I think this is a little obvious knowing that for the last 18 months virtually every country has experienced some sort of enforced lockdown with no travel. Airlines have had to go into hibernation with the only lifeline open to them being cargo which doesn't make up for the missing passengers which was their bread and butter. Economically it has been catastrophic for the travel industry in general with things we all took for granted disappearing before our eyes.
I think the next photographs illustrate how the industry has changed with 3 charts showing the same time on different years from 2019,2020 and 2021. Many of the flights in 2020 were cargo operated flights with no passengers. The numbers seem to have picked up but nowhere near what they used to be.
Ever since I bought AVA tokens I have taken more interest in international travel hoping at some point it opens up. On a personal note I am in no rush as I would like to accumulate more so having the price held down for now kind of helps.
I think the telling story is how many airlines are no longer around and have vanished forever. This type of thing intrigues me as we only tend to think of the big names when it comes to air travel but this has affected everyone and especially the big airlines.
Cathay Pacific owned Cathay Dragon offering services from Hong Kong to mainland China. Shutting this airline down saved them paying out over 6000 salaries each month. Air Asia Japan and German Wings (Lufthansa) suffered the same fate helping save the main airline.
Last year during 2020 there were 34 airlines that filed for bankruptcy with many of them being low cost carriers linked to major airlines. This is kind of expected as when restructuring takes place saving the main business is what counts. This is survival mode at it's finest as without the main business or brand the airline company would have nothing. I may be wrong but the idea of these low cost airlines springing up again may be a horror story never to be repeated. Many of these low budget/cost airlines were supplying a service domestically using old aeroplanes and actually need the latest most economical planes available to make these routes profitable.
A stupid bit of information I picked up years ago was a Boeing 747 gathered 1 ton of dust every year that it was flying. This is why refits and overhauls are so important as that is extra weight airlines can ill afford to carry around as this burns more fuel.
A telling sign is Teruel Airport in Spain which is nothing more than a parking lot for airlines broke new ground last month. The airport owned by Airbus is creating space for another 200 aircraft. What is there already is considered "long term" storage. Hangars are now being erected for Lufthansa's fleet of A380's. Teruel is now looking like a brilliant spin off business for Airbus.
2021 has seen 14 more added to the list of airlines going bust and expect more will be added before December 31st. In many ways I am surprised so many have still survived but that must be down to National carriers receiving bailouts from their respective Governments. How demoralizing would it be if your country can't even afford to run a flagship airline? South Africa resurrected theirs and is still not fully operational offering a limited service only.
I think in the future we wont have a choice of 4 or 5 airlines for certain routes and the choice will be limited to either or and that will be it. Currently the services being offered are still better than what they were last year and there is at least some hope things open up sooner than later.