Summary
- The Paris Olympics saw a drop in tourism, affecting airlines and hotels and, in turn, negatively impacting airlines’ bookings.
- On a positive note, there is an airborne spectacle planned for Paris at the Olympic opening ceremony.
I declare the Paris Olympic Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (33rd Olympiad) officially open – this is the exact sentence (albeit in French) that French President Emmanuel Macron will pronounce today at 7:30 pm French time (11:30 am EST).
The whole world will converge physically and through television to the Seine River.
People are saying non, merci to Paris.
With such a global event in one of the world’s most visited cities, routes to Paris are expected to be completed this summer. Some airlines, like Delta, even introduced another Olympic livery on their A350 (they previously had just one—on the A330neo—for the Beijing Winter Olympics). However, this Olympiad may not have been the success that airlines wanted.
Delta’s Olympic Problem
A few days ago, one of our journalists covered Delta’s Olympic dilemma in more detail. Paris is a big city of focus for the American SkyTeam carrier. According to data from Cirium, the airline and its joint venture partner Air France were expected to operate 1,654 flights between the two countries during the Games, representing almost half a million available seats.
In an interview with CNBC, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said this about current traffic to the French capital.
“Unless you’re going to the Olympics, people aren’t going to Paris … very few are. Business travel, you know, [remains strong], [but] other type of tourism is potentially going elsewhere.”
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A drop in tourism across Paris.
The issue affects Delta, its partners and Paris’s tourism industry.
According to Le Monde, Paris hotels have yet to see the surge in bookings they had hoped for, Patrick Hayat, President of the Paris hotel group of the same name, told the French media in April.
“Around 30% of our bookings have been canceled in recent weeks. If this continues, it will be problematic”.
“The international clientele for major sporting events is special. In 2016, during the Euro [soccer], we had many unpaid bills from groups of visitors from the other side of the world.”
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Tourism and aviation – two inseparable twins
Due to their mutual dependency, airlines depend heavily on tourism, particularly from a commercial perspective.
Taking the Covid pandemic as an example illustrates this relationship well.
Airlines experienced significant losses due to travel restrictions, which affected the international traffic flow. This decrease in travelers had a domino effect on hotels and local businesses in major tourist destinations, which also witnessed declines.
However, as travel restrictions were lifted and the world began to open up again, airlines noticed a surge in capacity. Currently, some airlines have returned to their pre-Covid levels of operation. This resurgence in air travel has increased hotel bookings, benefiting the broader tourism ecosystem.
The Olympics are only scheduled for the summer, and the impact on airlines isn’t expected to be as bad as the pandemic’s.
However, the fact that customers might prefer to avoid Paris until the event concludes, and they won’t book hotels in the city means there will be less demand for flights to Paris, affecting the airline’s profit margins during the period of the Olympiad.
An aviation show over the Seine
While airlines may not have benefited from the Olympics as much as they had hoped, spectators will see a unique airborne spectacle during the opening ceremony.
According to Sortir à Paris, a newspaper showcasing French daily activities around the city, the opening will include a display.
The Patrouille de France, the French aerobatic display team composed of nine Dassault-Dornier Alphajets, will be the star guests of the opening ceremony.
The head of the Paris National Police Force, Laurent Nunez, said in a statement.
“8 Patrouille de France Alphajets will fly over the capital at a flight height of between 243 meters (800 feet AGL) minimum and around 1,676 meters (5,500 feet AGL) maximum.”
“Should exceptional circumstances require it, the air show could be canceled.”
“Do you think the Olympics can be inherently bad for airlines? Are you looking forward to the opening eremony? Let’s have a conversation now.