Airline groups around the world have made a combined net loss of nearly $220 billion since the start of the pandemic, research shows.
Analysis of financial results by aviation specialist Cirium showed that revenues for the world’s airline groups more than halved in 2020. Despite some recovery, they were more than 40% down on pre-pandemic levels at the end of 2021.
Jeremy Bowen, Cirium chief executive, said the net deficit is decreasing year-on-year.
“In 2020, the revenue decline translated into net losses of $160 billion, another $42 billion last year and losses for the first half of this year total around $15 billion,” he said.
“If losses so far this year aren’t substantially added to, that would leave the airline industry with the overall net loss of nearly $220 billion since the start of 2020.
“However, if we assume that there are no further shocks to the industry, there is the possibility that the industry may break even in the second half of the year, led by US and European airline groups.”
The report shows how demand has been recovering, with global revenues up by 70% for the first six months of 2022, bringing the total to within 20% of 2019 levels.
Cirium’s World Airline Group Finance Rankings for the first half of 2022 shows strongest progress from the North American carriers as they saw a 5% increase over pre-pandemic levels and returned to a “modest” operating profit.
Major European airline groups, such as Lufthansa, also showed strong recovery in first-half revenues, following the lifting of travel restrictions in early 2022.
Traffic within Western Europe has been at about 95% of pre-pandemic levels since the middle of the year, boosting revenues and returning the largest groups to profitability in the September quarter.
By contrast, the Asia-Pacific region has struggled, largely because of China’s continued Covid-19 lockdowns.
Chinese airlines posted a 35% decline in revenue and a net loss of nearly $10 billion in the first half of 2022, higher than either of the previous two years.