International airline travels may not return to normal for the next three years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a major travel association says.
Staying grounded for three years could mean bad business for an already suffering aviation industry, amid slow reopening of econmies and COVID-19 fears among travelers, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) was quoted to have said by Lonely Planet.
Air travelers are also being turned off by the inconvenience of flying during the pandemic. A recent survey found that 69 percent of travelers would rather stay home than face a 14-day quarantine when they arrive at their destination, the outlet said — something which the IATA is urging governments to reconsider.
“To protect aviation’s ability to be a catalyst for the economic recovery, we must not make that prognosis worse by making travel impracticable with quarantine measures,” Alexandre de Juniac, the association’s director and CEO, told Lonely Planet.
“We need a solution for safe travel that addresses those challenges,” de Juniac said. “It must give passengers the confidence to travel safely and without undue hassle, and it must give governments confidence that they are protected from importing the virus.”
The association said it expects domestic travel will lead the way when the recovery does get going, but global passenger traffic isn’t likely to return to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2023, they said. The group estimates international travel demand will be 24 percent below 2019 levels by next year.
