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Airlines in the Middle East and the rest of the world have just suffered the most disastrous month since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but there are signs of improvement following the easing of lockdowns and mobility restrictions, the International Air Transport Association (IATA`) said.
The region has been among the worst-hit markets, with demand for flights, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs), plunging by 97.3 percent in April, surpassing the global average, and just behind Africa and Europe, the hardest hit markets, IATA’s figures showed.
Passenger services in the UAE grounded to a complete halt in late March when authorities shut down its borders from visitors to contain the virus. Carriers started to resume some cancelled flights in May and just today (Thursday), the UAE announced its decision to reopen its airports to all transit flyers.
IATA officials, however, said that global airline passenger demand is finally starting to pick up steam following what had been the darkest period for the aviation industry. The passenger business dropped to its lowest point in April, when RPKs plunged 94.3 percent globally.
“Flight numbers are increasing. Countries are beginning to lift mobility restrictions. And business confidence is showing improvement in key markets such as China, Germany and the United States,” sad Alexandre de Junia, IATA’s director general and CEO.
Brian Pearce, chief economist of IATA, said the number of flights operated around the world in May rose by 30 percent from April low. The uptick has been due to the improvement in business confidence in many markets around the world, as countries reopen their economies and carriers attempt to revive airline travel.
“We’ve seen some improvement in the passenger business during May. Businesses in a number of the major economies around the world have actually become more confident than they were at the low point of the crisis,” Pearce told reporters during a media briefing.
“As lockdowns start to end as the economies in other countries like the US, Germany, Japan begin to return to work, we have seen a rebound in confidence. Clearly, it’s still fairly low but it’s beyond that turning point. The [figures] still suggest that April marks the low point in this cycle,” Pearce said.
Carriers in certain markets, particularly China, have also lowered their fares by 40 percent to entice people to book domestic flights. Things are also looking good in terms of domestic travel activity in South Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand which are all recovering from the coronavirus lockdowns.
“We didn’t expect to see anything taking place earlier… I guess what we’ve seen is a slightly earlier improvement in domestic markets than we have thought,” Pearce added.
(Reporting by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria)
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