Around seven million travel and tourism-related jobs in Europe are at risk due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a rebound in airline passengers unlikely this year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2020) Around seven million travel and tourism-related jobs in Europe are at risk due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a rebound in airline passengers unlikely this year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Thursday.
In a report published on its website, the IATA increased its estimate from an earlier six million jobs due to the uneven lifting and reimposition of restrictions across the continent.
"With air travel not recovering as originally hoped, the negative impact on employment has increased. More than 7 million jobs supported by aviation (including tourism) in Europe are now at risk (up from around 6 million estimated in June)," the organization wrote.
The IATA called on all governments to lift border restrictions and find alternatives to quarantine measures to avoid further economic damage.
Despite a limited reopening of the Schengen area with non-Schengen countries, travel remains half of what it was by this point last year, the organization said. It forecast that the number of individual journeys performed over the year will come in below 60 percent of last year's total.
"It is desperately worrying to see a further decline in prospects for air travel this year, and the knock-on impact for employment and prosperity. It shows once again the terrible effect that is being felt by families across Europe as border restrictions and quarantine continue. It is vital that governments and industry work together to create a harmonized plan for reopening borders," Rafael Schvartzman, IATA Regional Vice President for Europe, said in a statement.
Airlines remain among the worst impacted industries from the pandemic, as governments grounded planes around the world to curb the spread of the virus and tourism prospects dried up over the summer. Numerous airlines have filed for bankruptcy, and others have permanently decommissioned long haul planes.
