[News] Most Latin American airlines will disappear if they are still detained by COVID-19

[Dr.Drako]

At a global level "there are around US $ 130,000 million that governments have given to the (aeronautical) industry to survive this situation," said Cerdá.
A large number of Latin American airlines will close if they do not resume flights in the coming weeks, in a region where public aid to the sector is minimal, warned a director of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

"If restrictions or border closings continue entering September or October, we have the possibility that a large majority of our airlines will begin to disappear in our region," said Peter Cerdá, IATA Vice President for the Americas.

 

By that time, airlines would take six or seven months of inactivity, due to the closings decreed to try to contain the coronavirus pandemic, which makes it "very difficult" and "complicated" that they can "survive" that time, he added.

Cerdá also pointed out that in Latin America and the Caribbean state aid to refloat the sector "has been practically nil" and therefore "we have the results that we have at the level of airlines closing" or restructuring.

At a global level "there are around US $ 130,000 million that governments have given to the (aeronautical) industry to survive this situation," said Cerdá.

 

Most of that aid, US $ 60,000 million, comes from the United States and "a large percentage of Europe", while only "1%" corresponds to public aid in Latin American countries, he said.

 

However, Cerdá declared that the main aid that IATA requests from governments "is not monetary." The main request is that "central governments give the order to reactivate and restart air transport in our region" using biosecurity protocols, he said.

To date, according to an AFP count, of the more than 17 million infections reported globally, Latin America and the Caribbean accumulates 4.6 million, the highest number of infections worldwide.

 

In addition, it adds more than 192,000 deaths of the more 668,000 registered globally.

According to IATA, in 2020 the global number of passengers is expected to decrease by 55% compared to 2019.

In June, international air traffic contracted 96.8% compared to last year, while in Latin America and the Caribbean passenger demand sank 96.6%.

IATA recently warned that global air traffic will have to wait four years to recover its levels prior to the viral pandemic.