Airlines are closing in on their pre-Covid-19 heights

The aviation industry is a useful altimeter for the lingering impact of Covid-19. Air travel ground almost to a halt in 2020, as virus-induced restrictions kept people at home. Since then,

it has clawed its way upwards

as lockdowns have eased and travellers who had been denied holidays, visits to loved ones and business trips have gradually returned to the air. Capacity, measured by available seats, is set to end 2022 at around 4.7 billion, according to OAG, a consultancy. Although that remains down by 12 per cent on 2019, before the pandemic struck, it is nearly a third higher than at the end of last year.

Flying is not likely to hit pre-Covid-19 levels until 2024. Nevertheless, carriers’ confidence in the victory over the virus, and in the unshaken yearning for travel of the growing global middle class, is evident in their longer-term plans. America’s United Airlines has recently placed a big order for new aircraft. Air India, a poorly run flag carrier acquired in early 2022 by Tata Group, a rather better-run conglomerate with a turnaround plan,

is rumoured to be close to ordering 500 planes

from Europe’s Airbus and its American planemaking arch-rival, Boeing. Healthy demand for passenger jets means that both aerospace giants are planning to increase production in 2023, and get back to pre-pandemic levels within a couple of years.