46 million jobs at risk as pandemic causes collapse of air travel

09/30/2020 Business



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The Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), a coalition of aviation industry organizations based in Geneva, said in the report released on Wednesday that more than half of the 88 million jobs supported by aviation could at least be lost. temporarily as a result of the pandemic. Many in the industry expect air travel to not rebound to last year’s level until 2024.
Job losses at airlines, airports and civil aerospace companies could rise to 4.8 million early next year, a 43% reduction in employment from pre-pandemic levels, according to the report, which is based on a Oxford Economics analysis.

Another 26 million jobs could be involved in air travel-related tourism, with an additional 15 million at risk in companies that sell goods and services to the air transport supply chain or to workers in the aviation industry.

Airline jobs could decline by more than a third, or 1.3 million, while aviation-supported economic activity could contract by 52%, translating into a $ 1.8 trillion loss in global GDP.

The pandemic will have “far-reaching implications for the industry for many years to come,” according to the report, which highlights the extent to which the livelihoods of millions of workers depend on global air travel. That It was nearly paralyzed at the height of the coronavirus lockdowns in April and is expected to remain depressed for years to come.

“There have been reductions in passenger traffic caused by shocks in the past, but never a near-total shutdown of the global system,” said the report, which predicts passenger numbers in 2020. it will be less than half last year’s level.

Airlines have asked governments to provide additional financial support and coordinate on rapid coronavirus tests to be performed on passengers before flights. Doing so would make people more comfortable flying, they say, and allow governments to ease restrictions that have forced millions of tourists and business travelers to postpone or cancel their trips.

Job cuts at major airlines and airports have already started, impacting the supply chain for aircraft manufacturers, parts suppliers, caterers and construction companies as less money is spent on purchasing new aircraft. and infrastructure projects are suspended.

From Germany Lufthansa (DLAKF), British Airways, Ryanair (Rayay), Air France-KLM (AFLYY) Y Scandinavian Airlines (SASDF) They have announced that up to 50,000 jobs are at risk among them, although Ryanair told Reuters last month that it has been able to limit layoffs after pilots and cabin crew agreed to pay cuts.
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Aviation companies are likely to prefer working with staff at lower salaries to retain highly skilled employees who are costly to hire and train, according to the report. “However, this can only last for a while, and the impact of Covid-19 has been so severe that there will still be a dramatic reduction in employment within the sector,” he added.

US airlines have already warned Congress that 100,000 jobs will be put at risk when a federal bailout package expires on Thursday. Those cuts could trickle down to companies like Boeing (licensed in letters), Airbus (EADSF), GE Aviation and Rolls Royce (RYCEF), which have already had to downsize their workforce to account for weak demand from airlines.

The decrease in air traffic has also had a huge negative effect on tourism. Before the pandemic, about 58% of all tourists reached their destination by air.

“It is absolutely up to governments to do everything they can to help the industry recover so that we can get those jobs and economic activity back,” Michael Gill, ATAG’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. Gill called for certainty rather than “random quarantine declarations and ever-changing lists of acceptable and unacceptable destinations.”

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