IATA Reports Some Positive Signs of Demand Recovery

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After a period of news about deteriorating demand for air travel, a flash of some positive statistics has been reported by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

After hitting bottom in April (the biggest decline in the history of IATA’s traffic series, which dates back to 1990), daily flight totals rose 30% between the low point on 21 April and 27 May.

Although compared present passenger demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) to the same period last year, we will see a 94.3% decrease, in the current context, the recent figures are rather the reason for the approaching recovery.

“While this uptick is not significant to the global dimension of the air transport industry, it does suggest that the industry has seen the bottom of the crisis, provided there is no recurrence,” IATA said in a statement.

Mainly, flights are gradually resumed in domestic markets. Countries are step by step lifting travel restrictions, correspondingly, slowing re-establishing air connectivity.

IATA calculated that by the first week of April, governments in 75% of the markets tracked by IATA completely banned entry, while an additional 19% had limited travel restrictions or compulsory quarantine requirements for international arrivals.