Air travel down 60pc in 2020, aviation sector losses USD 370b: ICAO
During the period of last year, a dramatic fall of 60 % in international flights have been witnessed by UN's air transportation agency. That is because of the coronavirus pandemic which has battered the aviation and tourism sector worldwide. The report said the pandemic triggered international air travel to drop to amounts last observed in 2003.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) said on January 15 that as seating capacity fell by around 50 per cent last year, that left merely 1.8 billion passengers spending flights through 2020, compared with around 4.5 billion in 2019.
That adds up to a staggering financial reduction to the sector of around USD 370 billion, "with airports and oxygen navigation services companies losing an additional USD 115 billion and USD 13 billion, respectively", said ICAO in a press statement.
As the coronavirus started out its global propagate, the air industry found a virtual standstill by the finish of March. Following widespread national lockdowns, by April the entire number of passengers acquired fallen 92 percent from 2019 levels, an average of the 98 percent drop-off observed in international traffic and 87 percent fall in domestic flights.
There is a moderate rebound through the summer travel period, but recovery was short-lived. "Sectoral recovery became more vulnerable and volatile once again over the last four weeks of 2020, indicating a standard double-dip recession for the entire year", ICAO said.
The report noted "a persistent disparity between domestic and international flights impacts caused by the more stringent international actions in force."
Domestic travel proved extra resilient and was the key driver of any kind of glimmer of recovery to the industry, particularly on China and Russia, ICAO notes, where domestic passenger numbers have previously returned to the pre-pandemic levels.
Overall, there was a 50 per cent drop in domestic passenger site visitors globally, while international traffic fell by 74 %, or about 1.4 billion travellers. The plunge in visitors, has put the whole industry's personal liability into question explained ICAO, and threatens the viability of an incredible number of associated jobs around the world.
It has additionally severely impacted global tourism, considering that a lot more than 50 percent of international travellers used to reach their destinations by plane.
ICAO said that the regional breakdown found in losses showed a good USD 120 billion damage year-on-year in the Asia-Pacific place, USD 100 billion in Europe, USD 88 billion in North America, followed by USD 26 billion, USD 22 billion and USD 14 billion in Latin America and the Caribbean, the center East, and Africa, respectively.
The agency explained the close to term outlook as one of "prolonged depressed require, with downside risks to global air travel recovery predominating in the earliest quarter of 2021, and likely to be subject to further deterioration."
It does not expect any improvement until the second quarter of 2021, although this it's still subject to the potency of pandemic supervision and vaccination roll out around the world.
Source: bangladeshmonitor.com.bd
