Paris
Global airlines cut their coronavirus recovery forecast on Tuesday, saying it would take until 2024 — a year longer than previously expected — for passenger traffic to return to pre-crisis levels. In an update on the pandemic’s crippling impact on air travel, the International Air Transport Association cited slow virus containment in the United States and developing countries, and a weaker outlook for corporate travel. Lingering travel barriers and new restrictions in some markets are also weighing on nearer-term prospects, IATA said, cutting its 2020 passenger numbers forecast to a 55 percent decline — sharper than the 46 percent drop predicted in April. “The second half of this year will see a slower recovery than we’d hoped,” IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce said. June passenger numbers were down 86.5 percent year-on-year, the organization said, after a 91 percent contraction in May.
