Europe-based global major aerospace group Airbus believes that it will take some years for air travel to return to the levels seen last year, following the lockdowns and air travel bans imposed around the world to try and counter the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. “We forecast that the 2019 traffic levels will return by the 2023 at best, 2025 at worst, time frame and that the market will return to the levels of growth seen in the past,” Airbus president: Africa and the Middle East Mikail Houari tells Engineering News.

In early April, as a protection against a near-term decrease in demand from airlines, Airbus had reduced the production rates of its airliners. But the group still had an order backlog of 7 500 aeroplanes, assuring production for the next several years.

“Travel will resume but it most certainly will not be the same,” he points out. “Airlines will need to ensure their fleets are operating optimally while accommodating the demand for fuel efficiencies and environmentally friendly aircraft. But we remain optimistic about the future growth in air transport.”

The company does expect there to be a shift in the behaviour of people flying, given the prevalence of social or physical distancing on the ground, he notes. But people would have no reason to feel concerned when they next boarded an aircraft. Airbus had always prioritised clean air in its cabin designs and the air inside its airliner cabins can be compared to that in a sterile hospital environment, with the high-efficiency filters removing 99.9% of bacterial, microbial and viral particles from the air, including Covid-19. 

The cabin air is also renewed every two or three minutes and it always moves downwards and not lengthwise through the cabin. The air flows in from the top and is sucked out at floor level, the design of the system preventing transversal air flow, and making certain that  any cross-contamination is very restricted. “Safety has always been a chief priority in aviation, and our industry has proven over decades its ability to manage risks in a professional, innovative and fully, globally, coordinated way,” he stresses.

Airbus has been assisting its customer airlines in Africa, and around the world, to deal with the effects of not being able to fly their aircraft. It has increased its support teams and is supplying both technical justifications and ways to reduce its customers’ maintenance burdens as well as making recommendations to them.

“Our customer service teams are working hard to adapt maintenance recommendations and support customers that have fleets partially or wholly grounded during this period,” assures Houari. “The situation calls for exceptional measures and reactivity to provide pragmatic support to operators during this difficult period, while keeping the highest levels of safety.” 

The manufacturer has also been aiding airlines to decrease their sudden and “huge” maintenance workloads, as well as to enable them to quickly return their aircraft to service when required. “All our airline customers and supply chain partners are heavily impacted by the Covid-19 crisis,” he highlights. “Our commercial teams are in continuous dialogue with our customers and operators, reaching out to them to understand their situation and to work together on the way forward."