6
ASIA-PACIFIC AIRPORTS MAGAZINE
VIEWPOINT
VIEW FROM THE TOP Director general, Stefano Baronci, reflects on the impact of COVID-19, ACI Asia-Pacific’s recent virtual Regional Board meeting and Assembly, new Strategic Plan and a host of other issues.
F
rom a period of sustained passenger traffic growth in 2019 to the halfway point of 2020, the industry is now in survival mode, crippled by the loss of passenger traffic and revenues by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The second quarter of this year saw the pandemic really take hold globally, and to say the least, the impact has shocked our industry to its core, with ACI forecasting that COVID-19 will cost our region’s airports around $36.4 billion in revenue and some two billion passengers in 2020. As you would expect, ACI Asia-Pacific has initiated a number of activities to support our members during these most challenging of times. APA Issue 2, 2020
These include the assembly of a COVID-19 Task Force made up of more than 30 representatives from member airports and World Business Partners. In a short amount of time, the Task Force produced a number of helpful materials to document the measures taken by airports and the impact on operations. Many of you have also engaged with our Economics team to provide input for a new Weekly Traffic Tracker. Receiving this preliminary data from you has proven enormously helpful as it has allowed us to tell the world about the significant decline in traffic and the potential consequences for our region. Leveraging the power of social channels, our communications team has amplified the
