The coronavirus pandemic has left so many industries on their knees and the aviation industry is one of the most affected. With passenger flights grounded, and planes parked without activity, one can only imagine how much losses the global airlines are incurring.
Well, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has made the shocking detail, estimating that airlines worldwide could face losses amounting to $253 billion by September this year due to the pandemic.
This speaks directly in line with the findings that airline passengers will have reduced by 1.2 billion about the same time. All of this is owed to the suspension of international passenger flights, in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.
ICAO notes that the most significant reduction in numbers will be felt across Europe, followed by the Asia-Pacific. Additionally, the body reports that there has been a 19% year-on-year drop in air freight for the month of March, measured in tonnes transported; 22% drop in air freight revenues; 31% fall in Belly cargo; 9% rise in all freighter capacity is up 9%; while the global passenger capacity is down by 91% this april.
Earlier predictions by the Aviation authority has pointed at passenger numbers rising by 64 million in the first nine months of 2020, while revenues could have increased by $15 billion. Now, that flights are on halt, you can only anticipate negatives.
Airlines affected by coronavirus pandemic
South African Airways will not receive any more funding from government as the carrier looks for ways to recover from the coronavirus crisis and business rescue. The airline’s administrators were told by the state to instead source cash from available resources, according to a letter they sent to affected parties dated 14 April.
Dubai’s government recently announced that it is ready to inject equity into Emirates Airlines following the coronavirus pandemic. This is after the Middle East’s largest carrier has grounded nearly all of its flights due to global restrictions on travel.
Uganda Airlines had planned for an expansion of the regional route network, as well as the intercontinental destinations on which operations of the wide-body fleet were premised. This is less likely to happen as per arrangements because the airline is facing difficult decisions over the delivery timetable for its A330-800 neo fleet.
