Topline
High-earning Americans are spending less on holiday travel this year, according to several recent industry reports—signaling a potential early threat to airlines that have come to rely disproportionately on luxury travelers.
High-earning Americans are cutting back on travel spending for the holiday season, a potential red flag for airlines.
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Key Facts
Major airlines have come to increasingly rely on strong demand for their lucrative premium-class tickets—but multiple indicators show high-income Americans are pulling back on travel spending.
Comparing spending that occurred mainly in October versus September, “year-over-year airline bookings growth improved for every income group except the $150,000-and-up cohort,” Michael Gunther, vice president and head of insights at Consumer Edge, a provider of consumer spending data, told Forbes in an email.
About four in five Americans earning $100,000 or more plan to downgrade their holiday travel plans this year, according to a Deloitte survey released last week.
Credit card spending on airline tickets by high-income consumers—those making over $150,000 annually—has been slipping since May, according to data from Consumer Edge.
Why Do Airlines Rely So Much On Affluent Travelers?
Over the past decade, major airlines have invested heavily to add more premium economy seats to their fleets, both by retrofitting existing aircraft and ordering new planes that give a larger footprint to premium economy. On Delta Air Lines’ third-quarter earnings call, for example, the carrier’s president Glen Hauenstein told investors retrofitted aircraft account “for probably about 25% to 30%” of premium seats while new aircraft are being ordered with “a higher mix of premium as they roll out of the factory.” Airlines based their investment decisions on the post-pandemic surge in premium leisure travel—a segment that looked robust throughout 2023 and 2024, and even into 2025. On earnings calls in 2025, major U.S. airlines have consistently noted that while the uncertain economy had created significant weakness in demand for “main cabin,” or coach seats, demand for their premium category has remained strong. On United Airlines’ third-quarter earnings call last month, chief commercial officer Andrew Nocella told investors that premium revenues were up 6% year-over-year and PRASM (Passenger Revenue per Available Seat Mile, a key metric in the industry) for premium cabins outperformed the main cabin by 5 points.
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