Page 6 - World Airnews Magazine July Edition 2020

FLAREPATH

SLOWLY, SLOWLY

By Heidi Gibson

at worse levels might rise three times more
levels and losses were placed at about (US) in 2021.
$6 billion in revenue.

ome three months after lockdown It took more than six months to recover. One solution would be for governments

Shit South Africa grounding fl eets Remember Hong Kong suffered the sec- to step in and offer airlines the options to

and closing airports indications are the ond-highest death toll from SARS world- swop their debt for ownership.

barriers are starting to lift. wide; its officials used what they learned In the meantime the International Civil

The country has seen the start of limited during SARS about the need for early test- Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has issued
domestic air travel. ing and social distancing to limit the impact guidelines for the return to travel produced

FlySafair, Airlink, Mango and Cemair have of COVID-19. by the Council’s Aviation Recovery Task

returned to our skies for business travellers It will be some time before the almost Force or CART which it wants airlines to
use as a uniform approach. If you missed
but SAA and Comair remain grounded. 28,000-aircraft fleet that existed at the this article please go to our digital emag for

Smaller regional airports remain closed. beginning of 2020, will again be in service. June and read Hilka Birns story.

Let’s face it for the near future flying And that leads me to think what is going Meanwhile back to our beleagued
will not be the same. Only passengers are to happen to the two giants Boeing and national carrier. A recent news article has

allowed in the terminals. There will be no Airbus and their production schedules? emerged of a chaotic repatriation flight

tearful goodbyes or group hugs neither will Which model will be sacrificed as a result that left 45 SA passengers stranded in

there be any last wave goodbyes. of the CoVid-19 crisis? Debate rages in Frankfurt when delayed Flight SA 2691

Once you are in there it will be a case aviation circles about the future of the eventually took off on Saturday evening.

of your temperature being checked, hand widebody A380. Others believe that with Apparently passengers were first told the

sanitizing, not touching any surfaces, masks a bit of tweaking this one might be able to flight had been overbooked and they would

and social distancing while waiting for your re-invent itself. Read our piece on page have to find and pay for their hotels and

flight. On board there will be no nicely pack- 48 that addresses this topic. Why don’t transport. A jammed emergency evacua-
aged meals and the serving of drinks. The you send us an email and let us know what tion slide added to the complications and

pleasure of flying has been taken away. But you think? Use this email address: info@ more passengers had to get off the plane.

hey at least you will still be able to look out airnews.co.za. Several of these were told they were to be
the window and watch the ground fall away. One aspect we can’t get away from is that rerouted via Amsterdam to catch a KLM re-
By the end of the year, South Africa might airline companies are now facing huge debt patriation flight to South Africa from there.

see international carriers landing again at and they are going to be cash strapped Both the SAA flight from Frankfurt via

our airports. which is going to make paying off this debt Moscow and the KLM flight landed safely at

Being an optimistic by nature I refuse to even harder. Fare prices are definitely going OR Tambo International Airport, Johannes-

be negative. Rest assured aviation is by its to rise as they try to make up for losses. burg on Sunday morning and the passen-

nature is resilient and will bounce back. IATA has estimated levels of debt could gers were moved into the standard 14 days

It’s the lifeblood of every country’s top (US) $120 billion with predications that of quarantine.

economy. But the 45 left behind were left still

On the other hand, negative sentiment scrambling to try to find their way home.

labels this as the worst crisis in aviation histo- Late on Sunday one said it seemed that

ry. Worse than any other crisis faced by avi- SAA had at last arranged for them to fly to

ation, worse than the SARS epidemic, worse Amsterdam to catch another KLM flight to

than the 2001 September 11 attacks when Cape Town on Monday.

airline industry saw sharp dips in travel. Oh boy! Here is wishing that other
At the height of the SARS outbreak in repatriation flights roll out in a much more

May 2003, monthly RPKs of Asia-Pacific air- ordered fashion and bring our citizens

lines were 35% lower than their pre-crisis home safely. Q
World Airnews | July 2020
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