LONDON (Reuters) – A resurgence of the coronavirus may scupper forecasts of a recovery in air passenger demand by the end of the year and strong growth in 2021, the chief economist of a global airline trade body warned on Tuesday.
“It could be that it takes much longer for us to get through the issues with the virus. It could be that the virus comes back,” Brian Pearce, chief economist at the International Air Transport Association, told a media conference call.
“So we are exploring scenarios where we have a much longer period of weakness, and obviously the pressures on airlines are correspondingly larger.”
(Reporting by Alistair Smout, Tim Hepher and Laurence Frost,)
