2020 is Financially the Worst Year in the History of Aviation

Alexandre de Juniac, the Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Tuesday that “on average, every day of this year will add USD 230 million in industry losses.”

This statement was released along with the IATA’s financial outlook, which projects the global air transport industry will lose USD 84.3 billion in 2020 for a net profit of -20.1%.

Alexandre added, “financially, 2020 will go down as the worst year in the history of aviation.”

Revenue is expected to fall by 50% to USD 419 billion, from USD 838 billion. The IATA projects that in 2021, losses are expected to decrease to USD 15.8 billion as revenues are expected to rise to USD 596 billion.

The figures are based on an estimate of 2.2 billion passengers this year and on average airlines will lose USD 37.54 per passenger. De Juniac stated about 10% of the world’s GDP comes from tourism, which is heavily reliant on air travel.