Editorial: The Tragedy Of Shutting Down The Global Air Transport System

The world, and in many respects the air transport industry, has moved on from the pandemic. Even as a new strain of COVID-19, named EG.5, appeared to be taking hold in some countries in late summer, there’s relatively little media coverage or concern being shown by the public.

What the public has demonstrated is a keen desire to live normally and resume air travel for personal and business purposes. Hence, IATA reported a 31% uptick in worldwide passengers in June compared with a year earlier and overall traffic numbers are more than 94% of 2019 levels.

Clearly, this is good news for airlines and airports, which understandably are looking forward and prioritizing other critical issues, including furthering sustainability and getting fixes for the long-running and frustrating supply chain and equipment reliability problems.

But just as with a serious air crash, the lessons of the pandemic—and specifically the impact of government policies on the air transport industry and their repercussions for humans—should be studied, widely disseminated and thoroughly understood.

Our cover story illustrates why this is so important, not just for airlines, which suffered the worst financial impact in the history of commercial air transport, but also for the billions of people who were prevented from flying because of border shutdowns, mandatory quarantines, testing and other government travel restrictions.

As the article makes clear, multiple studies by top universities and medical research authorities in different countries have concluded that at best, these travel restrictions did little-to-nothing to contain the spread of the virus. At worst, the loss of air connectivity did massive and long-lasting damage to nations and people who could least cope with the effects. Air transport supports and stimulates global health, safety, food security, tourism, trade and economic growth. Without their vital air connections, 90 million people fell into extreme poverty, receiving less than $2.15 per day as tourism and export demand collapsed. About 350 million people were pushed into food insecurity, risking starvation, according to the UN.

The studies present damning evidence that for the most part, governments rushed into imposing air travel and cross-border restrictions without data to support the effectiveness of those rules. They then extended the restrictions far longer than was necessary or useful. As Subhas Menon, director general at the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, puts it, “government response was generally knee-jerk as well as isolationist and parochial.”

That billions of people are flying again is something to celebrate. They will bring ideas, trade, wealth and good old-fashioned hugs to the places they visit. 

But the extent of the damage done by government policies to the industry, economies and people was far greater than it needed to be. 

An investigation and full report on those policies and their effects should be performed before the world forgets the freedoms they lost for no sound reason.