As the country opens up and more people get vaccinated, many people await for the last pillar of normalcy to fully return: travel and leisure. According to reporting from Axios, bookings for last month were up 11% from April 2019.
But as the travel sector returns, it faces the same worker shortages that many other industries currently bear. Last year, the country's travel sector lost $1.1 trillion, with jobs in the sector dropping by 5.6 million. While the industry is slowly recouping its losses, 17% of those jobs have yet to be filled according to data from the U.S. Travel Association.
Today on AirTalk, we check in with local Southern California airports and an international airlines to see how they fared during the pandemic and what they foresee in the future of the travel industry.
Guests:
Frank Miller, executive director of the Hollywood Burbank Airport
Atif Elkadi, deputy chief executive officer for Ontario International Airport; he tweets
Becca Doten, deputy executive director for public and government affairs for Los Angeles World Airports; she tweets
John Jackson, Korean Air’s vice president of marketing for the Americas