The travel and tourism industry was one of the fastest-growing industries before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, to avoid COVID-19 spread, the government authorities imposed strict lockdown and international border restrictions except for some emergency international flights that badly hit the travel and tourism industry. The study explores the nexus between international air departures and the COVID-19 pandemic in this strain. We use a novel wavelet coherence approach to dissect the lead and lag relationships between international flight departures and COVID-19 deaths from January 2020 to September 2020 (COVID-19 first wave period). The results reveal that international flights cause the spread of COVID-19 spread during May 2020 to June 2020 worldwide. The overall findings suggest asymmetries between daily international flight departures and COVID-19 deaths globally at different time-frequency periods due to uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The study will be conducive for the policymakers to control the upsurge of COVID-19 spread worldwide.

中文翻译：

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探索 COVID-19 大流行与国际空中交通之间的联动：基于小波分析的全球视角

在 COVID-19 大流行爆发之前，旅游业是增长最快的行业之一。但是，为避免 COVID-19 传播，政府当局实施了严格的封锁和国际边境限制，但严重打击旅游业的一些紧急国际航班除外。该研究探讨了国际航班起飞与该菌株中 COVID-19 大流行之间的联系。我们使用一种新颖的小波相干方法来剖析 2020 年 1 月至 2020 年 9 月（COVID-19 第一波时期）国际航班起飞和 COVID-19 死亡之间的超前和滞后关系。结果显示，国际航班导致 COVID-19 在 2020 年 5 月至 2020 年 6 月期间在全球范围内传播。总体调查结果表明，由于围绕 COVID-19 大流行的不确定性，全球不同时间段的每日国际航班起飞和 COVID-19 死亡人数之间存在不对称性。该研究将有利于决策者控制 COVID-19 在全球范围内蔓延的热潮。