Page 70 - World Airnews Magazine February Edition 2021

AIRLINES

ASIA-PACIFIC OPTIMISTIC

RECOVERY

ATA Asia-Pacific head Conrad Clifford

Iis optimistic that vaccines will start
to relieve the impact of the coronavirus

pandemic, but that airlines still face a very
tough year.
Asked about the best case scenario for

airlines in 2021, Clifford said this would see
a rapid rollout of vaccines accompanied
by governments implementing standard

testing protocols.

With these two things in place, airlines
could “maybe half of where we were in
2019 by the end of the year.”
“The worst case scenario is somewhat

harder to define,” he said. countries There is also the critical role IATA international routes. He said regulators are

“I’m actually expecting that the vaccines members will play in distributing the vac- likely to be more accommodating toward

will work, and that they will get distribut- cine globally by air, and the airline body will joint venture arrangements, such as the
ed,” he said. continue to stress that quarantines amount proposed joint venture between Japan

“Obviously, we’ve got this new [Covid-19] to a de facto ban on air travel. Airlines and Qantas.

strain. I don’t think anybody really under- “Another thing is that we are continuing “It’s difficult for any airline to make mon-

stands what the impact of the new strain to talk to governments about the difficul- ey on their own,” he said.

is yet. But I’m pretty optimistic. I expect ties that airlines are having and the need to “So if you can allow some form of joint

authorities to find a solution for that one.” continue to provide subsidies and financial venture, which is what JAL and Qantas

In regard to IATA’s priorities in the support for airlines to maintain an industry, are proposing, it makes a lot of sense in

Asia-Pacific this year, he named five items. and also to continue to reduce or eliminate terms of restarting route connectivity…
First is the IATA Travel Pass Initiative. He costs,” he said. don’t forget, we’re back at 2003 levels for

noted that there are big issues with pas- “So that when things do get started, we passenger numbers. We’ve lost 17 years

sengers being denied boarding because of don’t see a start that fails, because costs have of route development. It’s difficult to bring
varying requirements between countries. gone up too much and it’s unsustainable.” that back overnight.”

Travel Pass will provide details on what As for regional dynamics, Clifford said
tests, vaccines and other measures passen- he expected more consolidation in the Article courtesy: https://www.flightglobal.

gers need before travelling. year ahead. He also expected airlines to com/strategy/vaccines-testing-key-for-

IATA will also continue to push hard for work together more closely. He noted that asia-pacific-recovery-this-year-

standardised testing approaches among load factors can be as low as 20-30% on iata/

AIRLINES
EMIRATES MORE FLIGHTS
Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Middle Eastern airlines saw demand
New York JFK, Toronto and Washington. drop 86 percent in the same month,
ubai’s Emirates airline has an- In South America, it will also intro- another slight improvement on the 86.9

Dnounced it is to resume flights duce a fifth weekly flight to São Paulo percent year-on-year drop in October.

to more destinations in South America from February 5. The Dubai-based The IATA data showed North Amer-

and the US, as demand begins to return airline currently serves 114 destinations ican demand was down 83 percent in

following the slowdown as a result of across six continents. November (and 87.8 percent in Octo-

the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) The International Air Transport Asso- ber), while in Latin America the drop

pandemic. ciation last week announced that total was 78.6 percent, a strong improve-

The airline will resume flights to Seat- global passenger demand was down ment on the 86.1 percent drop year-on-
tle from February 1 and Dallas and San 70.3 percent year-on-year in Novem- year in October.
Francisco from March 2. This will boost ber, a slight improvement on the 70.6

to ten the number of cities it flies to in percent year-to-year decline recorded Article courtesy https://www.

the US, with flights already operating to in October. arabnews.com/

World Airnews | February 2021
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