The firm said the downturn, which started in October and has since been exacerbated by Omicron, was comparable with the one observed following the emergence of the Delta variant back in March.
ForwardKeys said there had been "relatively steady growth" in air travel this year, rising from less than 20% of 2019 levels in Q1 to more than 50% come Q4 and peaking at 64% in the last week of October.
However, it said the year had been punctuated by two setbacks, the first coming in the week beginning 12 March when the week-on-week growth in bookings was reversed from +11% to -10%, coinciding with the worldwide spread of Delta.
