Latam, Caribbean Need State Agendas to Promote an Essential Service

Jose Ricardo Botelho Executive Director and CEO | ALTA

In September 2022, Latin America and the Caribbean reached the same number of passengers carried in 2019 for the first time and even exceeded that mark by 1.2%, becoming the first region in the world to achieve this post-pandemic recovery milestone. North America reached 96% and Europe 86%, compared with September 2019. The recovery in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia was also below 2019 levels, with Southeast Asia seeing the slowest recovery at 75%.

In terms of RPK (revenue passenger per kilometer), the region continued to lead the recovery worldwide, despite not reaching 2019 levels, although it was very close to hitting it, with 97.4%. Not surprisingly, passengers have recovered faster than RPKs. This is because many travelers prefer domestic or short-haul flights to long-haul or transatlantic flights. North America and the Middle East follow with 92%. Southeast Asia was at 65% of its 2019 levels. Also, it is observed that almost all countries in the world are reducing passenger traffic to the US, except for the LAC region.

Over 300,000 additional passengers versus September 2019 were carried in Latin America and the Caribbean, setting a particularly decisive milestone, as it is the only region where air transport did not receive economic relief during the pandemic.

In 2020 and part of 2021, some countries did take measures, such as temporary tax reductions and postponement of payment dates for some fees, but there were no loans or public investments to support an essential service such as aviation. Millions of people were repatriated by air and vital supplies, including vaccines, were transported to meet the urgent needs resulting from the health emergency. The supply distribution chain remained active and all the essential cargo was carried for the population when other industries stopped working.

Aviation was there for the population. The operators managed with great effort to keep the service going and, now that people are traveling again, either for tourism or business, it is evident that air transport is a necessity in the region and not a luxury.

Therefore, ALTA constantly speaks of state agendas. That is, collaborative work strategies in the nations of the region that include the travel and tourism industry as an important economic sector, a fundamental contributor in creating jobs, income, and development for the population. It is a service that contributes to the social and economic dynamics of the countries and that, therefore, should have a collaborative work plan between the public and private sectors to generate efficiencies, optimize regulations and continue allowing access to more and more people to the safest and most efficient means of transport.

Making air transport part of a state agenda means it transcends governments and becomes a priority for public servers. Aviation activates an extensive value chain that, in addition to creating millions of direct jobs, also creates millions of indirect and induced jobs, from the driver who picks up the passenger at the airport to those related to hotels, meals, and attractions, among many others.

At the technical level, opportunities have been identified and discussed to improve the region’s competitiveness for air transport.