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As an industry that is highly impacted by external factors, aviation is vulnerable to many disruptions, including disease outbreaks. Until COVID-19, SARS in 2003 and the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 were the most important disruptions in terms of the impact on air traffic. But COVID-19 is proving to have a longer-term impact and slower recovery than SARS (Figure 24.1). Indeed, the quick spread and long duration of the COVID-19 crisis is inflicting a devastating shock in the industry. By August 2020, more than six months into the crisis, industry-wide Revenue Passenger-Kilometres (RPKs) was still 75.3% lower than the previous year. The predictions for the year show modest improvement, according to ICAO (2020), with the expected decline in 2020 being between 57% and 61% in global passenger traffic and 50% in seat capacity, leading to a drop of almost 400 billion USD in revenues. Many early …