> but we have very comprehensive data and statistics concerning air travel

somehow I feel like conditions may have changed since that data was collected. just a hunch.

Safety / incident data collection and publishing from the FAA and NTSB are basically live, you'll get incidents logged within days at most and preliminary reports usually within a few weeks. What lags the most are data analysis and interpretations, but major newspapers should probably be prepared to do their own data analysis if they're making grand proclaiments like the collapse of an industry...