Severe Impact of the Spread of COVID-19 on Air Travel Demand and the Aviation Business

「If an unknown epidemic spreads globally, as COVID-19 did from early 2020, air passenger demand may decline sharply as governments impose restrictions on the movement of people, such as entry restrictions, travel restrictions and requests to refrain from travel, and companies and users voluntarily avoid air travel to prevent infections.」

「The spread of COVID-19, which had significantly affected our group, is finally beginning to subside. Border measures for international flights have ended and domestic activity restrictions have been lifted, while air passenger demand is recovering steadily as various events and activities resume across Japan.」

「The classification of COVID-19, which had significantly affected our group, was changed in May, and the pandemic is finally beginning to subside. Border measures for international flights have ended, domestic activity restrictions have been lifted, and a variety of events and activities have resumed across Japan. Against this backdrop, air passenger demand is recovering steadily.」

「Efforts to balance prevention of the COVID-19 outbreak with social and economic activity have become established, and air passenger demand in Japan and overseas is steadily recovering. International passenger demand has benefited from the easing of entry and exit restrictions by governments, allowing people to resume free movement in Japan and overseas. In Japan, demand for business travel by Japanese companies gradually recovered after border-control measures were eased in stages, and inbound demand began to recover rapidly following the substantial easing of entry restrictions in October 2022. Domestic passenger demand also recovered steadily despite the eighth wave of infections, supported by the absence of restrictions on movement, including calls to refrain from travel, as new patterns of behavior became established, as well as by the government’s nationwide travel-support program, launched in October 2022.」

「Efforts to balance COVID-19 prevention with social and economic activity are becoming more established, and air passenger demand in Japan and overseas is steadily recovering. Although the external environment remains uncertain due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine situation, concerns about a global economic recession, and rising raw material costs, including foreign exchange and fuel prices,」

「Efforts to balance COVID-19 prevention with social and economic activity are becoming more established, and air passenger demand in Japan and overseas is steadily recovering. Although the external environment remains uncertain due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine situation and rising raw material costs, including fuel prices, we will work as a unified Group to achieve our performance targets for the current fiscal year by implementing thorough infection-control measures, agile revenue-enhancement initiatives in line with the recovery in demand, and rigorous cost controls.」

「Domestic passenger demand is expected to recover to approximately 90% of pre-COVID levels for the full year. International passenger demand, however, is expected to take some time to fully recover due to infection conditions and entry and exit restrictions in each country, and is expected to recover to only approximately 45% of pre-COVID levels for the full year.」

「International passenger demand showed a steady recovery in underlying demand, including demand from returning residents, employees assigned to overseas offices and transit demand between Asia and North America. Domestic passenger demand also recovered strongly from October onward compared with the first half, when demand was depressed by rising infection numbers and repeated extensions of states of emergency. However, concerns remain about the prolonged impact of the spread of COVID-19 and the global resurgence of infections with new variants.」

「Air travel demand is gradually showing signs of recovery, but we believe that a full recovery will take some more time.」

「Even after the beginning of fiscal 2021, there were no signs that the COVID-19 outbreak was subsiding. Global entry and exit restrictions and limits on the number of people entering Japan remained in place, while Japan repeatedly issued states of emergency and priority preventive measures. As a result, demand for international and domestic air travel remained sluggish.」

「International passenger demand has almost disappeared as countries, including Japan, further tightened entry restrictions and quarantine systems after renewed outbreaks and infections involving variants were reported, causing demand for cross-border travel to almost disappear.」

「Although some countries and regions where the resurgence of infections was subsiding had been discussing and agreeing to ease entry and exit restrictions with Japan under certain conditions, many countries and regions were also experiencing renewed outbreaks, and there was no clear prospect of a recovery in international passenger demand. Domestic passenger demand had been recovering rapidly, led by tourism, after Tokyo was added to the Go To Travel campaign on 1 October, but growth subsequently slowed and demand fluctuated as a result of the renewed outbreak from mid-November and the nationwide suspension of the Go To Travel campaign over the year-end and New Year period.」

「Domestic passenger demand also declined sharply, to an unprecedented extent, as people refrained from traveling between prefectures.」

「The global and Japanese economies have deteriorated rapidly since January 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and economic activity stagnated worldwide during the first quarter. The COVID-19 outbreak has also had an unprecedentedly severe impact on the aviation industry, creating extremely challenging conditions. As the outbreak spread globally, countries continued to impose strict entry and exit restrictions, and international passenger demand almost disappeared.」

「The aviation industry is facing an unprecedented crisis as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Air travel demand has declined sharply worldwide, and our Group has been severely affected. As it is currently difficult to reasonably calculate the extent of the impact, our business and earnings plans for fiscal 2020 cannot yet be finalized.」