Announcing a moderate rebound in air travel in September 2021 (compared with August’s performance), Iata said this mildly upward trend had been driven by recovery in domestic markets, while international demand, meanwhile, slipped slightly compared with August.
Total demand for air travel in September 2021 (measured in revenue passenger kilometres, or RPKs) was down 53,4% compared with September 2019. This marked an uptick from August, when demand was 56,0% below August 2019 levels.
International passenger demand in September 2021 was still 69,2% below September 2019.
Willie Walsh, Iata DG, said recovery in international traffic remained stalled amid continuing border closures and quarantine mandates. “The recent US policy change to reopen travel from 33 markets for fully vaccinated foreigners from November 8 is a welcome, if long-overdue, development. Along with recent reopenings in other key markets such as Australia, Argentina, Thailand, and Singapore, this should give a boost to the large-scale restoration of the freedom to travel,” said Walsh.
“Each reopening announcement seems to come with similar but different rules. We cannot let the recovery get bogged down in complication,” he said.
Walsh noted that the G20 had declared a commitment to take action to support a recovery with seamless travel, sustainability, and digitalisation.
“Now governments must put actions behind these words to realise simple and effective measures. People, jobs, businesses and economies are counting on real progress.”
Iata’s vision for safely re-establishing global connectivity is based on five key principles:
• Vaccines should be available to all as quickly as possible
• Vaccinated travellers should not face any barriers to travel
• Testing should enable those without access to vaccines to travel without quarantine
• Antigen tests are the key to cost-effective and convenient testing regimes, and
• Governments should pay for testing so that it does not become an economic barrier to travel.
