International air travel was hit hard across different destinations worldwide, and would scarcely get back to pre-pandemic levels earlier than 2024, according to IATA’s revised forecast. With the majority of international markets still closed, the domestic market seems to be the only sector to have seen any improvement.

The domestic flying was expecting a more rapid recovery, regaining the pre-crisis levels by 2022 rather than 2024, observes David Goodger, Managing Director Europe and Middle East of Oxford Economics, speaking at AIR Convention Digital Week on June 15th-19th, 2020.

Amid the lingering economic uncertainty, domestic air travel was becoming a larger source of demand as a substitute for international travel, creating a clear opportunity to mitigate some of the losses for certain countries, said David Goodger. 

For a detailed outlook and more insights from David Goodger, see the full presentation: