The pandemic has significantly affected passenger and cargo air transport, with a notable decrease in traffic volumes compared to 2019. Although the recovery is taking place, pre-pandemic levels have not yet been reached, says Martín La Rosa, country manager for Peru and Bolivia at the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
“We had not finished recovering towards the end of last year and unfortunately the violent social protests have meant that we have not even been able to return to the traffic volumes we had in 2019. We hope that this recovery can really consolidate in the first quarter 2024”, he said during his participation in the VII Logistics Forum, organized by the Association of Exporters (ADEX).
In this sense, La Rosa highlighted that, before COVID-19, aviation contributed approximately 3% of GDP in Peru. This generated direct and indirect jobs and contributed a value of US$6.4 billion. “It is important to consider that according to figures handled by the World Economic Forum, of every US$100 directly produced by air transport, about US$325 are produced in other related sectors such as tourism and commerce,” he remarked. .
Freights are normalized
On the other hand, Diogo Aita, associate official for Economic Affairs of the Trade and Integration Infrastructure and Logistics Unit of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal), referred to world maritime trade, which represents around 80% of the global freight transport.
According to the ECLAC representative, the crisis caused by the pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine produced a considerable increase in maritime freight prices; however, they are now at their pre-pandemic levels. “That assumes that supply chains start to normalize, also putting downward pressure on inflation,” he noted.
The specialist warned that there is a “very important” downward movement on the Asia, United States and Europe routes, but also on the routes between South America from Europe.
Source: Larepublica
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