“Vaccines will have a negligible effect this year on the volume of passenger traffic”

Will the vaccines lead to the final fight against the corona virus? freepik

Eurocontrol (Eurocontrol), The European Air Safety Organization whose job it is to create a uniform system of air control for and from Europe, indicates that vaccines may ‘make a negligible difference’ in air traffic in 2021. Europe’s air traffic will not return to pre-Corona levels until 2026.

The organization anticipates that air traffic will return to 92% from 2019 levels by 2024, but may recover only slightly more than half (51%) from 2019. Last year traffic reached 44% from 2019 levels and traffic in 2021 may be marginally better than if There has been no progress in vaccines.

The most optimistic of the three Eurocontrol scenarios envisages a recovery to traffic levels in 2019 to 2024 and the most pessimistic recovery only in 2029. The more optimistic scenario assumes that vaccines will be “widely available” this summer and the number of flights this year will reach 73% from 2019. But Eurocontrol described This is “less realistic.”

The less optimistic forecast assumes that vaccinations will not be completed in all sectors of the population and countries in the near future. As is well known, the State of Israel, followed by the United Arab Emirates, is a leader in vaccinating the population, while Europe is progressing slowly due to the EU countries’ commitment to a uniform line that hampers the rapid progress and recent state of the disease.

Eurocontrols further emphasize that there will need to be significant industry-wide support by governments to help operate flights and wider operations, especially at airports. In addition, according to the organization, a clearer line should be taken on the issue of slots at airports in order to plan the activities of airlines.

Eurocontrol reported that European air traffic in 2020 ended at 55% compared to 2019, when half of European aircraft (51%) were still grounded at the end of December 2020. Since the lowest point of activity, in April 2020, the recovery in passenger numbers has been significantly weaker than that of The flights.

Israel signed a full cooperation agreement with Eurocontrol 5 years ago, which led to a significant reduction in flight delays from Israel to and from the European continent.

An abbreviated address for this article: https://www.ias.co.il?p=113301