by Donald Wood
Last updated: 12:35 PM ET, Wed October 7, 2020
Experts from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed data that suggests airlines will burn through $77 billion in cash between June and December of this year.
The loss of nearly $300,000 every minute is on top of the $51 billion the commercial airline industry already burned through in the second quarter.
The IATA expects the negative cash flow to continue into 2021 at a rate of $5 to $6 billion per month and the industry will not turn cash-positive until 2022.
"Historically, cash generated during the peak summer season helps to support airlines through the leaner winter months," IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac said. "Unfortunately, this year's disastrous spring and summer provided no cushion. In fact, airlines burned cash throughout the period."
"And with no timetable for governments to reopen borders without travel-killing quarantines, we cannot rely on a year-end holiday season bounce to provide a bit of extra cash to tide us over until the spring," de Juniac continued.
The IATA continues to push for systematic pre-departure COVID-19 testing as a critical step to enable borders to reopen, as well as more aid to supplement the $160 billion already provided in the forms of direct aid, wage subsidies, corporate tax relief and specific industry tax relief.
A new study from IdeaWorks Company and Cartrawler also found that projected ancillary revenue earned by airlines in 2020 would be down by almost 50 percent compared to the total earned in 2019.
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