Cumulative losses of American carriers exceeded $ 35 billion last year
For all of 2020, US airlines served 60% fewer passengers than in 2019, according to figures released by the US Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
The approximately 368 million passengers using commercial air transport in the United States in 2020 is about 40% of the 923 million passengers. a year earlier. This is the lowest level of passenger traffic recorded since the start of statistics in 1990.
Internal flow decreased by 59%, while the drop in the international segment was 70%. Of the total number of passengers, about 334 million traveled within the country, 34 million on international flights.
In the last month of 2020, traffic dropped by 62% - slightly more than in November (61%). Thus, there was no improvement over the summer months. However, compared to April, when the industry practically stood still, having lost 96% of passenger traffic, some recovery was outlined by the end of the year.
The combined financial losses of American airlines exceeded $ 35 billion in 2020, the Airlines for America (A4A) association calculated. In 2019, the seventh profitable year in a row, scheduled passenger services generated $ 15 billion in revenue for airlines.
According to a recent A4A forecast, US passenger traffic will return to 2019 levels no earlier than 2023–2024, provided vaccinations remove major travel restrictions and other business quarantine measures this year and next. If the pessimistic forecast is realized, in 2024 the passenger traffic will still be 15% lower than the 2019 level. This could happen if vaccines are not effective enough against virus mutations and quarantines continue to have a devastating effect on the aviation industry and the economy as a whole.
Recall that in Russia (as well as in the United States, which has a noticeable domestic market) in 2020, the total drop in passenger traffic of airlines amounted to 46% (69.24 million passengers were served) compared to the dock in 2019. Domestic traffic decreased by 23.1 % (56.16 million passengers were transported), international - by 76.2% (13.09 million passengers).