Air travel set to soar to pre-pandemic levels in 2023: UN aviation agency

The UN aviation agency on Wednesday announced that air traffic levels are operating at around two per cent above their high in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic grounded much of the world’s population in lockdown.

In normal times, the world’s airlines would be carrying nearly 2 billion international passengers this year. That’s 5.7 million a day. But with the COVID-19 pandemic gripping the planet, these are not normal times. In its latest analysis of the economic impact of novel coronavirus on global commercial aviation, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) warns of a potential overall reduction of 872 million to just over 1.3 billion international passengers – if signs of recovery emerge in late May.

Global trade is expected to be worth about $28 trillion this year - an increase of 23 per cent on pre-pandemic levels - but the outlook for 2022 remains very uncertain, UN economists said on Tuesday.