Air travel to rise to pre-pandemic levels in 2023: UN aviation agency

“Ensuring the safe, secure and sustainable restoration of air services will the key to restoring aviation’s ability to act as a catalyst for sustainable development locally, nationally and globally and will therefore be vital to countries recovering from the broader impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Salvatore Sacquitano, President of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Advice.

Using advanced big data analytics, ICAO predicts that a surge in demand will be observed by the end of the first quarter. By the end of the year, the agency predicts an increase of about three percent compared to 2019 numbers.

Strong recovery momentum

“The air passenger forecasts that ICAO announces today are build on strong momentum for recovery in 2022as previously assessed by ICAO statistical analysis,” said ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar.

“Through ICAO governments have agreed on goals to achieve zero deaths from accidents by 2030 and zero carbon emissions by 2050, and they will continue to play a key role both in ensuring continued progress and in prioritizing ICAO initiatives to support implementation.”

50 percent growth

ICAO said that a rapid recovery of most international routes is behind the optimistic forecasts. Quantity the number of air passengers carried in 2022 increased by about 47 percent. compared to the previous year. ICAO also noted a roughly 50 percent jump in annual airline passenger revenue growth from 2021 to 2022.