Passengers still fearful despite industry confidence

Passengers are still fearful despite industry confidence. OAG, the world’s leading airline schedule data source says that passenger confidence is low about air travel while the industry itself is bullish. The OAG survey found, on passenger's sentiment, where 1 is fearful and 10 is confident, the average score was 3.8, definitely nearer the fearful end of the scale than the other. The survey results, authored by Becca Rowland, found that the most confident were those in the Middle East, who provided an average score of 6.2 out of 10, while those in South Asia, South East Asia, and South America all averaged a score of four or more. OAG said that at the other end of the scale were the Caribbean and Africa. SEE COVID-19 travel restrictions map But industry participants were bullish. “Some 35 percent will travel as soon as their work requires them to, and another 11 percent will travel when restrictions are lifted,” OAG said. “Excluding those who don’t generally fly for work, more than half (56 percent) expect to fly as soon as their work requires them to travel or as soon as restrictions are lifted. A quarter says they will wait until they are convinced flying is safe, with the remainder waiting until there is a vaccine in place or when immunity passports are available.” OAG said their survey found that “when it comes to traveling for personal reasons, 76 percent of our industry audience say they would take a domestic flight by the end of the year with 38 percent saying they will be prepared to take a domestic flight for personal reasons within two months.” OAG added that “confidence around international flying for personal reasons was encouraging and 58 percent saying they are willing to take such a flight this year, with 30 percent prepared to fly within 2 months of restrictions or quarantine measures being lifted. Around a fifth say they are looking for a vaccine or immunity passport to be in place before traveling internationally by choice but that only reinforces the sense that this group as a whole is not especially fearful of international flying at the moment.”