The Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Alexandre de Juniac, has called on governments to “support the entire [aviation] sector” as it deals with the Coronavirus Pandemic.
According to IATA the worlds airlines are losing $300,000 per minute or $13bn per month which will put a large number of them at risk of bankruptcy “within months”.
IATA has revised its recovery estimates and now expects traffic levels in December to be 68% lower than 2019 with crisis becoming deeper and going on longer than originally expected.
Juniac explained that the largest problem for airlines is ongoing aircraft and staff costs which for many have only dropped around 50% whilst revenues have fallen be around 80%.
Calling on governments to act, Juniac said “the impact has spread across the entire travel value chain including our airports and air navigation system partners who are dependant on pre-crisis levels of traffic to sustain their operations.
IATA does not expect the airline industry to be profitable again until 2022.
