Wednesday, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that global air traffic recorded an unprecedented decline in the number of passengers by 66 percent in 2020 compared to 2019 under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a video conference, the head of IATA's economics department Brian Pearce said that the kilometer passenger index, which shows passenger traffic for a distance of one kilometer, indicates that traffic "has decreased by two-thirds. It is the biggest shock the aviation sector has ever experienced."

Since the restrictions imposed on movement in attempts to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic were applied, particularly to international transport, domestic flights have withstood more than international navigation, as their decline reached -48.8 percent compared to -75.6 percent for international traffic.

Air traffic decreased in April by five percent from their usual levels, before increasing again during the summer. Dec. 2020, passenger traffic collapsed again by 70 percent, which led to a decline in the annual rates.

On the other hand, IATA, which includes 190 airlines around the world, warned that the emergence of mutated versions of the coronavirus casts a shadow over the prospects for the sector's recovery in 2021.

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