The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said that Nigerian airlines and others across Africa will lose $700 million in 2022 as part of the effects of the Russian-Ukraine war and COVID-19.
This information was made known during the ongoing 78th IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Doha, Qatar.
According to the IATA, inflation, interest and exchange rates are the components that affect the growth of the aviation industry globally, hinting that countries should learn from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the summit, the IATA’s Director General, Willie Walsh, said, “Governments must have learned their lessons from the COVID-19 crisis. Border closures create economic pain but deliver little in terms of controlling the spread of the virus. With high levels of population immunity, advanced treatment methods, and surveillance procedures, the risks of COVID-19 can be managed. At present, there are no circumstances where the human and economic costs of further COVID-19 border closures could be justified.”
The IATA listed risk factors to the aviation sector, including the war in Ukraine and COVID 19.
Data from the IATA (2021) showed that the Russian international market, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova made up 2.3 per cent of global traffic in 2021, noting that only seven per cent of international passenger traffic would normally transit Russian airspace, which is now closed to many operators.
There are significantly higher costs for re-routing for those carriers affected,” it said.
The group revealed that just under one per cent of global freight traffic originated in or was transited through Russia and Ukraine, but much of the impact comes from the specialized area of heavy-weight cargo where Russia and Ukraine were the market leaders.
“There are significantly higher costs for re-routing for those carriers affected,” it said.
It said at $192 billion, fuel was aviation industry’s largest cost item in 2022 (24 per cent of overall costs, up from 19per cent in 2021). Airlines are expected to consume 321 billion liters of fuel in 2022 compared with the 359 billion liters consumed in 2019.
Source: pulse.ng