The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released the IATA World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) publication with performance figures for 2020 demonstrating the devastating effects on global air transport during that year of the COVID-19 crisis.

In a statement, IATA said "airline industry statistics confirm 2020 was the worst year on record" as airlines carried 1.8 billion passengers on scheduled services, a decrease of 60.2% over 2019. On average, there was a US$71.7 loss incurred per passenger in 2020, corresponding to net losses of US$126.4 billion in total.

IATA noted that the Middle East region suffered the largest proportion of loss for passenger traffic, with a drop of 71.5% in revenue passenger-kilometers (RPKs) versus 2019, followed by Europe (drop 69.7%) and the Africa region (drop 68.5%).

"2020 was a year that we'd all like to forget. But analyzing the performance statistics for the year reveals an amazing story of perseverance. At the depth of the crisis in April 2020, 66% of the world's commercial air transport fleet was grounded as governments closed borders or imposed strict quarantines," said Willie Walsh, IATA's Director General, noting that the industry lost for the year totaled US$126 billion. 

Air freight "bright spot" of industry

"Air freight was the bright spot in air transport for 2020, as the market adapted to keep goods moving including vaccines, personal protective equipment (PPE) and vital medical supplies despite the massive drop in capacity from the bellies of passenger aircraft," IATA said.

It noted that the industry-wide available cargo tonne-kilometers (ACTKs) fell 21.4% year-on-year in 2020 leading to a capacity crunch, with the industry-wide cargo load factor up 7.0 percentage points to 53.8%.

IATA said this is the highest value in the IATA series started in 1990.

"At the end of the year, industry-wide cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs) had returned close to pre-crisis values. However, the yearly decline in cargo demand (CTKs) was still the largest since the Global Financial Crisis in 2009, at a sizeable 9.7% year-on-year in 2020," it added.

IATA said the top five airlines ranked by scheduled cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs) flown were Federal Express (19.7 billion), United Parcel Service (14.4 billion), Qatar Airways (13.7 billion), Emirates (9.6 billion) and Cathay Pacific (8.1 billion).