Japan, Australia, India and South Korea are the Asia-Pacific countries that will see the worst revenue impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, running into tens of billions of dollars, IATA has predicated.
In providing a country-by-country breakdown, IATA reiterates its 9 June forecast that Asia-Pacific, as the first region to feel the impact of Covid-19, will suffer the largest loss this year: $29 billion, or $30.09 per passenger.
The same forecast estimates that Europe will take a $21.5 billion hit and North America, $23.1 billion, against a global loss of $84.3 billion.
In a 13 July statement, IATA’s regional vice-president for Asia-Pacific, Conrad Clifford, emphasises the need for governments in the Asia-Pacific region to facilitate the restart of air connectivity in line with ICAO’s guidance on measures to mitigate the public health risk.
He states: “It will take a few years for the industry to get back to 2019 levels of activity. In the interim, governments will need to continue providing financial relief and assistance to airlines as well as flexibility in slot usage.
“We are also working with airports and air navigation service providers to identify areas of co-operation with a view to reducing costs for airlines.”
IATA forecasts that Japan’s revenue will decline by $23.9 billion year on year in 2020 and Australia’s by $14.8 billion. Over the same period, IATA expects the revenue impacts on India and South Korea to be $11.6 billion and $11.1 billion respectively.
The industry body predicts that most Asia-Pacific countries to lose around half of passenger demand in 2020 compared with 2019, though the revenue impact varies across countries.
Cirium schedules data indicate that Australia, India and Japan are among the 10 largest domestic markets across Asia-Pacific countries.
Nearly 40% of the seat capacity cut in Japan during the first half of the year was from its domestic network. This figure stood at 74% for Australia, 69% for India, and 13% for South Korea.
