According to the latest global air travel analytics report, the number of international flight reservations has declined worldwide since the onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict last month.
On October 7, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas launched a terror raid on Israel, killing over 1,400 people. Israel retaliated by bombardment of Hamas Gaza facilities and launching the ground assault on the city to irradicate the terrorists.
The international aviation sector was immediately impared by the rapidly escalating conflict, since it has negatively impacted not only the air traffic to and from the Middle East, but also caused a global slump in the airline industry, dooming all hopes for fast post-COVID recovery.
Airline booking numbers one day before the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel showed that global air travel in the last quarter of the year would recover to 95% of its 2019 levels, but as of late October the outlook has fallen back to 88%.
The latest data shows that international flight bookings from the Americas declined 10 percent in the three weeks after the Hamas terrorist attack, when compared to the number of airline tickets issued three weeks before that.
The numbers indicate that people in the Middle East have also been traveling less, with international flight tickets issued in the region having dropped 9 percent in the same period. Meanwhile, global flight bookings for travel to the region slumped 26% in the three weeks following Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians.
According to the report, within the region affected by the Israel-Hamas conflict, Israel has suffered the worst, with many airlines having cancelled flights. Israel was followed by Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, in terms of flight cancellations in the region.
International flight bookings dropped 5% across regions on average, impacting the global recovery in international travel from the global COVID-19 pandemic.
