Airline group revenues more than halved in 2020 as flying ground to a halt, and remained down more than 40% compared with pre-pandemic levels at the end of last year. The industry recorded record high revenues of $845 million in 2019.

Moreover, with most carriers’ financial results in for the first-half of the year, Cirium also predicts another loss for the sector in 2022, despite "further signs of recovery from the depth of the crisis".

This rebound is being led by the US, with its airline sector "on course to return to profitability" this year. Four US airlines currently top Cirium’s 2022 revenue ranking, with Delta Air Lines’ revenue "virtually back to pre-pandemic levels".

"Early results" for the September quarter, meanwhile, show the US’s six current largest carriers as achieving record revenues and an overall net profit for the first nine months of the year.

Cirium chief executive Jeremy Bowen said: “It’s a positive sign the net deficit is decreasing year-on-year. In 2020, the revenue decline translated into net losses of $160 billion, [followed by] another $42 billion last year, and losses for the first half of this year total around $15 billion.

“If losses so far this year aren’t substantially added to, that would leave the airline industry with the overall net loss of nearly $220 billion since the start of 2020.

"However, if we assume that there are no further shocks to the industry, there is the possibility that the industry may break even in the second half of the year, led by US and European airline groups."

In Europe, there is evidence of a "strong recovery" in first-half revenues, led by Germany’s Lufthansa Group.

Traffic in western Europe has been running at around 95% of pre-pandemic levels since the middle of the year said Cirium, translating into higher revenues and "returning the largest groups to profitability in the September quarter".

The global picture, though, is skewed by the Asia Pacific region, with China still pursuing a tough zero-Covid policy. Chinese airlines’ revenue fell by 35% in the first-half of 2022 amounting to a net loss of nearly $10 billion.