The International Air Transport Association warned that the world’s airlines are hemorrhaging cash at a rate of around $300,000 per minute or $13 billion per month, which could force large swathes of the industry into bankruptcy within months, FlightGlobal.com reported. With traffic levels set to remain stunted through 2021, IATA believes carriers will continue to burn cash next year at a rate of $5-6 billion a month, collectively – even assuming that a COVID-19 vaccine is discovered. Lowering its estimates for revenue passenger-kilometers, the airline association now expects December traffic levels to be 68 percent lower than last year, against a 55 percent reduction that it forecast in July. It does not see sector profitability returning until 2022. From examining the available cash and liquid assets of carriers in their six-month reports to the end of June, IATA found that on average airlines had enough funding to last just eight-and-a-half months, taking them to halfway through February 2021.
