Aviation Insights Report – May 2019

Dr. Xuxu Wang
Chief Data Officer

Analysis of Airline Booking Patterns and Events Impact

Events that create huge crowds are always worth factoring into your plans, but some of the biggest revenue opportunities for aviation demand forecasters are smaller events that are harder to spot yet cause big spikes in flight demand due to the kind of attendees they attract.

Conferences and business events can attract hundreds of thousands of people to a location, but it would be a mistake to focus only on the largest events alone. A perfect example of a smaller but high-potential event is coming up in May: the American Thoracic Society Conference will be taking place in Dallas from the 17th to the 22nd. It has 15,000 expected attendees who will be flying in from all over the United States as well as internationally.

Given its smaller size, specialist nature and the fact it takes place every year but in different locations, this is exactly the kind of event that is easy to miss. Yet it offers real yield-boosting opportunities for aviation customers using PredictHQ to identify every opportunity.

The American Thoracic Society Conference is far from the biggest event taking place in May, with the French Open in Paris expected to attract almost half a million attendees across France and internationally. In fact, Paris is set to be particularly busy this month as it hosts its annual Healthcare week, with a range of sizable conferences and expos taking place.

Our Predicted Impactful Events

The following table highlights events that we expect to have a high potential impact on air travel patterns during May 2019:

DateLocationEvent NameExpected Attendance
17 – 22 MayDallas, United StatesATS Annual Meeting15000
21 – 23 MayParis, FranceHealth-It Expo20000
21 – 24 MayCologne, GermanyInterzum69000
22 – 26 MayBologna, ItalyAutopromotec158000
26 MayIndianapolis, United StatesIndianapolis 500300000
26 May – 9 JuneParis, FranceFrench Open485000

PredictHQ tracks both scheduled events such as the above, as well as unscheduled events such as airport delays, terrorist attacks and severe weather. Because event data changes so often and new events are added constantly, we update our API every minute to ensure its accuracy.

We will soon be launching Aviation Rank, which has been tailored for the needs of airlines to understand each event’s potential impact on flight bookings. It is our first industry-specific rank and will provide even more context for smarter demand forecasting.

Be sure to follow this series in our blog for our next travel insights update, and start your conversation with us about our API of demand intelligence.