Record heat and crowds spark off-season international travel boom

Tired of the heat, crowds and high prices, more American travelers are discovering the international travel offseason — and airlines and hotels are fighting to score a bargain.

Flights to once-seasonal European vacation destinations now begin when there is still snow on the ground in the United States and end when leaves fall from the trees, if they stop at all, instead of following the traditional travel seasons of late spring to late summer.

For example, American airlinesThe flight to Edinburgh, Scotland, from New York began in March. United AirlinesThe nonstop route to Palermo, Sicily, from Newark, New Jersey, will end in December and Delta AirlinesService to Rome from Minneapolis, Minnesota, will continue through January, months later than in previous years.

With this year’s surge in jet fuel expected to shave $100 billion off airline profits this year, according to the International Air Transport Association, it’s crucial for the industry to maximize travel trends that attract high-spending customers.

Investors are optimistic that airlines can absorb the fuel hit from earlier this year after cutting back on unprofitable or less profitable flights and airline executives said strong demand helped them pass on some, but not all, of those expenses.

Shares of Delta and United, the two most profitable U.S. airlines, have each hit record highs in recent weeks, and shares of American hit their highest level in 18 months. Airlines this month begin reporting second-quarter results and providing third-quarter updates, with Delta kicking off the season on Friday.

Industry executives told CNBC that international holiday seasons used to be more defined. New trends force them to tear up decades-old textbooks.

“Before, it was a lot lumpier. There was more: good season, bad season,” Delta President Peter Carter said in an interview. “There are so many places you can go in Europe all year round and still have an incredible experience, and that’s why we’re seeing such good demand in Europe.”

This demand is redefining the most lucrative months for airlines.

“We’ve seen this massive phenomenon, what I would call, the shift of seasons – the shoulder season blending into the full season,” said Patrick Quayle, United Airlines” the senior vice president who designs the carrier’s network said in an interview last month.

Shoulder season refers to the period between a destination’s peak tourist season and its low season.

Airlines try to extend the season as much as possible to increase their profits.

International flights to Europe typically offer more premium seats, such as reclining cabins, than smaller jets used for domestic travel — and airlines plan to further expand these options. Business class fares on some of these routes can cost $10,000 round trip, instead of less than half that price on a domestic route.

Airfares are up overall this year compared to last as airlines try to pass on their rising costs to customers as much as possible, but there are signs that prices are moderating, particularly as the industry prepares for the end of the peak summer travel period in July.

For example, flights between the United States and Athens, Greece, on June 22 cost $988 roundtrip, up from $810 last year but down from $1,350 two months earlier, according to flight tracking site Kayak.

The increase in shoulder season and off-peak travel is forcing Delta to rethink its maintenance and crew schedules, said Jeff Arinder, Delta’s vice president of international network planning.

“We would never put planes in maintenance hangars, if we could avoid it, in the summer… because that’s when we make all the money,” he told CNBC. “We now do more maintenance in the summer because we want to preserve these planes for the fall.”

He said Delta was trying to “really iron out our seasonality as much as possible.”

The latest challenge facing usual summer travel in Europe has been the latest deadly heatwave.

In late June, locals and tourists faced record temperatures across Europe, where air conditioning is not widespread. Fogging stations have been installed from Warsaw, Poland, to Rome. The LGBTQ+ pride march in Paris was postponed, among other events, and public consumption of alcohol was briefly banned in the city.

Residents of many European cities, such as Barcelona, ​​Spain, and Venice, Italy, have also raised concerns about overcrowding during the peak summer months and beyond. European countries are attracting record numbers of visitors.

But it’s not just the aversion to heat and crowds that is leading to a change in travel habits.

For younger generations, more flexible work policies help some consumers, even those with children, travel outside of late spring and summer. Baby boomers, on the other hand, have plenty of money and time, giving them more flexibility to travel.

“Delta’s target population tends to be a little older and a little wealthier,” Arinder said.

United pushes the limits of the offseason trend.

It extended its nonstop flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Palermo, Sicily, until December 16, rather than ending it in September, with Boeing 767s.

Sicily has long been touted as a summer destination.

Daytime temperatures can regularly reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit along the coast with little or no rain in July. In December, however, temperatures sometimes barely reach 60 degrees on the Italian island and rain is more likely.

As hotel rates drop and crowds at major attractions thin in winter, United is betting that travelers will fill the three-times-a-week service even without ideal summer weather.

“I don’t think it’s that experimental. I think it’s a really safe bet,” United’s Quayle said.

Many coastal hotels also close during the winter months. The San Domenico Palace at the Four Seasons in Taormina, Sicily, where the second season of HBO’s “White Lotus” was filmed, closes its doors from mid-November to early spring, for example.

However, manager Imelda Shllaku told CNBC that over the past four years, the hotel has seen a “remarkable increase in reservations from American guests” in March, April, October and November.

“Wealthy travelers are increasingly seeking experiences with real cultural currency, and Sicily’s shoulder season is simply better suited to offering them,” she said via email, highlighting behind-the-scenes tours of Noto, in southeastern Sicily, and nighttime trips to Mount Etna. The hotel will reopen on March 1, a spokeswoman said.

Delta plans to extend its flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Catania, on the east coast of Sicily, until January 3, up from October 24 last year. And he plans to resume the ride on March 8, 2027. This year, he started the ride on May 1 and May 21, 2025.

United and Delta aren’t alone, as airlines across the board are redeploying some of their largest planes to maintain service to Europe year-round or during the offseason.

“When airlines are looking to buy an airplane, they have to think about how we’re going to use that airplane year-round, because it’s an expensive machine,” said Brett Snyder, founder of the Cranky Flier blog and the Cranky Concierge travel agency. “They know that in the summer they will have no problem sending these wide-body jets to Europe. They can now extend that further in the shoulder season.”

Based in Seattle Alaska Airlineswhich recently launched its first transatlantic service this year to London, Rome and Reykjavík, Iceland, keeps this in mind. President and CFO Shane Tackett told CNBC that travelers are becoming more flexible.

“A lot of people want to go see the same destinations… [and that] It seems very logical that these seasons are starting to expand,” he said. “Maybe when I was little, my parents wouldn’t have even thought about pulling me out of school in September, and I think maybe parents are a little more like, ‘Yeah, let’s go somewhere fun, and you’ll catch up on school when you get back.’

American airlinesfor its part, lengthens certain seasons of American transatlantic travel.

October “isn’t as strong as June or July for Europe, but it’s becoming a peak month for us,” said Brian Znotins, the carrier’s senior vice president of network planning.

But American doesn’t want to move the planes too far from its proven track record for vacationers looking for skiing and winter sun, he said.

“I’m not going to mince words: January and February are still very off-peak months. I would hate for anyone to come and say that they are good months, that they are just less off-peak than before,” he said.

Some travelers split the difference.

Atul Mehta, a Chicago-based financial executive, said he would take his family to Portugal this summer, shortly before classes resume, but said that when he visits his family in Bahrain this winter, “we took them out of school.”