In just over a century, the airline industry has gone from learning to fly to learning to fly faster, to learning to fly further, to learning to fly heavy aircraft, to the point where more than 100,000 commercial flights take place in the world every day!

Unfortunately, the aviation industry and tourism are susceptible to global trends and are the first to feel the effects of conflicts, wars, pandemics, etc. The good thing is that the recovery is faster than expected in the pandemic year 2020.
The aviation industry has a significant impact on the world economy. This is proven by the fact that it accounts for 3.5 percent of the world’s gross domestic product, 2.7 trillion US dollars, and 65 million jobs globally.

In 2021, the number of passengers in the airline industry will reach 2.3 billion, and IATA predicts that the figure will reach 3.4 billion in 2022, an increase of 51%. IATA also predicts that passenger numbers will fully recover – and exceed 2019 to 2024 figures.

Globally, industry net losses should decrease from $52 billion in 2021 to $12 billion in 2022. IATA predicts that the North American region will return to profitability as early as 2022.

As the airline industry plans to double the number of passengers and cargo by 2036 nearly, the demand for pilots, engineers, air traffic controllers, and other jobs related to the airline industry is expected to increase dramatically. Innovations in technology and approaches are necessary to sustain this growth. All this is a huge potential and an excellent opportunity for everyone connected with the aviation industry.

Generation Z is based on technologies, so their services will be tied to various applications and new technologies to the greatest extent. Travel agencies will feel this at a great time because direct services will be purchased, and the traditional way of buying travel packages will be bypassed. This opens up space for a new approach of “tailor-made” agencies that will adapt specialized services to users, and it will certainly not be multi-day stays in hotels but a set of different services that users will combine.

Generation Z will be a game changer in tourism in the coming period. It should be taken into account that the pandemic and the regulations related to COVID have significantly changed the use of tourist services. Some popular destinations are losing their attractiveness, and tourists will discover some so far less popular and undiscovered destinations. Everyone who adapts to the needs and habits of this group in time will have the opportunity to establish themselves as new leaders in the tourism sector.

Generation Z will be the one that will further deepen the gap between traditional channels and ways of using tourist services. Remember how UBER, Airbnb, and Booking.com made radical changes to the industry and shut down some big companies.

Although the aviation industry contributes only about 2.5% of all global carbon dioxide emissions, it is essential to reduce emissions where possible. The industry has imposed on itself the goal of achieving zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Through this ambitious goal, green technologies began to appear in the industry. Airbus announced introducing its first “green plane” to the market by 2035. One such technology is sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), hybrid propulsion, and hydrogen as a propellant. Considering the incredible speed of technology development, “green flights” are our near future.

Mirza Karić

Dubos Consulting