Airlines Record Historic 66 Percent Drop in Demand in 2020

Feb. 3—GENEVA — Global air passenger traffic plummeted by a record 66 per cent last year during the Covid-19 pandemic, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported on Wednesday in Geneva.

The year-on-year decrease in the month of December amounted to 85 per cent for international routes and 70 per cent for domestic flights.

The industry group measures traffic as the total amount of kilometres flown by passengers.

"Our forecast is for traffic to return to half of 2019 levels in 2021," IATA chairperson Alexandre de Juniac told a press conference.

"But the proliferation of restrictions on travel that we have seen since the beginning of the year could make even that modest outlook very challenging," he added.

Booking levels in December were 70 per cent lower than one year ago.

Last year, 1.8 billion people travelled by air, down from 4.5 billion in 2019.

___

(c)2021 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)

Visit Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) at www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.