Analysts today warned of more airline collapses to follow yesterday’s failure of Flybe as data shows that the fall off in passenger bookings is even bigger than during recent terrorism scares.
ForwardKeys revealed that intercontinental arrivals into Europe fell almost 26 per cent between February 24-29 alone, leaving the year to date 10.5 per cent below the same period last year.
Olivier Ponti, VP Insights at ForwardKeys, said: “The drop-off in bookings to Italy is even worse than we have seen in the past for disruptive events such as terror attacks. This appears to be disproportionate, as parts of Europe other than Italy are experiencing very substantial declines in visitor interest.”
Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: “It’s an extremely tough time for aviation and travel in general. To some extent the writing was already on the wall with Flybe but it’s still a massive blow to the travel industry.
“If the virus continues to spread, I fear this might not be the only travel company to suffer such a devastating blow.”
It came after Scottish airline Loganair announced plans to take on 16 routes operated by Flybe.
The routes, from existing Loganair base airports at Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Newcastle, will be launched over the next four months.
They include services between Aberdeen and Belfast City, Edinburgh and Manchester and Glasgow and Exeter.
The airline said it aimed to “maintain essential air connectivity within the UK regions to keep customers flying”.
