As Covid lockdowns kicked in and the skies emptied, many high-flyers, among them Bill Gates, said air travel, especially business and first class, would never get back to pre-2020 levels. How wrong they were. Passenger numbers have reached new heights. More than 5.2 billion passengers are expected to fly this year, the industry group IATA forecasts — up from 4.4 billion in 2019.
“Demand has exceeded expectations and travellers aren’t blinking at the fares, even in first class,” says Sir Tim Clark, the Briton who runs Emirates. The good news for passengers is that 2026 is going to see the launch of a major new airline and more new aircraft and products than in any year in living memory. Welcome to a new age of luxury air travel.
