COVID-19 Inflicts Huge Losses On US Airlines
- Industry records 96% drop in passengers
The United States Aviation industry is already counting its huge financial losses occasioned by the rampaging coronavirus pandemic globally.
According to the country’s Transportation Department, US airlines carried only three million passengers in April, which represents a staggering 96 per cent decline from April 2019 amid the pandemic and flight restrictions.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the department said US airlines flew about 2.8 million domestic passengers and 132,000 international passengers during the period under review.
It therefore noted that international passengers’ figure fell by 99 per cent over April 2019 as the US government imposed flight restrictions on many international visitors and routes.
The department explained that total US airline passengers were the lowest since 1974 when the government began collecting monthly data.
By comparison, there were 76.1 million total U.S. airline passengers in April 2019. The previous low recorded was 14.6 million passengers in February 1975.
Passengers’ traffic has recently risen from April lows and fell only 85 per cent in the week ending June 7, while total flights are down 72 per cent within the same period.
However, Airlines for America, an industry trade group, said demand for future air travel remains down at 82 per cent while revenue for future flights is down by 92 per cent.
