Air fares set to rise amid ‘stubbornly high’ fuel prices, Willie Walsh says

Global air travel faces “obvious and evident headwinds” despite a recovery in passenger numbers, with fares likely to increase in 2023, Willie Walsh, DG of the IATA, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications on Wednesday. Walsh said the Irish market was “recovering strongly” from the pandemic, with passenger traffic growing in line with, if not slightly faster than, the rest of Europe. The second half of 2022 has seen strong growth on routes to and from Europe and North America, with Ireland-Britain traffic “gathering momentum”. Passenger numbers in the Irish market are likely to reach pre-pandemic levels “probably in 2023, given the pace of recovery, but certainly by 2024″, he added. The global market is expected to complete its rebound from the Covid-19 crisis in 2024, despite headwinds including economic slowdown and “very high” fuel prices. International airline traffic was at 70% of 2019 levels in September, while domestic markets globally were at 81% of where they were in the same month in 2019, with this figure heavily impacted by restrictions in China. Prices for jet fuel have remained “stubbornly high” even as oil prices have fallen, however. In the first 10 months of 2022, Brent crude averaged $104 a barrel but jet fuel averaged $141 a barrel, Walsh said. The price difference between the two has widened to 36 per cent on average this year, double the traditional spread.<br/>