By Chinelo Obogo
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released the IATA World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) publication with performance figures for 2020 demonstrating the devastating effects on global air transport during that year of the COVID-19 crisis.
According to the report, 1.8 billion passengers flew in 2020, a decrease of 60.2 per cent compared to the 4.5 billion who flew in 2019. Industry-wide air travel demand (measured in revenue passenger-kilometers) dropped by 65.9 per cent year-on-year and international passenger demand decreased by 75.6 per cent compared to the year prior. Also, domestic air passenger demand (RPKs) dropped by 48.8 per cent compared to 2019 and air connectivity declined by more than half in 2020 with the number of routes connecting airports falling dramatically at the outset of the crisis and was down more than 60 per cent year-on-year in April 2020.
Total industry passenger revenues fell by 69 per cent to $189 billion in 2020, and net losses were $126.4 billion in total. The decline in air passengers transported in 2020 was the largest recorded since global RPKs started being tracked around 1950.
Surprisingly, China became the largest domestic market in 2020 for the first time on record, as air travel rebounded faster in their domestic market following their efforts to control COVID-19 while Africa had the lowest number of 34.3 million passengers, down 65.7 per cent over 2019.
Asia-Pacific had 780.7 million passengers, a decrease of 53.4 per cent compared to the region’s passengers in 2019 and North America had 401.7 million passengers, down 60.8 per cent over 2019. Europe had 389.9 million passengers, down 67.4 per cent over 2019 while Latin America had 123.6 million passengers, down 60.6 per cent and the Middle East had 76.8 million passengers, a decrease of 67.6 per cent.