the International Air Transport Association (IATA) published its “Economic Performance of the Airline Industry” report. It contained a 2020 forecast of 4.1 per cent growth in global air traffic demand and net post-tax profits for North American airlines of US$16.5 billion.Travel industry consulting firms predicted the continuing pattern of travel growth across all of the major components of travel including hotels, cruises and surface travel as well as air.
The forecast for travel was sunny, with few clouds on the horizon.Fast forward to the summer of 2020, and the IATA is forecasting the worst financial performance in the history of commercial aviation, predicting a global loss of US$84 billion.