International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed on Tuesday that airlines are expected to make profits next year for the first time since 2019 when the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the travel industry.
According to IATA, airlines will make $4.7 billion in net profits by 2023 after cutting their losses.
It is still a far cry from the $26.4 billion profit that the industry reported in 2019 before the viral disease caused countries to enact travel restrictions.
Willie Walsh, director general of IATA, stated in a statement that during the COVID-19 crisis, airlines did well to endure the losses.
In 2023, economic recovery will commence with the first industrial profit since 2019. He considered this to be a remarkable accomplishment given the magnitude of the financial and economic harm inflicted by the pandemic prohibitions.
The revenues from airlines are estimated to reach $779 billion next year.
Walsh stated that many airlines are ‘sufficiently profitable’ to attract capital in the industry’s efforts to decarbonize.
Many people, he claims, are still struggling as a result of burdensome regulations, high expenses and contradictory government policies, insufficient infrastructure, and a value network in which the gains for linking the world are not equally distributed.
Due to China’s zero COVID-19 restrictions and slowing economies, passenger traffic in 2022 was slightly lower than expected.
The IATA predicts that passenger traffic will return to 85.5 percent of pre-crisis levels in 2023.
