Cape Town - Airline industry statistics confirm 2020 as the worst year on record due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The International Air Transport Association (Iata) this week released the Iata World Air Transport Statistics (Wats) publication with performance figures for 2020 demonstrating the devastating effects on global air transport during the first full year of the Covid-19 crisis.
Wats shows that 1.8 billion passengers flew in 2020, a decrease of 60.2% compared with the 4.5 billion who flew in 2019, while industry-wide air travel demand, measured in revenue passenger-kilometres, or RPKs, dropped by 65.9% year-on-year.
International passenger demand decreased by 75.6% compared with the year prior, and domestic air passenger demand (RPKs) dropped by 48.8%.
Air connectivity declined by more than half in 2020 with the number of routes connecting airports falling dramatically at the outset of the crisis, and down more than 60% year-on-year in April 2020.
Total industry passenger revenues fell by 69% in 2020. The decline in air passengers transported last year is the largest recorded since global RPKs started being tracked in 1950.
“2020 was a year that we’d all like to forget. But analysing the performance statistics for the year reveals an amazing story of perseverance,” said Iata’s director-general, Willie Walsh.
“At the depth of the crisis in April 2020, 66% of the world’s commercial air transport fleet was grounded as governments closed borders or imposed strict quarantines. A million jobs disappeared.
"Many governments recognised aviation’s critical contributions and provided financial lifelines and other forms of support. But it was the rapid actions by airlines and the commitment of our people that saw the airline industry through the most difficult year in its history,” Walsh said.
The Middle East region suffered the largest proportion of loss for passenger traffic with a drop of 71.5% in RPKs versus 2019, followed by Europe (-69.7%) and Africa (-68.5%).
China became the largest domestic market in 2020 for the first time on record, as air travel rebounded faster in their domestic market following their efforts to control Covid-19.
Cape Times