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Africa lost almost $55 billion in travel and tourism through pandemic – AU

The African Union (AU) Commissioner for infrastructure and energy says many airlines in Africa will not make it post-COVID-19 due to a huge drop in revenue.

Africa countries have lost almost US$55 billion in travel and tourism revenues in three months due to the coronavirus pandemic, the African Union (AU) Commissioner for infrastructure and energy said on Thursday.

Amani Abou-Zeid told a news conference that due to the prolonged lockdown and border closures to curb the spread of the virus, the air industry will be greatly impacted.

“Some airlines in the continent will not make it post-COVID-19,” she said.

“We have 24 million African families whose livelihood is linked to travel and tourism,” Abou-Zeid said, adding the downturn had come in a year when Africa was expected to see an increase in travel and air transport.

“The blow is very hard, between the economic losses and the job losses,” Abou-Zeid said. African airlines have seen a 95% drop in revenues, or about $8 billion, along with other losses such as the deterioration of assets.

“Some airlines in the continent will not make it post-COVID-19,” she said, adding the blow came at a time when some airlines were in the early stages of development, while others, such as South African Airways, were in difficulties even before the pandemic.

Abou-Zeid said more resistant carriers such as Ethiopian Airlines were using the opportunity to acquire smaller struggling companies, but the outbreak had put a halt to the AU’s plan for a single African air transport market.

Prosper Zo’o Minto’o, regional director for the International Civil Aviation Organisation, told the news conference that African airlines would need an estimated $20 billion to resume operations.

Côte d’Ivoire’s national airline, Air Côte d’Ivoire, which resumed domestic flights on Friday, said it had received 14 billion CFA francs ($24 million) from the government to keep it afloat.

Aviation industry losses top $84 billion in 2020

In June, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said the aviation industry will lose around $84 billion by the end of this year.

All regions have been affected by the virus outbreak and will report record losses, with revenues falling by over 50%.

In a financial outlook report, IATA said, “Financially, 2020 will go down as the worst year in the history of aviation.”

The report highlights that an estimate of 2.2 billion passengers carried this year means airlines will, on average, lose $37.54 per passenger. The average loss per day for the rest of this year will likely come to $230 million, totalling $84.3 billion across the year.

Average loss per day

The average of 2.2 billion passengers this year is roughly equivalent to 2006 levels meaning that COVID-19 has set the industry back by over a decade.

At the lowest point in April, passenger demand was 95% lower than in 2019. IATA predicted that for the whole of 2020, traffic levels for the year will still be just 55% of the previous year.

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