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Mark Baker / AP
Air New Zealand aircraft remain idle on the runway at Christchurch, New Zealand airport.
Industry experts believe that international travel may take a few years to get back to full function.
The director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Alexandre de Juniac, told Australia ABC News Breakfast The new forecasts predict that air traffic will not “return to normal” until 2023.
“We have released today a new forecast on the possible recovery of air traffic, and what we see is that things should return to normal in 2023, which is later than our previous forecast.”
He said the delay in returning to normality shows the severity of the crisis and the impact it has had on the industry.
RNZ
The news that people will be able to travel across the country under Alert Level 2 is a huge boost for the tourism industry.
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“We should progressively join historical trends in early 2023.”
De Juniac explained that IATA planned to restart the industry by reopening national markets first, followed by continental regional markets, such as Asia-Pacific, Europe or North America.
By the end of 2020, traffic was expected to be 50% to 55% of the level seen in 2019.
“We would lose something like half the traffic by 2020.”
He feared that some airlines could go bankrupt due to the pandemic. IATA and the industry as a whole depended on the support packages of various governments.
In March, the New Zealand government announced a $ 600 million coronavirus aviation relief package as part of a $ 12.1 billion Covid-19 relief package. The package essentially gave airlines and passengers a “six-month holiday for the charges they normally pay,” Transportation Minister Phil Twyford said at the time. Covered charges for air traffic control, safety regulations, biosecurity, customs and security.
In the United States, IATA predicted that flight demand would not increase until at least 2025. De Juniac said The Washington Post The industry opposed quarantine measures imposed on travelers moving between countries, such as the United Kingdom and Spain.
“International travel cannot be restarted under such conditions,” he said.
Lynne Sladky / AP
Passengers wearing masks and protective gloves arrive at Miami International Airport for a charter flight on South African Airways (SAA) to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
The same restrictions were still in place in New Zealand and were likely to remain for quite some time, according to the Prime Minister’s previous comments.
The trans-Tasmanian bubble proposal, currently being discussed by New Zealand and Australian officials, would allow people to move through the ditch without the need to undergo mandatory 14-day quarantine on both sides.
Starting Thursday, kiwis were allowed to move across the country on Level 2 alert. Queenstown Lake District Mayor Jim Boult and AJ Hackett Bungy, New Zealand co-founder Henry van Asch celebrated the new travel permits by jumping off the Kawarau Bridge.
International travel was still off the table.
