More than half of airlines are considering workforce reductions in the next twelve months due to a slow recovery in air traffic hampered by uncertainties linked to Covid-19, according to a survey carried out by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
“The majority (55%) of airline executives surveyed expect to have to reduce their workforce over the next 12 months” due to traffic that will remain weak in the short term, IATA said in a press release, according to an Executive Confidence Questionnaire sent to more than 300 airlines around the world.
In their responses to the questionnaire, 45% of managers indicated that they had already reduced their workforce due to the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the air transport sector. More than half, 57% of them, expect their profitability to decline over the next twelve months and believe that ticket prices could fall due to the weak recovery in demand. But 19% are banking on a gradual increase in prices once the balance between supply and demand is found.
IATA, which brings together 290 airlines, expects a return to pre-crisis air traffic in 2024 and estimates a 63% drop in traffic in 2020 compared to 2019 with a shortfall of $419 billion for the sector, due to the coronavirus crisis.
source: air-journal.fr
