Based on the latest flight data from Flightradar24, here are some end of week aviation recovery highlights courtesy of ICF.
The Chinese domestic flights continue to recover gradually (now at -20% vs last year, compared to -40% a month ago). However, signs of nascent recovery in Chinese international flights has stalled at around -70% compared to the same period last year.
Domestic European flights have also started to recover in the past month, now at -60% compared to -80% a month ago. International flights are still a rarity in Europe.
In mid-March the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia launched the first ‘travel bubble’, opening up borders with one another. Since then, intra-Baltic flights have recovered strongly, and are now only 20% lower than a year previous.
Domestic flights in the USA are continuing their gradual recovering, in part due to the CARES Act, which obliges airlines to continue operating a reduced schedule. However, the TSA are reporting increasing passenger volumes too, now standing at around 15% of prior year compared to 6-8% of prior year volumes a month ago.
Following a strict lockdown, flights in India have begun to restart, despite rising numbers of coronavirus cases.
Finally, to finish on some good news: New Zealand – now all but clear of coronavirus – is showing strong signs of a recovery, with domestic flights now less than 40% behind last year’s volumes.
Visit icf.com/insights/covid-19 for more COVID-19 based analysis from ICF.