The recovery of air traffic continues

Passenger air traffic continues to recover. From the last balance of the Iata (International Air Transport Association) it emerges that in November total traffic, measured in passenger-kilometres, increased by 41.3% compared to November 2021. Globally, traffic is now at 75.3% from November 2019 levels. This is not a recent recovery, nor is a return to pre-pandemic levels to be expected, at least in the short to medium term. In fact, the experience of recent years has had structural consequences and, if on the one hand the desire to travel to get to know new places and people has not diminished, on the other hand the companies have largely revised their policies. Thanks to the diffusion of videoconferencing systems, which limit the risks in terms of security and significantly reduce costs.

Long journeys are good

The greatest progress in the annual comparison concerns international trafficwhich jumped 85.2% compared to November 2021. Geographically, Asia-Pacific was the best performer year-over-year, but all macro-regions that showed improvements compared to the previous year.

As for the internal traffic, on the other hand, progress was limited to 3.4%, a performance which was mainly affected by the closures in China. In addition to the fact that on this front there had already been a good recovery in the past months, so much so that the November figure was 77.7% of the November 2019 level.

“The traffic results for November indicate that consumers – with a few exceptions – have resumed traveling with a certain frequency”, underlines a note from the association. Who then criticizes the restrictions on some international travel, such as those decided by certain European countries on those arriving from China. A measure, explains Iata, which goes against scientific evidence, according to which it is not a truly effective measure to curb infections.