If you have ever sat on a plane wondering where the person sitting next to you is travelling, the chances are that their final destination is not the same as yours! For many airlines connecting traffic is an important part of their business model and for some specific routes losing that connecting passenger can mean the difference between operating and the service being dropped.
As the recovery rebuilds from COVID-19 the importance of that connecting passenger will become increasingly important; but will also bring a series of operational and scheduling challenges for the airlines. It really could become a question of “can we live without those flows” in some cases.
The Importance of Connecting Airline Traffic
In 2019, the last “normal” year some 8.5 million flew from the United Kingdom to the United States, just under 4 million of those (46%) were making a connection as part of their journey. On landing in the US, some 1.2 million passengers were connecting to another…