Global airline body reports 2020 was catastrophic for passenger sector

The global representative body for the airline industry, the International Air Transport Association (Iata), has reported that global air passenger demand last year was 65.9% lower than in 2019 – the deepest fall in demand in the entire history of the aviation. On top of this, forward bookings for airline seats have been in severe decline since late December.  “Last year was a catastrophe. There is no other way to describe it,” asserted Iata director-general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac. “What recovery there was over the Northern hemisphere summer season stalled in the autumn and the situation turned dramatically worse over the year-end holiday season, as more severe travel restrictions were imposed in the face of new outbreaks and new strains of Covid-19.”