Ailing airlines head to sunny climes chasing recovery
Diaspora travel emerges while leisure flights make a comeback amid permanently curtailed business demand
Los Angeles — There were 13,600 passenger flights around the globe on April 25 2020, the lowest recorded number during the pandemic. It was an 86% drop in traffic compared to a few months earlier, according to travel analytics company Cirium. There was nowhere to go but up, up and away.
And yet, nine months later, Cirium estimates that 30% of the global commercial aircraft remain in storage. OAG, another aviation data and analytics company, reported that seat capacity remained at 50% in January 2021, compared with a year earlier. And new estimates from the International Air Transport Association show that recovery will be slower than expected. Rather than a 50% rebound by the end of 2021, as previously forecast, the trade body is now looking at a worst-case scenario of 13% improvement in passenger traffic, compared to 2020 figures...
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