Global aviation to suffer $29.3B revenue loss in 2020 due to coronavirus

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecast $29.3 billion revenue loss for global aviation sector in 2020 due to the new coronavirus outbreak.

The global aviation revenue loss represents a 4.7% hit to global demand, the IATA said in a statement.

IATA CEO Alexandre de Juniac stressed the reduction in global air traffic of 4.7%, the first overall decline in demand since the global financial crisis of 2008-09.

Lower fuel costs will help offset some of the lost revenue, Juniac noted.

The carriers in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to see $27.8 billion revenue loss.

Of this figure, China’s domestic market is predicted to see $12.8 billion.

Passenger demand in the region is projected to drop 13% this year compared to 2019.

“Considering that growth for the region’s airlines was forecast to be 4.8%, the net impact will be an 8.2% full-year contraction compared to 2019 demand levels,” it said.

Assuming the loss of demand is limited to markets linked to China, carriers outside Asia-Pacific are forecast to bear a revenue loss of $1.5 billion.

These estimates are based on a scenario where coronavirus has a similar V-shaped impact on demand as was experienced during an epidemic of SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, which terrified the globe in 2003 and infected more than 8000 people, killing more than 750.

On the other hand Ninety-seven more people died in China due to coronavirus, taking the death toll to 2,442, officials said on Sunday, as a team of WHO experts visited the worst-affected Wuhan city in Hubei province.

By the end of Saturday, a total of 2,442 people had died of the disease and 76,936 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection had been reported in 31 provincial-level regions, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said in its daily update on Sunday.

Ninety-six deaths were reported from Hubei province and one from Guangdong province on Saturday besides 648 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, it said.

Hubei province, where the virus first emerged in December last, reported 630 new confirmed cases, taking the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 64,084, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.