The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in a forecast on Monday that as airlines slowly recover from the COVID-19 epidemic, the global aviation industry is expected to lose nearly $12 billion next year, down 78 per cent from this year's losses.

IATA said industry losses in 2021 would be more severe than originally expected, reaching $51.8 billion, up from the $47.7 billion forecast in April.

The global aviation industry posted a net loss of $137.7 billion in 2020, up from IATA's estimate of $126.4 billion earlier this year, and brought the industry's total net loss from the epidemic to more than $200 billion.

"We have passed the depths of the crisis," IATA Director General Willie Walsh said at the annual meeting in Boston. This is IATA's first face-to-face annual meeting since June 2019. "while serious problems remain, the road to recovery is emerging."

IATA expects the global airline industry to return to profitability by 2023 and says the total number of passengers will increase from 2.3 billion this year to 3.4 billion next year.

Walsh said lifting international travel restrictions related to the outbreak would boost air bookings, but attacked the lack of uniform national guidelines on safety measures, such as the COVID-19 test window, age exemption and methods to verify vaccination certificates.

The Biden administration said last month that it would lift the ban on international tourists imposed at the beginning of the epidemic in November, but did not give a date.