COVID-19 and aviation, lessons learned from the trenches: A survey among participants at the 26th ATRS World Conference

In 2023, the aviation industry is on the track for a strong recovery from the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with various airlines outperforming their pre-pandemic passenger and revenue records. In this study, we take a retrospective view on the COVID-19 pandemic, through a survey among participants of the 26th ATRS World Conference. Our survey, which received more than 100 responses, covers topics such as lessons learned, enduring changes in travel behavior, perceived effectiveness of pandemic-related counter measures, and an assessment of future research directions. We present and discuss the survey results in light of the rich extant literature on air transport management and conclude with a set of major takeaways.