The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned on Thursday (13.03.2020) that the decision by US President Donald Trump to temporarily ban a large part of Europeans from entering the United States for the next 30 days due to the COVID-19 crisis will severely affect this industry and called for urgent aid to alleviate it.
The US president's decision "will put enormous liquidity pressures on airlines," IATA President Alexandre de Juniac said in a statement.
«Airlines will need urgent measures to alleviate this crisis», Assured.
He noted that airlines are already struggling with the impact of the pandemic, which has so far infected more than 127.000 people worldwide and killed 4.600, according to an AFP count.
On March 5, IATA estimated that the crisis could result in losses of $113.000 billion (around 101.300 billion euros) for the airline industry, but the organization stressed that this estimate did not include measures put in place by the United States and other governments, including Israel, Kuwait and Spain.
The US measures "will add to the financial pressure," said the organisation, which points out that trade volume between the United States and Schengen Europe last year amounted to 20.600 billion dollars.
It is expected that The markets most impacted by the US measures are the German market, with 4.000 billion, followed by the French market with 3.500 billion and the Italian market with 2.900 billion.
"We've seen Flybe go bust," Juniac said, referring to the British regional airline, which closed earlier this month.
"And the latest blow could lead others in the same direction," he warned.
IATA noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) has advised that any restrictions that significantly affect international traffic “should be proportionate to the risk to public health, short-lived and regularly reviewed.”
De Juniac urged the United States and other countries to follow WHO recommendations.
Also He insisted that "governments should consider all possible ways to help the industry in these extreme circumstances."
"Opening credit lines, reducing infrastructure costs, and reducing the burden of taxation are measures that governments should consider," he advised.
"Air transport is vital, but without government help we will have a sector-wide financial crisis that will add to the public health emergency," he warned.
Source: AFP
# U.S. #TravelBan will ground 550 flights, 125,000 pax per day & increase the extreme financial & operational pressures the industry is facing.
One #airline you have gone under, others are being pushed in the same direction. Our industry needs support. # Covid_19 https://t.co/WMfIytRzga pic.twitter.com/Lt2LAdqzxx
- IATA (@IATA) March 12, 2020
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