Airline ticket bookings have
"dropped sharply"
in recent weeks due to new restrictions imposed to counter the Omicron variant, airlines confirmed on Wednesday, lamenting that states have
"overreacted".
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“Unfortunately, governments overreacted to the emergence of the Omicron variant at the end of the month”
of November 2021, said International Air Transport Association (Iata) CEO Willie Walsh, quoted in a press release from his company. organization bringing together more than 290 companies.
Measures deemed "ineffective"
With the procession of measures
"whose ineffectiveness has already been proven"
to slow the contagion, such as border closures, increased testing and quarantine measures,
"it is not surprising that ticket sales of international flights made in December and early January fell sharply compared to 2019, which augurs a first quarter (2022) more difficult than expected, ”
said Mr. Walsh.
Prior to Omicron's emergence, Iata, whose members represent 83% of global air traffic, hoped to see the industry continue to climb back up this year, after suffering an unprecedented shock since March 2020.
Fewer losses expected in 2022
According to the latest estimates, dating back to the general meeting of Iata in early October, companies must suffer a cumulative loss of $ 11.6 billion this year, against 51.8 billion expected in 2021 and 137.7 billion in 2020.
The Iata scenario for 2022 foresees very contrasting situations depending on the major geographic areas, with American airlines finding the path to profitability this year ($ 9.9 billion in cumulative profits).
For their part, European companies, more exposed to long-haul networks and therefore to border closures, must remain clearly in deficit in 2022 with an expected loss of 9.2 billion dollars, however halved compared to 2021 (20 , 9 billion), according to Iata.
Slight improvement before Omicron
Before the outbreak of Omicron, which therefore seems to have delayed the recovery of the sector, activity had improved slightly in November over one month, with a drop in attendance of 47% compared to the same month of 2019, before the health crisis.
In October, it was 48.9%.
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Here too, the situation was contrasted between intercontinental links (-60.5% over two years) and domestic (-24.9%), even if the latter suffered from restrictions imposed in China before Omicron, according to the Iata .
