RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Before the coronavirus, a decades-long aviation boom produced a network of nearly 50,000 air routes that crossed the world. In less than a year, the pandemic swept nearly a third of them off the map.
Border closures, national mobility restrictions and the fear of catching Covid-19 from other passengers impacted commercial travel. As thousands of domestic and international connections completely vanished from airline schedules, the world suddenly stopped shrinking.
The crisis has undone a vast social and industrial reformulation of air travel that occurred over half a century. In coming years, business travel and vacations abroad will probably mean more airport stopovers, longer commuting times and perhaps an additional means of transport. Even when an effective vaccine is found, the economic recovery reality may mean that some direct flights will have disappeared forever.
With borders effectively closed from Europe to New Zealand, most of the world’s cancelled routes are inevitably cross-border. But thousands of domestic stretches have also been disrupted, reflecting the pressure airlines face at home as they lay off and retire aircraft to find a cost base that reflects reduced operations.
By the end of January, 47,756 operating routes were crossing the world, over half of them in the U.S., Western Europe and Northeast Asia, according to OAG Aviation Worldwide. By November 2nd, there were only 33,416 routes in global schedules, according to data.
In Hervey Bay, a small tourist town on Australia’s east coast, residents lament the loss of their last direct air connection to Sydney, the country’s main domestic and international gateway. The flight was one of eight regional routes cancelled by Virgin Australia after the company collapsed in April with a debt of $6.8 billion Australian dollars (US$5 billion).
Before the coronavirus, the industry sustained 65.5 million jobs – more than half of them indirectly through tourism – and had a global economic impact of US$2.7 trillion, according to the 2019 Aviation Benefits Report, a study by industry groups, including the UN International Civil Aviation Organization.
Source: Bloomberg