A new survey by Deloitte, one of the Big 4 accounting and consulting firms, has some very worrying news for airlines – American consumers plan to fly less and have smaller budgets to spend on travel than they did just 12 months ago, with economic uncertainty making travelers increasingly wary of spending all their hard-earned cash on flights.
“Many Americans are planning fewer flights and hotel stays, with tighter wallets in tow,” warned Kate Ferrara, Deloitte’s vice chair and sector leader for U.S. transportation, hospitality, and services.
“Although our survey found that more consumers plan to travel to be with loved ones, they are hesitant to spend on extending and upgrading their trips. This is expected to leave many travel providers bracing for a softer winter,” Ferrara continued.
Deloitte surveyed 3,896 Americans between September 26 and October 3, 2025, on their Thanksgiving and Holiday travel plans, and while more than half said they did plan to make a trip during this period, average travel budgets have plummeted by 18%.
Budget constraints are even more pronounced for younger travelers, with the budget of the average Gen Z American dropping by an antonishing 31% year on year.
With purse strings being tightened, Americans are looking at taking more road trips rather than flights, and for airlines that have been pursuing high-value passengers, there’s even more bad news – High-income Americans are planning to cut back the most on their Holiday travel.
The only generation that intends to spend more on travel in 2025 is Boomers, but their number is dropping. For the first time, Gen Z and Millennials will make up the majority of travelers.
These travelers are increasingly turning to AI to find the very best travel deals, although there is still some good news for airlines amongst the doom and gloom.
Airlines that can engage a loyal following are likely to win bookings, with 37% of Americans saying that when it comes time to book a flight, they’ll still fly with their preferred airline.
Deloitte’s Eileen Crowley believes airlines and other travel providers can’t just rely on a one-size-fits-all approach to win over today’s consumers. While respondents were still willing to splurge on luxury experiences, airlines that focus on innovation and engage “across generations and income levels” are set to perform best.
Matt’s take
This survey probably isn’t big news for many airlines that will already be tracking trends in their forward booking data, although it is yet more evidence of a softening travel demand.
A growing number of airlines have reported pricing pressure in their Economy cabins, and an increasing number of consumers are delaying booking flights until the last minute in a bid to get the best deal.
Airlines are increasingly reliant on high-value passengers to book more expensive and higher-yielding tickets in premium cabins.
“…And Have Smaller Budgets That Just 12 Months Ago”
Why do we see an increasing trend with bad grammar/misspelling, especially with headlines? I know most content writers don’t create their own headlines and it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it bugs the heck out of me (and I have enough aggravation already).
Being at airports tells a different story. Full planes, crowded airports and lounges. Even restaurants.
People are spending money and will continue to spend
This is a good example of how intuitive perception is normally terrible at evaluating large numbers. Does anyone really think Mike can track the difference between a “full” restaurant that is serving 185 people per hour vs 225? Or a “full” airport that moves 57,960 passengers in a day rather than 70,684? Does anyone think he went to look at the number of actual flights at that airport to see if there were fewer actual flights per day, or if there was a higher percentage of smaller planes, or if TSA reduced staffing resulting in similar security wait times with lower total passenger volume?
Hundreds of millions of dollars in aggregate spending can change without it being obvious to our day to day perceived experience.
Given the fact that I was part of the recent layoff from Deloitte, so yes I agree that I will be traveling less.