US airliner Boeing has predicted air travel will return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024 - another two and a half years - following the nearly two years the travel sector has already owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
Boeing has published its annual outlook, which attempts to provide insight as to how the entire industry will fare over the next decade or so. Credit: Michael Vi / Shutterstock
The group's CEO has revealed he expects domestic commercial flights to be at the forefront of sector recovery, particularly for Boeing whose rough year due to low demand was exacerbated by the halting of 737 MAX deliveries following two fatal crashes.
Read more: Boeing suspends 737 MAX deliveries due to electrical faults
Darren Hulst said the industry would recover "to 2019 levels of traffic by the end of 2023, early 2024", adding that long-haul international flights will see a stunted recovery due to continued government restrictions.
Boeing's latest annual outlook, which was published on Tuesday (September 14) attempts to predict the long-term outlook for the industry.
Overall, the airliner predicts a $9 trillion market over the next decade, up from the $8.5 trillion predictions made in 2020 and the $8.7 trillion predictions made pre-pandemic in 2019.
Recovery will also be aided by the addition of 19,000 new aircraft, with the airliner's 20-year predictions up until 2040 estimating 43,500 planes will be in service.
Like with many other airliners, Boeing has seen an explosion in demand for its air freight services and projects the global freighter fleet will be 70% larger than the pre-pandemic fleet by 2040.
"While we remain realistic about ongoing challenges, the past year has shown that passenger traffic rebounds swiftly when the flying public and governments have confidence in health and safety during air travel. Our industry continues to serve an essential role of bringing people together and transporting critical supplies," said Stan Deal, the president of Boeing's commercial arm.
Passenger numbers last year marked the worst year for the aviation sector on record, with numbers down 60.1% to 1.8 billion, down from 4.5 billion in 2019, according to the IATA.
Over 5,000 people from across 20 different travel and tourism associations signed an open letter in September 2020 to call on EU President Ursula von der Leyen to reopen travel after demand was gutted during the pandemic.
Read more: Over 5,000 sign open letter for EU president to end quarantine restrictions on air travel
In the UK, British Airways lead the charge in encouraging governments to reopen travel by promoting the idea of mandatory Covid testing.
Vaccine rollout did not dissuade them from these goals, although strong vaccine demand in the UK and the summer holiday boom has allowed for the travel industry to offer some level of recovery.
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