The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to affect airport revenue this year, according to an analysis published by Airports Council International (ACI) World.
By the end of the year, 4.7 billion fewer passengers, a 47.5 percent decrease, are forecast to travel compared to the projected baseline. This drop is equivalent to a more than $94 billion drop in revenue.
Different regions of the world will recover at different rates, ACI World estimates.
Domestic traffic is not expected to reach pre-COVID-19 levels until 2023. Markets with a significant share of international traffic will not see pre-COVID-19 levels until 2024 or 2025.
Compared to 2019, the Middle East is forecasted to have the worst revenue declines, 58.9 percent, followed by Europe at 58.1 percent. Asia-Pacific is forecasted to have the smallest decrease at 40.3 percent.
“The world is embarking on the biggest vaccination campaign in history, and we see positive indications in countries with high rates of vaccination and ACI World has discerned an escalation of these encouraging signs and prospects for recovery with a surge in travel in the second half of 2021 expected,” Luis Felipe de Oliveira, ACI World director general, said.
ACI World hopes passenger confidence in air travel will return in the spring and significantly increase by mid-year.