Assessments of the longer term impact of COVID-19 on the way we live and a likely time frame for a return to some semblance of normalcy in several key service areas are likely to have to be revisited even as the pandemic continues to show no sign of slipping into retreat mode.
Take the crucial area of air travel for example, where the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has now pushed back its earlier 2023 time line for a return to normalcy in the air travel sector by at least one year to 2024, on account of challenges associated with the containment of the pandemic in the United States and, reportedly, in some developing countries.
With air transport having long become a critical factor in several pursuits that are central to human life, even human survival, the trade association for the sector is now saying that contrary to earlier indications, global air travel is recovering more slowly than had been expected and is now unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels for at least the next three to four years.
