The Great Unknown: How Soon Will You Return to Travelling?

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Although step by step aviation is resuming operations, still there are too many unknown aspects and hypothetical assumptions. The summer season is usually the most busy for airlines, meanwhile winter is the hard season to stay profitable. On the regular basis.

This year we deal with a very slow entrance into the peak season. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), overall bookings are down 82% year-on-year compared to June 2019.

In the second half of the year, even more challenging low season will come. Long-haul forward bookings for the first week in November 2020 are 59% below normal levels.

“People are returning to the skies but the horizon of uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis is extending. Forward bookings are down, and people are hedging their travel bets by booking closer to the time of travel,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

The gloomy forecast is also projected depending on passengers’ survey results which reveal that people feel cautious about their return to travelling.

Only 45% of travelers surveyed intend to return to the skies within a few months of the pandemic subsiding. A further 36% said that they would wait six months.

The same survey conducted in April showed a different picture. Back then 61% said that they would return to travel within a few months of the pandemic subsiding and 21% responded that they would wait about six months.