Skift Travel News Blog

Much of the attention regarding the euro’s historic fall has focused on Americans getting cheaper vacations in Europe — and the converse for EU residents — but the euro’s reaching parity with the U.S. dollar obviously has business consequences too — and Booking Holdings will likely have to deal with a material adverse impact.

In a research note Wednesday, Jake Fuller of BTIG wrote that he expects an “11 point headwind” to Booking’s growth in bookings in second quarter results and through the rest of 2022 because of volatility in the euro and British pound.

BTIG estimated that Booking Holdings generates about 55 percent of its bookings in Europe. The company doesn’t break out the percentage. “Within Europe, we assume an 85-15 split between the euro and British pound,” the note said.

Booking Holdings’ exposure to the euro “is likely material, should impact the 3Q guide, and does not appear to be reflected in consensus numbers for the year,” the research note added.

Geography has played a major role in how various online travel agencies fared during the pandemic.

Expedia Group benefited throughout much of the pandemic when the U.S. domestic travel market boomed, particularly for stays in vacation rentals.

On the other hand, Booking Holdings suffered because Europe was slower to rid itself of lockdowns than the U.S., and now Booking has to cope with the euro falling to a low it hasn’t seen in two decades.

From a variety of reports, Booking Holdings appeared to be gaining market share in June, but the euro crisis could blunt some of the progress.

The European Parliament has passed one of the first sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, mandates that would force production of the low-carbon fuels to ramp up quickly in the coming decades.

The legislature approved what are known as the “ReFuelEU Aviation” standards Thursday that lay out a rapid ramp up in SAF adoption in five-year increments through 2050. In just three years, 2 percent of all aviation fuel in the bloc will need to be SAF, with the percentage rising to 85 percent by 2050.

In a win for environmental groups, the parliament approved higher mandates than most airlines wanted. SAF must make up 6 percent of all aviation fuel in Europe by 2030, with 2 percent of that coming from synthetic sources — also known as e-kerosene. Airline trade group Airlines for Europe (A4E) and many of its members had supported a 5 percent mandate by the end of the decade, while International Airlines Group backed the 6 percent requirement.

The European parliament also removed palm oil byproducts from the list of approved SAF feedstocks. Production of palm oil is notably carbon intensive.

“If we are serious about fighting climate change and de-carbonizing aviation, Europe needs to make more choices like the one we witnessed today,” advocacy group Transport & Environment Aviation Policy Officer Matteo Mirolo said in a statement. “EU lawmakers have gone a good way towards a definition of SAFs that is positive for our planet and the credibility of aviation’s green future.” 

The SAF mandates, however, are not a done deal yet. They still need to be finalized across the branches of the EU government, including the parliament and European Commission, before a planned implementation target of January 2023. 

Multi-modal transportation platform Omio has raised $80 million, with plans to expand via new partnerships, acquisitions and further growth into the U.S. after Europe-wide expansion.

Omio launched in North America in 2020, but was then hit by the pandemic. However revenue has recovered to more than double pre-pandemic levels, and according to reports founder and CEO Naren Shaam said the U.S. market had “bounced back.”

The Berlin-based travel app, which integrates more than 1,000 transportation providers across trains, buses, ferries, cars, airport transfers as well as flights, may also be able to tap into increased demand for sustainable travel (it claims that one in four customers change their bookings from flights to trains), as well as travel’s holy grail of the connected trip.

Earlier this year Omio helped build a new international website for the UK’s London North Eastern Railway, to make train travel easier to book for overseas customers. The rail company counts 10 countries as its global market, including China, Japan, Spain, South Korea and Italy. The new search and booking engine lets customers in those countries purchase tickets in their own language and currency.

In March it added a partnership with CheckMyBus, a global intercity bus search engine, while it also has collaborations in place with Kayak, Huawei and Portugal’s state-owned railway company.

Omio’s Series E funding came from new investors Lazard Asset Management and Stack Capital Group. Existing investors NEA, Temasek and funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management also contributed.

In 2020 Omio raised $100 million to fund the purchase of other travel companies, after buying Australia-based Rome2Rio in 2019.

European airlines have warned once and again that airport staffing, and other issues, threatened to derail what is widely expected to be a busy summer travel season. Those issues have been on display at KLM and Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport two weekends in a row now. The airline said Saturday that it would “no longer allow passengers to board for departure to Amsterdam at European destinations” due to issues at Schiphol for the rest of the day.

The decision to not carry passengers to Amsterdam comes a day after KLM said it would cancel roughly 50 flights a day across its network over the Pentecost holiday weekend, or Whitsun weekend. Monday, June 6, is a holiday in many European countries including the Netherlands.

KLM blamed the move Saturday on “unfavorable weather conditions and runway maintenance at Schiphol” that were forcing the cancellation of many outbound flights. This is on top of security staffing issues that have been blamed for crowding at the airport in recent weeks.

KLM planned to resume flying passengers to Amsterdam from European destinations on Sunday, June 5.

Europe is predicted to make a full domestic tourism recovery in 2022, and internationally by 2025.

That’s according to a new report from the European Travel Commission. While domestic travel is projected to make a complete recovery this year, international arrivals to Europe are forecast to be 30 percent below 2019 volumes, due to the war in Ukraine.

A recent survey conducted by MMGY Travel Intelligence indicated 62 percent of US travelers planning to visit Europe stated concerns about the war in Ukraine spreading to nearby countries as a factor impacting plans.

Western Europe is expected to be the best performing region globally this year, according to the latest quarterly European Tourism Trends & Prospects report, published Wednesday. But it will still be 24 percent below 2019 levels.

Eastern Europe’s recovery has been pushed back to 2025 due to the war in Ukraine, with arrivals now forecast to be 43 percent lower in 2022 compared to 2019.

“The sector is steadily recovering from Covid-19 and there is cause for optimism,” said Luis Araujo, president of the commission. “Nevertheless, European tourism will have to maintain this fortitude throughout the year as Europe continues to deal with the significant fallout from the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict.”

The U.S. remains among the best performers of all long-haul source markets.

Meanwhile, there were “no immediate signs” Chinese tourists were returning to pre-pandemic levels any time soon.