“COVID is to aviation what garlic is to Dracula.”
That’s the assessment of the pandemic’s effects on the aviation industry by Reg Wright, the President and CEO of Gander International Airport.
The Airport Authority recently released its annual report for 2020, and the numbers are telling of the strain the pandemic has put on the sector.
According to the 2020 Annual Report, revenue fell by 37 per cent, or $3.8-million over the previous year. Passenger traffic declined by 70 per cent and the total number of passengers to go through the airport was the lowest on record.
Further, there have been 295 job losses to Gander’s aviation sector, representing a loss of $25-million to the region.
The Pandemic caused 295 job losses in Gander’s once robust aviation sector, representing $25 Million in wages. 60% of individuals impacted were direct airline employees, the remainder from aviation support companies, such as ground handlers, fuelers and air navigation providers. pic.twitter.com/zEfTMzwVg8
— Gander Airport (@GanderAirport) May 12, 2021
Wright calls COVID-19 the greatest crisis in the history of the industry, saying that it’s no surprise that it “clipped our wings.”
Wright points to the next five years as being crucial for the industry to pre-pandemic levels, but also notes that the recovery process is already much slower than what was anticipated when.
He explains that initially, the worst-case scenario was for the industry to begin a slow recovery in September of 2020, which Wright says has been “well eclipsed.” He also says they anticipate different types of traffic to recovery at different times, as well as a “geographically uneven” recovery.
