By Tatenda Sanyahawa

Recent statistics have shown that due to Covid 19 disturbances, air travel worldwide has dropped by an unprecedented 66 percent, France 24 has reported.

The figures were released by International Air Travel Association (IATA) on Wednesday with the Association further warning that immediate prospects of recovery for the industry are likely to be jeopardized by the emergency of new more transmissible corona virus variants which have further tightened travelling restrictions.

The infliction was more experienced on International travel than domestic travels.

“Given that travel restrictions applied mostly to international travel, domestic passenger fared better dropping by 49 percent compared to 76 percent to foreign passenger traffic” said IATA.

The announcement came after another industry organization; International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had released its own figures in January this year.

Quoted in UN News,ICAO said that only 1.8 billion passengers took flights in 2020 compared to 4.5 billion within the same period in 2019 with the total loss financially was estimated to be above 370 billion United States dollars.

 IATA is based in Geneva and according to Techxplore, it represents 290 airlines, roughly 82 percent of global air traffic.