Regional overview: Latin America

Although only representing 6% of global capacity, air travel remains a significant and important driver in Latin America.

The picture this year shows the region fared slightly worse than others, with a 55% capacity reduction compared with a 45% drop globally.

However, the position for the year ahead is starting to look more positive thanks to the promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates and the travel corridors starting to develop.

Current capacity forecasts suggest capacity will increase by 81% during 2021 on 2020 levels, compared to the global position of 42%. This also includes the changes since the vaccine announcements.

The higher than average growth can be attributed to many individual drivers. A primary one is the large share of traffic that operates on domestic markets, around two thirds of the total, which allows capacity to be added more easily with few or no restrictions on domestic travel in the countries making up this region.

The international markets, with their cross-border requirements, are still facing constraints with quarantines and travel bans that might continue into 2021 in some areas. Capacity is therefore slower to be reinstated.

The capacity currently scheduled in 2021 is around 82% of that scheduled in 2019, with October to December 2021 forecast to follow a similar trend to 2019.

https://infogram.com/rou-rr-latin-america-overview-1hnq410kjq78p23?live

Photo credit: Joe Pries