How flying will change in 2021

It was a fitting place for an industry in need of a miracle. In October, Air Belgium moved two planes to Lourdes, the Catholic sanctuary in France, to park up for the winter. The planes -- both Airbus A340-300s, of which the airline only has four in total -- have been parked at Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees airport for long-term storage. A spokesperson for Air Belgium blamed the "reduced demand and current operational restrictions due to Covid-19" and said the aircraft had been parked temporarily "to defer maintenance." The airline is one of many struggling in the pandemic. Aviation has been particularly hard hit by Covid-19, with legal restrictions on travel joined by an unwillingness to fly by members of the public. Looking at the profit-and-loss reports for Q3, the extent to which airlines have been crippled becomes clear. North American passenger jet arrivals dropped by 48% year-on-year, according to December figures released by aviation analytics company Cirium, while Latin America was barely better, at 46% down. Europe numbers, meanwhile, have been devastated -- over 70% down, year on year. Even in Asia Pacific -- which has controlled the pandemic better than other regions -- arrivals are still over 30% lower now than they were this time last year. Back at the end of October, figures were even more grim -- international flights were down 75% year-on-year, according to Cirium (though domestic flights were better, down 36% globally). As the second wave of the pandemic has spread across the globe, airlines have taken drastic action to cut costs -- from downsizing aircraft to retiring entire fleets and cutting routes. Story has more.<br/>