2015 Mid-Year Air Travel Trends: Expedia and Airlines Reporting Corporation Release Global Report Detailing Air Travel Trends and Pricing for Coming Months

BELLEVUE, Wash., June 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE), in partnership with Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) and other organizations, today released a comprehensive study that analyzes a rich set of global air travel data spotlighting air travel trends. The report, Travel Check-Up: Air Travel Trends 2015, represents original analysis of a variety of travel data. Specifically, the report analyzes:

• Average ticket price fluctuations on key routes globally
• Travel demand and package growth savings opportunities globally
• The impact of foreign exchange on air travel and how long travelers are staying on vacation

Average ticket price fluctuations on key routes globally
In December 2014, Expedia and ARC analyzed likely 2015 average ticket prices (ATPs) to many top travel destinations originating from North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. On the whole, our predictions were spot-on. With prices adjusted for exchange rates, air ticket prices declined approximately 2 percent on average across North America and Europe, while prices decreased 7 percent for travelers originating in Asia-Pacific.

For specific prices for the remainder of 2015, Expedia and ARC dug through the data¹ to find some of the largest expected air ticket price declines across a selection of our favorite destinations. Here's our view on the top 10 destinations to which travelers can find the best deals.

Regardless of where travelers may want to go, bundling a flight, car, or hotel together and booking them at the same time as a package is a great way for travelers to get major savings in our industry. Why do packages offer such terrific deals? By bundling, travel suppliers have more flexibility on the rate offered, so they are willing to provide travelers great deals.

"An analysis of air industry data suggests that, with smart planning, the second half of this year will be an optimal time to explore the world," said Greg Schulze, senior vice president Expedia Global Tour & Transport. "We work tirelessly to take data and put it at the fingertips of travelers in the form of actionable information that makes them confident to click, book, and go. Our ultimate goal is to help travelers feel informed and empowered to get past travel decision-making and move into travel moment-making."

"Travelers are benefiting as airlines modernize their fleets and add seats resulting in lower average ticket prices, especially for North America and Europe," said Chuck Thackston, managing director of enterprise information management at ARC. "This additional capacity, plus other factors reported by Expedia such as length of stay and dynamic currency valuations, provides a great opportunity for travel deals this year."

Travel demand and package growth savings opportunities
After running data on package deals booked for travel between June and September 2015 that include air and hotel, we determined travelers can save up to US$648 across all destinations.

For certain destinations, package savings for 2015 can be even greater. In our December 2014 report, we listed a number of traveler's favorite cities worldwide offering major package savings. When we compared the numbers again at the halfway point of 2015, we were delighted to see that these cities continue to offer great deals.

The impact of foreign exchange on air travel and how long travelers are staying on vacation
One of the key metrics travel industry insiders typically use to evaluate traveler behavior is Length of Stay (LOS). This statistic shows us how long travelers stay in a particular place, and is usually used in reference to hotels. But since this report is all about air travel data, we evaluated ARC's global numbers for June, July, and August 2012-2015 to see what insights we could glean from the duration of air trips over those time periods.

Among the three regions studied in the report—North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific—domestic flights originating in North America led to the shortest stays of all. While this statistic is open to broad interpretation, we believe it indicates a high number of Americans traveling domestically on short trips.

Our mid-year analysis also indicates that trips with the longest LOS change from month to month. In June and July, the longest trips originate in North America and head to Asia-Pacific; in August, the trips with the longest lengths of stay start in Asia-Pacific and head to Europe. These trends remained relatively consistent from 2012-2015 for travelers originating in Asia-Pacific and heading to Europe, though the August numbers for 2015 suggest a destination shift to North America.

In addition, data from our recent survey suggests that, given the strength of the U.S. dollar, travelers originating in North America are planning to stay longer in Europe this year. LOS for economy²-class trips originating from North America and heading to Europe show 6 percent growth when comparing August 2014 versus August 2015.

Average LOS for June, July and August in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America for intra-region travel ranges from flat to down between 2014 and 2015. One could interpret this data to indicate that travelers are taking shorter trips within their home markets during 2015. We prefer to think these statistics prove the world is becoming a more global place with travelers choosing to spend longer portions of their precious vacation time farther away from home.

This study reflects a partnership between ARC and Expedia and includes data for travel in more than 200 countries and territories. The report also utilizes data from other industry sources such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Diio Mi and the Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO).

Download a copy of Travel Check-Up: Air Travel Trends 2015 at the Expedia.com Viewfinder Travel blog here.

About Expedia, Inc.
Expedia, Inc. is one of the world's largest travel companies, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes leading online travel brands, such as:

• Expedia.com®, a leading full service online travel agency with localized sites in 31 countries
• Hotels.com®, the hotel specialist with localized sites in more than 60 countries
• Hotwire®, a leading discount travel site that offers opaque deals in 12 countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia
• Travelocity®, a pioneer in online travel and a leading online travel agency in the US and Canada
• Egencia®, a leading corporate travel management company
• Venere.com™, an online hotel reservation specialist in Europe
• trivago®, a leading online hotel metasearch company with sites in 51 countries
• Wotif Group, a leading operator of travel brands in the Asia-Pacific region, including Wotif.com ®, lastminute.com.au®, travel.com.au, Asia Web Direct®, LateStays.com and GoDo.com.au
• Expedia Local Expert®, a provider of online and in-market concierge services, activities, experiences and ground transportation in hundreds of destinations worldwide
• Classic Vacations®, a top luxury travel specialist
• Expedia® CruiseShipCenters®, a provider of exceptional value and expert advice for travelers booking cruises and vacations through its network of 180 franchise locations across North America
• CarRentals.com™, the premier car rental booking company on the web

The company delivers consumers value in leisure and business travel, drives incremental demand and direct bookings to travel suppliers, and provides advertisers the opportunity to reach a highly valuable audience of in-market consumers through Expedia® Media Solutions. Expedia also powers bookings for some of the world's leading airlines and hotels, top consumer brands, high traffic websites, and thousands of active affiliates through Expedia Affiliate Network. For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. © 2015 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. CST: 2029030-50 

About Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC)
ARC powers the U.S.-based travel industry with premier business solutions, travel agency accreditation services, process and financial management tools, and powerful data analytics. In 2014, ARC settled $89.6 billion worth of carrier ticket transactions for more than 9,400 travel agencies with 13,000 points of sale. By providing world-class business services and products, ARC enables participating agencies and 200 carriers to focus on what's important—increasing their revenue. Established in 1984, ARC is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. For more information, please visit www.arccorp.com.

¹ These predictions are based upon supply-and-demand data from ARC and Diio Mi and they measure the change to June-September 2015 from June-September 2014.
² For the purposes of this paper, "Economy Cabin" comprises all coach classes, including Premium Economy.

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SOURCE Expedia, Inc.

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