Airports Council International (ACI) released new data that reveals the ongoing devastation the pandemic is having on air travel, reporting global passenger traffic declined by 91.3 percent year-over-year in May and is off 52.5 percent during the first five months of 2020.
ACI also reported that global air freight volumes posted slightly better results than passenger traffic in May with a decline of 17.9 percent compared to May 2019 and a 12.8 percent drop for the first five months of 2020.
“After a devastating month of April for the aviation industry when global air travel came to a virtual halt, data for May revealed a tiny sign of a recovery driven by the domestic markets in China and the United States,” ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said. “In the Asia-Pacific and North American regions, there were signs for optimism with the data showing some early improvement in domestic passenger traffic, but international traffic continued to be practically non-existent in May.”
He again stressed that airports are important engines of growth and the recovery of this sector will be a significant driver of the global economic recovery. but only if passengers, staff and the public have confidence in air travel.
