While other countries are beginning to open up to international travel, in most of Asia there's very little progress in reviving cross-border air traffic flows.
Air travel in Asia may take another three years to fully recover from the crippling effects of Covid-19, as the region lags behind others, causing a decline in profits for jet fuel refiners, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
According to the International Air Transport Association, it won't be until 2024 for international air travel across the Asian region to hit pre-pandemic levels. And for demand for jet fuel, consultancy Energy Aspects says pre-pandemic volumes can normalize two years from now.
"We expect passenger traffic for international sia-Pacific to restart in early 2022 at the earliest," Bloomberg quoted an IATA representative as saying in an email interview.
New waves of more contagious strains of the virus have also made Asian governments more cautious about opening their borders. In many cases, even the gains made in local markets have eroded because of persistent prohibitions.
The slow pace of immunization in many countries, the challenge brought about by the Delta variant, and heightened restrictions have all hampered the recovery even as the United States and Europe press on.
In other words, Asia's airline sector is unlikely to offer significant support to the region's troubled refineries, which process crude from the Middle East and elsewhere into fuels, Bloomberg said.
International and regional aviation linkage is an essential enabler of countries' tourism markets, according to Travel Daily News. Many other vital drivers, it added, affect national economic health and sustainable development.
Meanwhile, North America and Europe are witnessing robust demand during the holidays, with the European Union easing lockdown restrictions, Mayur Patel, regional sales chief at aviation analytics company OAG, said.
"Sadly, the same cannot be said for Asia, where the low level of vaccination rates, sudden and sharp lockdowns, and inconsistent regulations frustrate any real attempt at a recovery," he added.
