IATA presses governments to stimulate travel markets

IATA is urging governments to launch programmes that stimulate demand for air travel and help the aviation industry recover from the coronavirus crisis. IATA’s director of global airport infrastructure and fuel Hemat Mistry argued Tuesday that stimulus would enable fast recoveries from the crisis without the distortion to competition that can accompany support to individual airlines. Although airlines have been provided with around $173b in assistance since the onset of the Covid crisis, they are forecast to continue burning through $7b per month in the first half of 2021, making additional support necessary. IATA is keen to stress that this extra assistance should not contribute to airline’s debt, which has ballooned amid the crisis. “With potential to safely reopen borders and revive travel with testing, governments will need to add measures that stimulate demand,” states IATA CE Alexandre de Juniac. “Such targeted initiatives will help generate revenues, avoid adding debt to airlines, and immediately generate economic activity across the value chain.” Asked whether governments are interested in the principle of market stimulation, Mistry responds that “in general they’ve been positive about this initiative”. He adds: “When we try to explain this could lead to an earlier recovery of the industry, this is something that rings a bell.”<br/>