The global pandemic has a devastating impact on the aviation industry as 64 airlines folded up their business since 2020.
It’s all started with British regional airline Flybe when it went bust on January 28, just three days later, another airline went bankrupt. Flyr — a Norwegian airline — had launched only last year.
As travel restrictions came into force during the Covid-19 pandemic, airports emptied in 2020.
After three years in which the tourism industry was on its knees, 2023 has been hailed as the year things finally get back to normal.
However, the airline bankruptcies have reappeared just as you were about to board a flight again.
At the same time, prices are up. Economy fares have increased by an average of 36% for 2023, according to data from Flight Centre, a UK-based booking agency.
If you’re on a tight budget, it’s now hard to fly to some places. They say prices to New Zealand have jumped by 81% year over year, while business and economy flights from the UK to South Africa have increased by 42% and 70%, respectively. There is context for both locations, of course. New Zealand was shut down in February 2022, and the Omicron variation was centered on South Africa.
Overall, bookings are still down — by 22% globally for the first quarter of 2023, compared to 2019, according to ForwardKeys, who analyze data from the International Air Transport Association ticketing database — in other words, the world’s legacy carriers.
The Caribbean is suffering the least — just 3% down on 2019 bookings — while Asia Pacific is still lagging at 46% down.
In between are the Middle East (down 5%), Americas (9%), Europe (15%) and Africa (18%).
According to the aviation website and podcast AllPlane.tv, which has been keeping track as they go, no fewer than 64 airlines have stopped operating since 2020.
Several have returned after declaring bankruptcy or undergone name changes, but the vast majority have completely vanished.
And while the average traveler might not recognize names such as Jet Time, NokScoot or Fly My Sky, some big names went under in the pandemic, too — for starters, Alitalia, Italy’s former national airline. (The country now has a successor: ITA Airways.) Air Namibia — another national flag-carrier — also went under in 2021.
