Global air passenger traffic to dip by 66% this year: IATA

GENEVA : The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has downgraded its traffic forecast for 2020 to reflect a weaker-than-expected recovery as evidenced by a dismal end to the summer travel season in the northern hemisphere.

IATA now expects full-year 2020 traffic to be down 66% compared to 2019. The previous estimate was for a 63% decline.August passenger demand continued to be hugely depressed against normal levels with revenue passenger kilometres down 75.3% compared to August 2019. This was only slightly improved compared to the 79.5% annual contraction in July.

Domestic markets continued to outperform international markets in terms of recovery although most remained substantially down on a year ago. August capacity based on available seat kilometres was down 63.8% compared to a year ago and load factor plunged 27.2 points to an all-time low for August of 58.5%.