It has been predicted that the global aviation industry is expected to fully recover by around 2024-2025, fleet expansion and rising confidence is being seen across the industry, which could be the “ray of sunshine” for the civil aviation industry.
Airline travel in the U.S. has bounced back from its pandemic lows, but it remains below pre-Covid levels. Leisure travelers flying within the U.S. have returned far more quickly than people going on corporate trips. This is partly attributed to more uncertainty different businesses are facing – as well as to the trend of virtual meetings, which has been cemented during forced lockdowns and now are seen as great tool to cut costs even when formal restrictions on travel and face-to-face meetings do not apply.
However, business travel is viewed as an important step in the aviation industry’s recovery, particularly for the airlines because it brings in much higher fares than leisure travel.
In the past five weeks Europe has risen from worst-performing region ranked by seats as a percentage of 2019 levels to third out of six. The key driver has been an easing of international travel restrictions. When it comes to civil aviation industry, Europe’s total seat numbers are 36.5% below 2019 levels.
Although this is not very different from last week’s -37.0%, Europe has moved from fourth to third in the regional ranking. The Middle East, where seat capacity is down by 46.8% versus 2019, remains at the bottom. This week (week commencing 26-Jul-2021), Africa is down by 39.8%, Asia Pacific by 38.7%, Latin America by 28.7%, and North America by 23.5%. (source: www.centreforaviation.com)
Yet Europe’s progress on both capacity and easing travel restrictions has been stronger in the EU than in the UK. The prospects for the most important for European airline revenue, look better in 2021 than in 2020. Forward bookings are up, but further relaxation of international travel restrictions will determine the pace of the recovery.
