Originally Posted by
COTraveler123
Then U.S. airlines like Delta will be in trouble then! The weakening dollar will put a huge strain on the American middle class who will cut European travel as the dollar continues its massive fall. If Europeans won't pick up the slack then U.S. airlines like Delta have will be flying empty planes. England and Europe will be out of reach for many Americans that could afford it last year. The collapse of the dollar will impact many travel habits. I avoided Europe and England for years in the 2000s when the dollar was weak back then. I had been going to Europe and England like crazy the past four years when we had a strong dollar. We will see big changes in American travel patterns, hopefully Delta management is ready to adapt! Europeans will have a strong currency to use to travel the world!
It is the same reason we saw a huge decraese in Australians coming to the U.S., but we saw more Americans going to Australia. The Australian dollar has been weak. Now the U.S. dollar is very weak. We will start to see big pattern shifts of who travels where on Delta and other airlines.
The US Dollar is not "very weak" at present, you need to zoom out. America is still stupid expensive for Europeans, especially in light of their relatively low wages. A very basic hotel room in uninspiring parts of America is $120-150 + taxes and goes up from there. Europe, especially Southern Europe, is still a fantastic deal for Americans. Really, almost everywhere except America is a great deal for Americans right now even with the recent slide in USD value. The question over the coming months is whether macro conditions will deteriorate to the point where people are losing jobs and forced to pay too much for goods and services at home, therefore needing to cut transatlantic flights out of the budget entirely. Of course it's possible the USD could continue to weaken but I doubt anyone is not scheduling a trip specifically because they're worried the USD will lose value.