Omicron causes sharp drop in airline ticket sales: IATA

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Airline summons income fell sharply astatine the extremity of 2021, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Wednesday, blaming governments for having "over-reacted" to the Omicron COVID variant by closing borders.

The IATA, which groups implicit 290 airlines, said planetary aerial question had been dilatory but steadily recovering from the wide shutdowns of 2020 and aboriginal 2021 earlier the fast-spreading Omicron strain was discovered astatine the extremity of November.

Ticket income successful November were 60.5 percent beneath their pre-pandemic November 2019 level, marking an betterment connected the 64.8 percent diminution recorded a period earlier.

"Unfortunately, governments over-reacted to the emergence of the Omicron variant astatine the adjacent of the period and resorted to the tried-and-failed methods of borderline closures, excessive investigating of travellers and quarantine to dilatory the spread," IATA president Willie Walsh accused.

"Not surprisingly, planetary summons income made successful December and aboriginal January fell sharply compared to 2019, suggesting a much hard archetypal 4th than had been expected," helium added.

IATA members relationship for 83 percent of planetary aerial traffic.

In October, the relation forecast cumulative manufacture losses of $11.6 cardinal successful 2022, down from an estimated $51.8 cardinal successful 2021 and $137.7 cardinal successful 2020.

The International Civil Aviation Organization said separately connected Wednesday that preliminary information shows the fig aerial passengers was down by 49 percent past twelvemonth from pre-pandemic levels successful 2019.

That was an betterment from the 60 percent driblet successful 2020.

The ICAO, a UN body, said airlines mislaid retired connected $324 cardinal successful gross past twelvemonth owed to the driblet successful traffic, which was little than $372 cardinal successful mislaid gross successful 2020.

It forecast an betterment successful 2022 to a driblet successful passengers of betwixt 26 and 31 percent, and mislaid gross betwixt $186 and $217 billion, with the planetary conception to proceed to beryllium the worst hit.

The IATA said it expected US airlines to crook profits again this twelvemonth but that European carriers, which run much long-haul flights and are truthful much exposed to borderline closures, would stay successful the red.



© 2022 AFP

Citation: Omicron causes crisp driblet successful hose summons sales: IATA (2022, January 12) retrieved 13 January 2022 from https://techxplore.com/news/2022-01-omicron-sharp-airline-ticket-sales.html

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