The impact of international and national events on air traffic

Apart from the credit crisis, several other international and national events have left their mark on air traffic since 2000: the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, the outbreak of SARS in Asia in 2003, the introduction of the air travel tax in the Netherlands in 2008, and the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud in 2010.

International events are often accompanied by sudden dips in demand, usually in conjunction with sharp cost increases and short-term increases in employment. An example is the assistance provided to stranded passengers who were forced to spend several days at Schiphol because of the flight ban triggered by the eruption of the Icelandic volcano. However, there can be no talk of permanent jobs here because the underlying earning power did not improve. In fact, it declined. This is why international events always translate into either a decrease or delays/stagnation in employment in the long term.