According to the Hill newspaper on February 16 local time, due to the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, U.S. air passenger traffic fell by 60.1% in 2020, the lowest record since 1984.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there were 368 million passengers traveling by plane in 2020, compared with 351.6 million in 1984.
According to the report, due to travel restrictions between countries, international travel demand fell by 70.4% in 2020 compared with the previous year.
In 2020, the total domestic air travel volume in the United States fell by 58.7%, and by the beginning of February, the demand for air travel in the United States fell by 60%.
With the second round of federal payroll aid approaching, and the airline industry’s business is bleak during the epidemic, American Airlines and United Airlines have jointly said that it will issue leave notices for 27,000 employees at that time.
The nine largest U.S. airlines lost $46 billion before tax in 2020, and passenger numbers are unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2023 or 2024, according to the American Air Transport Association, an industry trade group.
