The US Transportation Security Administration expected that air travel volumes in the summer of 2023 will exceed pre-pandemic levels, warning of chaos that may occur at airports because many of the problems that led to it in the past year are still unresolved.
“Demand for travel this summer will be as strong as it was before the pandemic, and potentially the strongest ever,” said Geoff Freeman, President and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. This kind of demand, in a system that suffers from underfunding and understaffing, is likely to create great frustrations among travelers.. according to a report by Forbes.
Freeman expressed concern that a recurrence of air travel chaos in 2023 would hurt tourism spending in general.
He pointed out that when the aviation industry stalled during the Corona (Covid-19) pandemic, it was unable to recover quickly enough to deal with the huge number of people who started traveling again, as tens of thousands of flights were postponed and canceled, travelers were left stranded, and essential parts were lost. Baggage is being counted, and the aging infrastructure has cracked under the enormous pressure.
He added, “While many of these flight disruptions have been attributed to airlines’ supply chain issues and a shortage of pilots, the crash also exposed cracks in aviation infrastructure and staff shortages at airports. After one year, many of these problems still exist ».. as he put it.
Airlines around the world lost tens of billions of dollars in 2020 and 2021 due to the closures of the Corona epidemic, but air travel is witnessing a remarkable recovery that made some airports find it difficult to keep pace with it due to the fact that many followed austerity policies such as cutting jobs and reducing salaries, as about 30% of workers lost. Those in the sector have lost their jobs as a result of the financial and economic damage caused by the restrictions imposed by governments due to the pandemic.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) had revealed the gradual recovery of the travel and aviation sector in the world. The federation expected the return of profits for this sector in the current year 2023, as airlines continue to reduce losses resulting from the effects of the Corona pandemic on their business in 2022.
In 2023, IATA predicted that airlines would post a net profit of $4.7 billion – a net profit margin of 0.6%, the first profit since 2019 when the industry net profit was $26.4 billion (3.1% net profit margin).
