A brief look at Latin America’s recovery so far |

We will take a brief look at Latin America’s recovery so far by analyzing the data provided by some countries in the region. We will review Colombia’s strong start in 2022, Mexico’s low season, and Brazil’s first results. A brief look at Colombia’s recovery In 2021, Colombia recovered strongly from the COVID-19 pandemic. The country bounced back after closing its borders for several months in 2020 in a failed attempt to prevent new COVID-19 cases. Last year, Colombia had 30.5 million passengers, still 26% down, compared to the levels recorded in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, Colombia has quickly rebounded due to strong leisure traffic fed by many new routes by Viva, Avianca, LATAM, and new international players such as Volaris and Viva Aerobus. Since November 2021, Colombia has recorded three consecutive months growing, in terms of passengers, compared to 2019 levels. In November, it had 3.0% more passengers, in December, it had 5.8% more, and in January 2022, it had 7.3% more. The country still has to upload its February numbers. Colombia’s domestic market has been the strongest so far. In January 2022, Colombia had 2.7 million domestic passengers growing by 22.6% compared to 2019 (and by 13% compared to 2020, prior to the pandemic). Meanwhile, Colombia’s international market has also shown promising results. The country received 1.1 million passengers in January, still 15.2% below its pre-pandemic 2019 levels. How about Brazil? The Brazilian market also began 2022 on a solid note. According to data provided by Brazil’s Civil Aviation Authorities, the country had 15.02 million passengers between January and February 2022. LATAM Airlines Group has regained its pre-COVID status as the leading airline in the country with 4.7 million travelers so far, followed by GOL with 4.6 million and Azul with 4.0 million. Nonetheless, Brazil has only recovered 73.4% of its pre-pandemic traffic levels. The international market continues to be particularly depressed due to the impact of travel restrictions throughout 2020 and 2021. In 2022, there has been 1.9 million international passengers in Brazil, still 56% below 2019 levels. In 2021, Brazil had 67.3 million passengers throughout the year, led by Azul Linhas Aéreas with 23.05 million. Compared to 2019, when Brazil had 119.1 million passengers, it just recovered about 56.5% of its pre-pandemic traffic levels. A brief look at Mexico’s recovery In 2020 and 2021, Mexico had arguably the fastest recovery in the airline industry worldwide. Nonetheless, as proved by the data, Colombia’s recovery has surpassed Mexico’s in the last few months. Between January and February, Mexico battles a historical low season which has been reflected in 2022 as well. So far, the country has had 14.5 million passengers in the first two months of the year. Compared to 2019 levels, Mexico has only recovered about 93% of its pre-pandemic traffic levels, with some markets bouncing faster and stronger than others, particularly the Mexico-US and domestic segments. Domestically, Mexico has had 7.3 million passengers, led strongly by Volaris with 3.3 million travelers, Viva Aerobus with 2.1 million, and Aeromexico with 1.6 million. Compared to 2019 levels, that’s a 97% recovery, and a bit of a decrease, because, in December 2021, the market had fully rebounded and even grew compared to 2019 levels. Then again, it is the low season, so the market will adjust throughout the year, and Mexico should close in 2022 with traffic levels well over pre-pandemic trends. Internationally, though, the Mexican airlines have not recovered as much as they would love to. They carried 1.7 million travelers between January and February, a 69% recovery compared to 2019, fueled mainly by Interjet’s cease of operations and Aeromexico’s Chapter 11 process. The Mexico-US market has fully rebounded and has not felt the impact of the low season. According to data provided by the Mexican government, 2022 began with the same levels as 2019 and 2020, signaling a solid recovery. Look at these graphs: [caption id="attachment_63636" align="alignnone" width="580"] Photo: SICT.[/caption]

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