New Woes for Airlines as Covid Recovery Nears Completion

Global air traffic has almost recovered from its coronavirus slump. As of the week of April 24, planned airline passenger seat capacity was just 3 percent below that of the same week in 2019 globally. While this doesn't mean that all regions have rebounded equally, the glaring recovery gaps that were visible for Asia and Africa for a long time have evened out as new crisis have appeared for aviation - for example the war in Ukraine.

Numbers from travel data service Official Airline Guide now show a similar, mixed picture for the EMEA, Asian and African regions. For all three continents, some regions have exceeded 2019 levels, the strongest results being seen in the Middle East, North Africa, Central and Western Africa as well as Central and South Asia. Other regions are still lagging behind 2019 results, with Southern Africa, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe the most heavily affected. With Russia and Ukraine at war with each other for the past 14 months, air traffic in the region has suffered as well. As of April 24, Eastern European air passenger numbers were almost 25 percent lower than four years prior.

The high-volume American market, whose seat capacity is almost 30 percent of the global total, has reached 2019 levels and beyond. South and Central America have grown more strongly than North America in this regard, with Central America planned passenger capacity 16 percent above April 2019 levels.