Asia loses global recovery in air travel because IATA rejects bans | Aviation

Hwaseong, South Korea – Asia-Pacific countries have almost completely lost the global recovery in air travel, and flights have fallen by more than 90 percent compared to previous pandemic levels, new data show.

The region is the only part of the world that has seen almost no improvement in air travel in the last year, with traffic growing by only 0.3 percentage points in October compared to September.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released figures on Thursday, warning that a large number of travel bans to stop the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant would prevent a fragile revival of global aviation.

Asia-Pacific travel fell 93.1 percent in October 2021 from October 2019, almost unchanged from a 92.8 percent drop in September 2021 compared to two years ago, according to the trade organization.

By comparison, airlines in the Middle East increased their demand by almost 7 percentage points, and in October traffic fell by 60.3 percent before the pandemic. European carriers saw an increase in demand of almost 6 points, and traffic was down by only 50.6 per cent compared to October 2019.

Latin American airlines were up more than 6 percentage points, with October traffic down 55.1 percent.

North American carriers saw a 57% drop in traffic compared to 2019, up from a 61.4 percent drop in September.

African airline traffic fell by 60.2% in October compared to 62.1% in the same period in 2019.

IATA CEO Willie Walsh said governments were putting the recovery at risk by imposing travel bans, despite criticism from the World Health Organization.

“October’s traffic performance reinforces that people will travel when they are allowed to,” Walsh said. “Unfortunately, government responses to the emergence of the Omicron variant jeopardize the global connectivity that has taken so long to rebuild.”

“The logic of the WHO’s advice was clear a few days after Omicron was identified in South Africa, which has already confirmed its presence on every continent.

Although vaccines are close to maximum rates in many parts of the region, Asia-Pacific was largely closed to non-essential travel even before the new variant appeared.

The WHO has called Omicron a “variant of concern.” Although some scientists fear that this variant may be more transmissible or that vaccinations are easier to avoid, health officials have stressed that little is known about the strain.

Although dozens of countries have banned travel from South Africa in recent days, the variant was first found in the area, including countries. Japan, South Korea and Australia they have taken stricter measures to limit travel.

In 2019, about 291 million tourists visited Asia-Pacific, contributing about $ 875 billion to the economy, according to data from the World Economic Forum.

Last month, the International Labor Organization estimated that only five Asian countries lost – the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei and Mongolia. 1.6 million jobs due to the collapse of international travel last year.

Gary Bowerman, director of the Asia-based travel and tourism research firm Check-in Asia Kuala Lumpur, said travel to the Al Jazeera region must face “a huge abyss to climb again”.

“We started to see a boost in November, especially in Southeast Asia, with some countries gradually or preparing to reopen their borders,” Bowerman said. “Omicron has come to a standstill, and this week we have seen governments across the region step back from travel as they put new barriers to entry and exit.”