WASHINGTON: International seat capacity has dropped by almost 80 per cent from a year ago and half the world's airplanes are in storage, new data shows, suggesting the aviation industry may take years to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
ForwardKeys said the number of international airline seats had fallen to 10 million in the week of Mar 30 to Apr 5, down from 44.2 million a year ago.Data firm OAG said that several years of industry growth had been lost and that it could take until 2022 or 2023 before the volume of fliers returns to the levels that had been expected for 2020.
Planemakers are looking at drastic cuts in wide-body production amid a slump in demand for the industry's largest jetliners, manufacturing and supplier sources said. Polish national airline LOT is working on a rescue plan and will likely need state aid as air traffic has been suspended because of COVID-19, Jacek Sasin, the country's minister of state assets said on Friday .US domestic demand will remain weak into May, Vasu Raja, senior vice president of network strategy at American Airlines Group Inc, told Reuters, citing a lack of bookings.
Ryanair said it expected to take a 300 million euro charge in the financial year starting Apr 1 on its fuel hedges now that the oil price had fallen.