It will hurt a lot. The International Air Transport Association (Iata) estimated on Tuesday that the decline in airline revenues in 2020 linked to the spread of the coronavirus was 314 billion dollars, a 55% drop compared to 2019 revenues. This organization which brings together 290 air carriers had for the first time calculated the losses, three weeks ago, at 252 billion.
"Apart from a few cargo flights and a few repatriation flights, the industry is more or less grounded," commented Brian Pearce, Iata's chief financial officer. In early April, the number of flights worldwide collapsed by 80% compared to the same period in 2019, according to Iata.
Longer than expected restrictions
Since the start of the crisis, which began for the sector at the end of January with the suspension by airlines of serving China, the cradle of the coronavirus, Iata has repeatedly revised up the estimate of its losses turnover as border closings have accompanied the spread of Covid-19 around the world.
In its latest assessment, the organization takes into account travel restrictions that could be longer than expected and a severe impact of the Covid-19 everywhere in the world, including in Africa and Latin America.
“Industry forecasts are getting darker day by day. The magnitude of the crisis makes a V-shaped recovery (fall followed by an immediate rebound, Editor's note) unlikely. It will be a U-shaped recovery (a fall followed by stagnation before the recovery, note) ", commented the director general of Iata, Alexandre de Juniac.
Passenger health check
According to him, meetings will start from the end of the week to develop, with governments, "a plan to restart the sector according to a regional approach" in the world and probably based on a resumption first of "domestic, then regional, then continental and finally intercontinental" flights.
"Checking the health of passengers will be a key element in this restart," he added, adding that he did not know for the moment what the means would be, but argued in favor of a uniformity "to avoid a patchwork of complex and different measures in different parts of the world".
- Aviation
- Coronavirus
- Covid 19
- Economy
- Airline company