Rebuilding air traveller confidence – not so much about price

The news from airlines over the last couple of weeks has shown a general intent to quickly rebuild network connectivity. After a couple of months of watching and waiting for the Coronavirus pandemic to pass will be met by increasing roars from turbofan engines as grounded aircraft start to take flight.

But there still remains the big question about demand. How much fear remains among consumers infection and what will it take to get them back travelling? Also, with a promised global recession and the likely persistence of widespread unemployment, even those willing to fly will be constrained by finances.

It is now a given that those initial suggestions that it could be months until a recovery were significantly short-sighted. It will be years. 2023 is a popular projection, but even 2025 and beyond are now increasingly being suggested in worst case scenarios being offered.

What is unanimous is that travel demand will take years to recover from the combined impact of the economic recession and coronavirus pandemic. Many business travellers (and even leisure travellers) may never return to the skies. Also, what scale of demand will be lost to technology adoption and changing travel behaviours? The answer remains the same as it did a month ago: that nobody really can know.