Gulf airlines could lose $4.9bn, 23% of passengers due to virus spread - Arabianbusiness

Gulf airlines could lose $4.9bn, 23% of passengers due to virus spread - Arabianbusiness:

Airlines in the Gulf region could see passenger numbers slump by 23 percent and revenues by nearly 5 billion due to the global spread of the new coronavirus, it was revealed on Thursday.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) updated its analysis of the financial impact of COVID-19 and said it now sees 2020 global revenue losses for the passenger business of up to $113 billion if it continues to spread at its current rate. 


No estimates are yet available for the impact on cargo operations, IATA said.

For a region including Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, the UAE, IATA said passenger numbers could fall by 23 percent with revenue losses of $4.9 billion while for the rest of Middle East 9 percent of passengers could be lost at a cost of $2.3 billion.