Your Excellency Minister S. Iswaran
Honorable ministers
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is a great honour to be with you in Singapore in person for this important summit. I look forward to joining you in dialogue over the next two days on these critical issues at this time of recovery in our industry.
It has been a brutal two years for airlines. But we are seeing signs of recovery now. International travel in 2021 stood at only 25% of where we were in 2019. But in the first quarter of this year, it has recovered to 48%. And indeed some parts of the world including Europe, North America, and Latin America, the recovery has reached around 60%.
Regrettably, Asia continues to lag the recovery in 2021. International travel was only at 7% of where we were in 2019. And although it’s improved to 17% in the first quarter of this year, there is still a long way to go. And to put it into context, international travel within this region, one of the biggest and most important…