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Israel-Hamas war slows global air travel recovery
The Israel-Hamas war is having a wide-ranging negative impact on aviation well beyond the Middle East region, says travel analytics firm ForwardKeys.
It revealed the effect is global, with the whole market slowing by five percentage points in the three weeks since Hamas’ attack on October 7
Analysis compared flight bookings (benchmarked against pre-pandemic levels) during the three weeks before October 7 with the same period after.
For outbound travel, flight bookings from Middle Eastern countries fell by 9 percentage points since the outbreak of war.
Flight bookings from the Americas slowed by 10pp, whilst Asia Pacific, Europe (including Israel) and Africa each slowed by 2pp.
From a destination perspective, the growth in bookings to all regions of the world has slowed down, with the exception of Africa.
Within the region affected by the conflict, Israel has suffered the worst, with many airlines having cancelled flights.
In the period since October 7, flight bookings plummeted by 155pp with flight cancellations exceeding new bookings.
Flight bookings to GCC nations as a whole have declined by a quarter.
Olivier Ponti, VP Insights, ForwardKeys, said: “This war is a catastrophic human tragedy that we are all seeing daily on our TV screens.”
“That is bound to put people off travelling to the region, but it has also dented consumer confidence in travelling elsewhere too.”
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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