The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has seen aviation suffer its worst ever decline in traffic, with countries closing their borders and most regular scheduled flights coming to a halt. This has had severe implications on Pacific Island Country (PIC) economies and the financial conditions of the airlines, airports and the industries that depend on aviation. This scoping study reviewed the current Pacific aviation landscape; provided a comparative view of operations before COVID-19, the current situation, as well as identify priority short-term post COVID-19 recovery scenarios; identified immediate and short-term priority routes and connections and necessary actions to provide the minimum reliable scheduled services to transport people and goods, jumpstart businesses and facilitate projects/investments geared towards economic recovery; and identified and assessed bilateral/regional/multilateral frameworks currently in place and supporting air travel and supply chain in the region.
The results and recommendations of this scoping study are to help develop a consensus among stakeholders on the way forward for the aviation industry in the region and provide a basis to initiate support by PRIF Development Partners.
