OTTAWA, Canada – The coronavirus pandemic could mean 1.2 billion fewer airline passengers worldwide by September, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said on Wednesday, April 22.
The “most substantial reduction in passenger numbers,” the United Nations agency said in a statement, “is expected to be in Europe, especially during its peak summer travel season, followed by the Asia-Pacific.”
Airline capacity could also be significantly slashed, it said, resulting in a drop in airline revenues in the first 9 months of the year by as much as $160 billion to $253 billion.
The projections are more dire than the ICAO’s initial estimates in February when the outbreak seemed to be mostly localized in China, where almost all of the first 1,400 COVID-19 deaths were recorded.
The ICAO said then that the airline industry was facing a $4-billion to $5-billion drop in revenue. – Rappler.com
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