IATA Data Shows Air Traffic Bouncing Back

The International Air Transport Association has revealed data on air travel recovery momentum. The organisation reported an 11 percentage point increase in international tickets sold in recent weeks compared with 2019 sales.

Tickets sold for the period around the first week of February were at 49 per cent of the same period in 2019. An IATA study focused on travel restrictions in the top 50 air travel markets revealed 18 are open to vaccinated travellers without the need for quarantine or pre-departure testing.

IATA said the figure reflects recent lifting of restrictions in destinations including Australia, France, the Philippines, Switzerland and Sweden.

Willie Walsh, director general, IATA, said: “Momentum toward normalising traffic is growing. Vaccinated travellers have the potential to travel much more extensively with fewer hassles than even a few weeks ago. This is giving growing numbers of travellers the confidence to buy tickets. And that is good news! 

“Now we need to further accelerate the removal of travel restrictions. While recent progress is impressive, the world remains far from 2019 levels of connectivity. Thirteen of the top 50 travel markets still do not provide easy access to all vaccinated travellers. That includes major economies like China, Japan, Russia, Indonesia and Italy.”

IATA has called for the removal of all travel barriers for fully vaccinated travellers as well as the ability for non-vaccinated travellers to travel quarantine-free with a negative pre-departure antigen test.

Source: BTN