Now 2024: IATA says air travel recovery to take longer than expected earlier

NEW DELHI: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned that recovery in air travel from the pandemic impact has been slower than expected due to sharp spike in cases in many countries, reduced corporate travel and weak consumer confidence. Accordingly, it says global passenger traffic will not return to pre-Covid-19 levels until 2024, a year later than previously projected.
The recovery in short haul travel is still expected to happen faster than for long haul travel. For 2020, global passenger numbers are expected to decline by 55% compared to 2019, lower than the April forecast of 46%, it says.
“The more pessimistic recovery outlook is based on a number of recent trends: slow virus containment in the US and developing economies; reduced corporate travel… as video conferencing appears to have made significant inroads as a substitute for in-person meetings and weak consumer confidence,” IATA said.