The Covid-19 pandemic hit the aviation sector the most and was nothing short of a watershed year for aviation as it crippled the industry. In addition, China’s strict border measures and Japan’s cautious approach to easing upcoming travel restrictions could displace Asia-Pacific as the world’s largest air passenger market for 2022, a report said. The APAC (Asia-Pacific) region accounted for 37 per cent of the global volume of 9.16 billion in 2019, against 3.38 billion passengers traveling in the region, with air passengers in the region more than halfway to 1.50 billion in 2021. According to the report of the Airports Council International-Asia Pacific (ACI-Asia-Pacific), the share of the region has come down to 33 percent.
Hong Kong-based ACI-Asia-Pacific represents airport operators in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East region, with 131 members operating 618 airports in 49 countries/regions throughout the region. However, the forecast does not include the Middle East.
Asia-Pacific, which dominated the civil aviation market for several years before the pandemic, is projected to be second only to Europe in terms of passenger share and at a comparable level with North America, ACI-Asia Pacific said .
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It said the latest forecast suggests that by the end of 2022, passenger traffic will recover only about 55 per cent from pre-pandemic levels. This is in stark contrast to other regions where the recovery is much higher, and is actually estimated to be between around 70 per cent and 80 per cent.
Although the latest ACI forecast predicts a growth of 22 percent in 2021 to 2022, the share of passenger traffic in Asia-Pacific is expected to come second globally with an estimated traffic of 1.84 billion passengers, compared to 2019. A drop of 45 per cent, it said. ,
Stefano Baronsi, director general of ACI-Asia-Pacific, said, “Traffic in the region will not fully recover to 2019 levels until all countries keep their borders open to facilitate freedom of movement. China and China Japan – one of the biggest contributors to overall traffic in the region – has been slow to lift travel and COVID-19 restrictions.”
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Baronci said ACI-Asia urges Pacific states to take a measured approach to facilitate recovery in a more sustainable manner and without significantly impacting their health systems. “Accelerating the recovery will require a whole lot of industry and government support, especially given an increasingly challenging macroeconomic scenario,” he said.
ACI-Asia-Pacific also said that it has written a letter co-signed by ACI World and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) to the Prime Minister of Japan, calling on the government to remove all restrictions and restore travel privileges. solicited. Smooth recovery of industry in the region.
(with inputs from PTI)