THE PANDEMIC, with its lockdowns and travel bans, clobbered the world’s airlines. Revenues per passenger-kilometre, the industry’s common measure of performance, plummeted by 66% in 2020, compared with 2019. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), an industry body, expects them to remain 57% below pre-pandemic levels this year. Although the world’s listed airlines have collectively just about recovered from the $200bn covid-induced stockmarket rout (see chart 1), forecasters reckon that air travel will return to levels from 2019 only by 2024. The companies’ total annual losses may hit $48bn in 2021, on top of $126bn in 2020. Many have been torching cash as fast as their aeroplanes burn jet
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