Are we there yet? Why air travel isn’t back to normal
With borders reopening, travellers are taking to the skies with a vengeance. The sharp rebound in global travel has caught some airports off guard, while the combination of strong demand, limited capacity and elevated oil prices has led to a jump in airfares
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Nisha Ramchandani
AFTER 2 years of being land-locked and exhausting Netflix’s entire catalogue, travel-starved Singaporeans have been hopping on planes in droves. A similar phenomenon is playing out across the globe as more and more countries relax border curbs. Revenge travel, it seems, is alive and kicking.
It’s a far cry from the scenes set during the height of the pandemic, when international airports fell eerily quiet, airlines struggled to stay afloat and grounded aircraft grew dusty.
According to the International Air Transport Association (Iata) – which represents 290 airlines comprising 83 per cent of air traffic worldwide – global air traffic (measured in revenue passenger kilometres) currently hovers at about 70 per cent of pre-Covid levels. In June, air traffic surged around 76 per cent year on year as travellers took to the skies with a vengeance. Meanwhile, the reopening of borders in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to give a recovery a further shot in the arm.
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