trips. A mere 7 percent took three or four, and slightly more, 8 percent, took five or more trips.
“All of these percentages are down slightly from the prior measurement in 2015,” the write-up stated. “While Gallup doesn’t probe respondents about whether their air trips were taken for work or personal reasons, it is likely that major corporate cutbacks on employee travel that occurred during the pandemic account for the decline among employed adults.”
The write-up notes that as a whole, Americans took an average 1.4 air trips in the past 12 months. This number is down from 2.1 in 2015. The amount of Americans taking no air trips increased from 55 percent to 62 percent. Since 2015, the average number of flights Americans reported taking each year decreased from 4.6 to 3.6.
“Longer term, the average 1.4 trips made by U.S. adults and the 3.6 made by air travelers are below average and the lowest Gallup has measured, but still roughly tied with the prior lowest readings in Gallup’s trend since 2003, recorded more than a decade ago,” Gallup’s write-up concluded.