The global airline industry association’s head said terrorist attacks on aircraft, airports and tourist destinations of the kind that have ripped through Europe and parts of northern Africa in the past year will not stem surging travel demand.
While such outrages have an impact on the industry and people’s perceptions, the effect is generally localized and temporary, International Air Transport Association CEO Tony Tyler said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, Skift reported.
“The business impact of these events tends to be quite isolated and it’s often not as long-term as some people may think,” Tyler said. “People don’t get frightened off by these thugs. Most people, I think, if they want to travel will travel.”
Tyler spoke as investigators probing the loss of an EgyptAir jet in the eastern Mediterranean on May 19 picked up pings likely coming from black-box flight recorders that should reveal whether the plane was the latest target in an 18-month spate of terrorist attacks focused on Europe and North Africa.
The spree has already seen the main terminal at Brussels airport blown up, Paris devastated by blasts and shootings, a Russian jet downed by a suspected Islamic State bomb and dozens of tourists killed in Tunisia and Turkey.
