Airports body predicts travel surge but warns of $94bn revenue loss in 2021

Airports industry body ACI World expects a “surge” in travel demand during the second half of 2021, but forecasts that global passenger numbers will still be down some 47.5% on pre-Covid predictions for the full year. An expected 4.7b drop in traveller numbers in 2021 compared with pre-Covid estimates – to 5.2b – would lead to a loss in airport revenues of more than $94b by the end of 2021, ACI World said as it released a new Covid-19 impact assessment on 25 March. That revenue outlook “cuts in half” pre-coronavirus expectations that airport income would reach $188b in 2021. Amid that bleak picture, however, the airports body expresses optimism that there will be an “upsurge in confidence in air travel provided by vaccination and safety measures”, which should lead to a recovery in international travel starting “this spring” and increasing “significantly” by mid-year. “Hopefully the darkest days are now behind us in terms of overall passenger declines,” says Patrick Lucas, ACI World’s director of economics during a briefing as the impact assessment was released. Indeed, ACI World director general Luis Felipe de Oliveira cites “positive indications in countries with high rates of vaccination”, adding that the industry body “has discerned an escalation of these encouraging signs and prospects for recovery with a surge in travel in the second half of 2021 expected”.<br/>