Global air travel continues to grow in recovery from pandemic

IATA says September moderately better than August
2021-11-05
/
/ New Delhi
Global air travel continues to grow in recovery from pandemic

In international travel, Europe did the best as its international traffic was down 56.9 pc in September 2021 from two years ago (IO Photo/Varsha Singh)

Good news for aviation sector, one of the hardest hit over the past two years by the pandemic, continues to flow from around the world. The September data released by IATA says the recovery continues even at the end of the holiday season in the United States and Europe.
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After a mixed August, which saw a bump in international air traffic but dip in domestic travel, September has seen a global recovery at a moderate pace in domestic travel but slight downturn in international air travel, says International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global airline industry body.

IATA says that the growth in September came on the back of recovery in domestic markets, especially in China, where internal travel norms were eased.

IATA says that the total demand for air travel in September 2021, measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs, was down 53.4 pc compared to September 2019. This is a significant improvement over August when the demand was 56 pc below the levels of August 2019.

The highest growth was seen in domestic markets, says IATA, as domestic travel in September was down 24.3 pc from September 2019, while in August it was down by 32.6 pc over the same month two years ago. Overall, all markets showed improvement except Japan and Russia. In the international segment, the end of holiday season led to a slight degradation in demand in September which was 69.2 pc September 2019, fractionally worse than the 68.7 pc decline recorded in August.

“September’s performance is a positive development but recovery in international traffic remains stalled amid continuing border closures and quarantine mandates. The recent US policy change to reopen travel from 33 markets for fully vaccinated foreigners from November 8 is a welcome, if long overdue, development. Along with recent re-openings in other key markets like Australia, Argentina, Thailand, and Singapore this should give a boost to the large-scale restoration of the freedom to travel,” says Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general.

According to IATA, North America led the charge to recovery in September as traffic was only 30.5 pc below that September 2019 in the region, while Asia Pacific was the worst performer with 69 pc drop. Latin America, too, also did reasonably well, off 39.4 pc, while Europe was next in recovery with 50.3 pc drop in September traffic. Middle east, too, remained badly hit with traffic being 65.9 pc below the level in 2019 and in Africa it was 61.4 pc below September 2019.

International Passenger Markets in Asia Pacific hit hardest

In international travel, Europe did the best as its international traffic was down 56.9 pc in September 2021 from two years ago, slightly worse than the 55.9 pc drop recorded in August. North America was next best performer with 61 pc drop in air traffic as against 59.3 pc in the preceding month. Asia-Pacific was the worst off as international traffic was 93.2 pc compared to September 2019, virtually unchanged from the 93.4 pc drop registered in August 2021 as the region continues to have the strictest border control measures.

Middle Eastern airlines registered 67.1 pc demand drop in September, slight improvement over the 68.9 pc decrease in August. Latin America did relatively better with 61.3 pc drop in September, better than 62.6 pc decline in August. Africa traffic fell 62.2 pc in September, almost 4 pc below the 58.5 pc decline in August.

In domestic travel recovery, the United States topped as its internal traffic was only 12.8 pc below 2019 levels, as Brazil also showed strong growth with domestic travel only 17.3 pc below 2019 level, while China was off 26.2 pc, Russia 29.3 pc and India lagged further behind with domestic traffic struggling 41.3 pc below September 2019 levels.

“Each re-opening announcement seems to come with similar but different rules. We cannot let the recovery get bogged down in complication. The ICAO high level conference on Covid-19 agreed that harmonisation should be a priority. The G20 declared a commitment to take action to support a recovery with seamless travel, sustainability, and digitalisation. Now governments must put actions behind these words to realize simple and effective measures. People, jobs, businesses and economies are counting on real progress,” says Walsh.

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