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Travel patterns used to be very predictable. In the summer, airlines knew that a lot of customers would want to be flying over to Europe. That is still the case. But it is also very hot and it is very crowded. And especially since Covid travel patterns have been changing dramatically and customers are starting to go to Europe all year round. You're seeing a lot more demand in what's called the shoulder seasons, like the spring, even early spring when it's a lot cooler and then going into the fall. So especially since Covid, these changes in travel patterns have become more pronounced. Work is a bit more flexible.
There's remote work, there's digital nomads and people that are prioritizing travel. There are also things that are driving travelers away from maybe the peak summer months, not just the prices of hotels and flights, but the crowds and the incredible heat at a lot of major tourist attractions. For a lot of people, going to Rome in the summer is very stressful. It is very hot. There are crushing crowds that go during the summer, especially to some of these Mediterranean destinations.
The more people that go in the summer, the more that pushes people to fly more in an off-peak time because it'll be a better experience for them. For the airlines, they're trying to make as much money as possible. Costs have gone up, of course fuel prices have gone up this year, but margins in this business are razor thin. And for airlines, they need to put those aircraft on the most lucrative routes that they can. And what we've heard from CEOs from major airlines is international is where it's at. So what airlines are doing is that they're starting their seasonal flights to Europe earlier, in many cases. American is a good example of that.
They recently debuted some service to Scotland, and they're starting that earlier in the spring. There are also year round flights to major cities and major hubs that travelers can bounce off of to Rome, Barcelona and those places and those are becoming more year round destinations. When airlines are looking to purchase aircraft, they have to think about how are we going to use this airplane year round because it's an expensive piece of machinery. They know in the summer they won't have a problem sending these widebodies to Europe. That's not going to be an issue for them. Now they can stretch that further into the shoulder season.
A lot of those planes are larger. They have more premium seats that can cost thousands of dollars more than seats in coach, and you can get thousands of dollars more than running them on a domestic route. And they're putting those to work on international routes to cater to that demand. And it's not just to Europe. We're seeing it also with Japan flights and new destinations throughout Asia as well. It doesn't mean that domestic travel is dead. That's very popular. You've noticed that the aircraft are very full even at these fairs that we've seen this year, with fuel prices going up. And it doesn't mean that traditional vacation destinations throughout the Caribbean and Mexico are
dead either. There's strong demand there as well. But airlines are looking to grow and they're looking to grow their profits, and they're looking to cover their costs, which have been going up and up over the years.
