Middle East airlines saw passenger demand fall by more than 83 percent in February after flights were effectively banned on the popular UAE-UK air travel route.
According to new figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), demand slumped by 83.1 percent in the Middle East in February compared to February 2019, worsened from an 82.1 percent demand drop in January, versus the same month in 2019.
Some of this lost traffic was caused by the impact of the UK Government’s decision to restrict air travel to and from the UAE which saw the popular Dubai-Heathrow route losing its position as the world’s busiest internationally.
The Dubai-London Heathrow travel corridor was the busiest during the first week of January with a total of 190,365 seats scheduled but fell out of the global top 10 most popular list in February following the UK’s decision.
The Dubai-Heathrow route had earlier benefitted from the UK’s decision to remove the UAE from its quarantine list in December.
IATA said Middle East airline capacity fell 68.6 percent in February, and load factor declined 33.4 percent to 39 percent.
Because comparisons between 2021 and 2020 monthly results are distorted by the extraordinary impact of Covid-19, all comparisons are to February 2019, which followed a normal demand pattern.
Globally, IATA said total demand for air travel in February was down 74.7 percent compared to February 2019. That was worse than the 72.2 percent decline recorded in January.International passenger demand in February was 88.7 percent below February 2019, while domestic demand was down 51 percent.
Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, said: “February showed no indication of a recovery in demand for international air travel. In fact, most indicators went in the wrong direction as travel restrictions tightened in the face of continuing concerns over new coronavirus variants.
“An important exception was the Australian domestic market. A relaxation of restrictions on domestic flying resulted in significantly more travel. This tells us that people have not lost their desire travel. They will fly, provided they can do so without facing quarantine measures,” he added.
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