Asia Pacific airlines were hit hardest during the Covid-ravaged 2020, accounting for nearly a third of industry losses.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said globally, the industry lost about $370 billion last year, with $120 billion losses in the Asia-Pacific region.
ICAO estimates a $100 billion loss for airlines in Europe, and $88 billion in North America.
Overall, air passenger traffic was down 60% with just 1.8 billion passengers taking flights in 2020.
That compares with 4.5 billion in 2019.
Aside from a massive loss to airlines, ‘airports and air navigation services providers lost a further 115 billion and 13 billion, respectively’ ICAO said.
ICAO notes the China domestic air travel market is virtually back to pre-pandemic levels but cross-border air travel across Asia still remains at minimal levels, or in some cases non-existent apart from occasional repatriation flights.
ICAO does not expect much improvement until the second quarter of 2021, subject to vaccine rollout and other pandemic containment measures.
The agency doesn’t expect international air travel to be much better than half of pre-pandemic 2019 levels by the summer of 2021.
Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Editor
