The coronavirus outbreak is a global crisis that is testing the resilience not only of the airline industry but of the global economy, Alexandre de Juniac, director general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association, said on Wednesday.
He said airlines are experiencing double-digit declines in demand and on many routes, traffic has "collapsed".
"Aircraft are being parked and employees are being asked to take unpaid leave.
"In this emergency, governments need to consider the maintenance of air transport links in their response," said De Juniac.
In his view, the suspension of certain slot use rules at airports and relief on airport fees where demand has "disappeared" are two important steps that can help ensure that airlines are positioned to provide support during the crisis and eventually in the recovery.
Africa resilient, for now
Despite the impact of the outbreak and spreading of the virus in other markets, as a region, African airlines recorded a 5.3% rise in air transport passenger demand in January, up slightly from 5.1% growth in December, according to the latest data released by Iata.
Global passenger traffic data for January 2020 showed that demand - measured in total revenue passenger kilometres - climbed 2.4% compared to January 2019. This was down from 4.6% year-over-year growth for the prior month and is the lowest monthly increase since April 2010 - the time of the volcanic ash cloud crisis in Europe that led to massive airspace closures and flight cancellations.
"January was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the traffic impacts we are seeing owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, given that major travel restrictions in China did not begin until January 23. Nevertheless, it was still enough to cause our slowest traffic growth in nearly a decade," commented De Juniac.
Air cargo
With the exception of Africa, air cargo markets around the world shrank in 2019, according to the latest data released by Iata.
With an increase in demand of 6.8% compared to the same period a year earlier, African carriers posted the fastest growth of any region for the 11th consecutive month in January 2020, the Iata data shows. Capacity grew 5.9% year-on-year.
Globally, cargo demand, measured in cargo tonne kilometres, decreased by 3.3% in January 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
According to De Juniac, January marked the tenth consecutive month of year-on-year declines in cargo volumes.
He said that, initially, there was optimism at the start of 2020 that an easing of US-China trade tensions would give the air cargo sector a boost during the year.
That has, however, been overtaken by the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak. According to De Juniac, the outbreak has severely disrupted global supply chains, although it did not have a major impact on January's cargo performance. He expects February's performance data will give a better picture of how the visu is impacting global air cargo.
"Tough times are ahead. The course of future events is unclear, but this is a sector that has proven its resilience time and again," he said.
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