The IATA stated on July 28 that it expected a full recovery of global air passenger traffic by 2024, a year later than its initial estimate, due to slow virus containment in developing economies, corporate travel cuts and weak consumer confidence during the global health crisis.

“The IATA and other international organizations assume that international travel will fully recover in 2024. However, I do believe that we can achieve that by mid-2023 as our market is dominated by domestic flights,” Awaluddin said during an online discussion held by the Indonesian National Air Carrier Association (INACA) on Aug. 13.

AP II recorded 524 flights to and from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Aug. 14, amid the long weekend, a record high since the COVID-19 outbreak in March. It saw traffic of more than 45,700 passengers on that day.

In comparison, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport’s flight traffic in April stood at 200 flights per day, and went down to 100 flights per day in May.

“This means that air travel patterns have been restored to normal, the number of flights during the long weekend period is usually quite high,” Awaluddin said in a separate statement on Aug. 15.

The continuous rise of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia has depressed the tourism and aviation sectors, as people cancel travel plans amid large-scale social restrictions (PSBB).

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