Business As Usual?

After the dramatic downturn in air travel during the pandemic, what shape is the aviation industry in today? Artemis Aerospace looks at whether business is flying high again.

As COVID-19 spread worldwide in 2020, international air travel came to an almost complete standstill, and the aviation industry described it as 'the worst year in history for air travel demand'. The following year and 2021 wasn't any better, as lockdowns worldwide, often with different restrictions in different countries, made any kind of travel wellnigh impossible.

At the beginning of 2022, as constraints in the UK began to ease, Artemis's article aviation in the post-pandemic era speculated on how the industry would begin to pick itself up and become competitive again. As memories of life under lockdown begin to fade, we review how aviation is recovering.

IATA has predicted that by the end of 2023, most regions will either be at, or exceeding, demand levels prior to the pandemic, and that the aviation industry will return to profitability. As an example, Boeing delivered a total of 480 commercial aircraft throughout 2022, a 40% increase from 2021, making it the busiest year since 2018.