The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said
there are up to 25 million jobs at risk of disappearing as global demand for
air travel plummets amid the Covid-19 crisis.
According to IATA¡¯s analysis, there are 65.5 million people
globally whose jobs are dependent on the aviation industry, including in
sectors such as travel and tourism. Among these are 2.7 million airline jobs.
The association says it believes that in a scenario where
severe travel restrictions remain in place for three months, it could lead to
25 million jobs in aviation and related sectors being lost. This includes 11.2
million roles in Asia Pacific, 5.6 million in Europe, 2.9 million in Latin
America, 2 million in North America, 2 million in Africa and 900,000 in the
Middle East.
IATA said in the same scenario, airlines can expect to see
full-year passenger revenues fall by US$252 billion, or roughly 44 per cent, in
2020 compared to 2019. Demand in the second quarter could fall 70 per cent at
its worst point, with carriers burning through US$61 billion in cash.
In response, IATA and airlines around the world are calling
for more government support in the form of financial aid, loans and tax relief.
Director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac commented: ¡°There
are no words to adequately describe the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the
airline industry. And the economic pain will be shared by 25 million people who
work in jobs dependent upon airlines. Airlines must be viable businesses so
that they can lead the recover when the pandemic is contained. A lifeline to
the airlines now is critical.¡±
Looking ahead, de Juniac said: ¡°We have never shuttered the
industry on this scale before. Consequently, we have no experience in starting it
up. It will be complicated. At the practical level, we will need contingencies
for licenses and certifications that have expired. We will have to adapt operations
and processes to avoid reinfections via imported cases. And we must find a
predictable and efficient approach to managing travel restrictions which need
to be lifted before we can get back to work. These are just some of the major
tasks that are ahead of us. And to be successful, industry and government must
be aligned and working together.¡±
IATA said it is scoping ¡°a comprehensive approach to
rebooting the industry when governments and public health authorities allow¡±.
It is working to organise a series of virtual summits on a regional basis to
bring together governments and industry stakeholders to determine what is
needed to re-open closed borders and to agree solutions that can be
operationalised and scaled efficiently.
De Juniac concluded: ¡°We are not expecting to restart the
same industry that we closed a few weeks ago. Airlines will still connect the
world. And we will do that through a variety of business models. But the
industry processes will need to adapt. We must get on with this work quickly.
We don¡¯t want to repeat the mistakes made after 9/11 when many new processes
were imposed in an uncoordinated way. We ended up with a mess of measures that
we are still sorting out today. The 25 million people whose jobs are at risk by
this crisis will depend on an efficient re-start of the industry.¡±