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Eurocontrol does not expect flight numbers in European airspace to recover to 2019 levels until 2026, according to its latest projection. Outlining its expectations for the coming five years in a 1 January paper, the air traffic management organisation says the region’s flight numbers are “on course” to track the middle of its three recovery scenarios, where vaccines are widely available, or the pandemic ends for any reason, by summer 2022. This recovery path “factors in likely progressive vaccine deployment across Europe” during 2021, but not “full coverage” or the “disappearance” of Covid-19 in the next 12 months. Such an outcome would mean 5.64m flight movements that touch the 44 European Civil Aviation Conference states in 2021, Eurocontrol predicts, which would equate to 51% of 2019 levels. Last year saw traffic at 44% of 2019 levels, it notes. During 2019, around 85% of flights tracked by Eurocontrol were commercial passenger operations, with rest accounted for by all-cargo, business aviation and non-scheduled services. Under the expected recovery scenario, the availability of vaccines makes a negligible difference to flight numbers in 2021 versus the worst-case scenario of no vaccines being rolled out – movements reaching 51% of 2019 levels versus 50% respectively – with a significant divergence only emerging in 2022, when numbers would be 72% and 58%. Traffic would only return to 92% of 2019 levels by 2024, with figures recovering fully in 2026. It describes the worst-case scenario – which would only see a recovery to 2019 flight levels in 2029 – as “least likely”.<br/>

There may have been far fewer airplanes in the skies this past year, but if you're looking ahead to future travel, you might take heed of the latest rankings of the world's safest airlines from AirlineRatings.com. AirlineRatings.com keeps tabs on 385 carriers from across the globe, measuring factors including the airlines' crash and serious incident records, and age of their aircraft. "The challenge this year was the number of airlines that were flying, although our Top 20 safest airlines have all continued to fly or had limited cessation of flights," AirlineRatings editor-in-chief Geoffrey Thomas said. For 2021, the airline safety and product review website awarded Aussie airline Qantas the top spot. AirlineRatings highlighted Qantas' commitment to retraining pilots ahead of a return to service after time out during the pandemic. AirlineRatings found that a Qantas 737 pilot must undergo a six day course ahead of returning to the skies, including a day focused on wellbeing. Qantas held the title of world's safest airline from 2014 to 2017. In 2018, AirlineRatings said it could find no clear winner and chose to rank its top 20 equally, but once again in 2019 and 2020 Qantas was crowned world's safest carrier. On some previous occasions, AirlineRatings has chosen its winner and then listed the rest of the top airlines alphabetically. But for 2021, the website has ranked each of the top 20 airlines in numerical order. Qatar Airways takes the number two spot, while Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Emirates round out the top five.<br/>

A group representing major US airlines on Monday backed a proposal by public health officials to implement a global testing program requiring negative tests before most international air passengers return to the United States, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Airlines for America also urged the Trump administration in a letter to VP Mike Pence “to move ahead with recommendations to rescind current entry restrictions on travelers from Europe, the United Kingdom and Brazil as soon as possible ... concurrently with the testing program.” In November, the White House was considering rescinding restrictions that ban most non US citizens from traveling to the US from the 26 members of the Schengen area that allow travel across open borders in Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil. “We believe a well-planned program focused on increasing testing of travelers to the United States will further these objectives in a much more effective way than the blanket travel restrictions currently in place,” the airlines’ letter said.<br/>Airlines support a US CDC proposal to implement “a global program to require testing for travelers to the United States,” the letter added. A senior administration official said the CDC proposal to expand international testing requirements faces significant opposition at top levels of the administration, including in Pence’s office. The White House coronavirus task force is expected to meet Tuesday and the issue is scheduled to be discussed, officials said.<br/>

Airlines say a slew of questions remain about the federal government's decision to require passengers returning to Canada to show negative results on COVID-19 tests taken abroad. Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced Thursday that air travellers overseas will have to present proof of a PCR test that was taken within 72 hours of departure, unless the testing is unavailable in that country. National Airlines Council of Canada CE Mike McNaney says the Transport Department has yet to provide a list of foreign agencies whose tests are considered acceptable or to establish how airline employees should determine whether a test document is valid. He says the new rule, which mandates a 14-day quarantine in Canada regardless of the test result, will cause “confusion” and “frustration” for carriers and passengers alike. Air Transat vice-president Christophe Hennebelle says Ottawa announced the requirement, which takes effect this Thursday, “out of the blue” without any prior consultation or notice to industry. Transport Canada did not immediately respond to questions Monday. The rule comes as a devastated airline sector continues to bleed cash following a collapse in demand caused by the pandemic. <br/>

Airlines trade group IATA has blasted the government of Canada after it imposed new travel restrictions on inbound air passengers beginning later this week. The organisation Sunday voiced its “deep frustration” at the country’s plans to introduce an additional coronavirus testing burden on arriving travellers, calling the new rules “callous and impractical”. The requirement is to take effect on 7 January. IATA also criticises the government for a stipulation making airlines responsible for ensuring passengers’ compliance with the regulation, saying “it cannot be the airline’s role to determine if a passenger tried their utmost to get tested or not”. “Canada already has one the world’s most draconian Covid-19 border-control regimes, including travel bans and quarantines,” IATA says. Adding the testing requirement is “the worst of both worlds”. “While the industry for months has been calling for systematic testing to reopen borders without quarantine measures, these pleas have fallen on deaf ears, especially in Canada,” the association adds. Canadian government officials said on 30 December that beginning in early January, all arriving passengers would be required to present a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result that is less than 72h old. That’s in addition to the mandatory 14-day quarantine for all inbound passengers which has been in effect since March. Unlike in other countries, where passengers arriving with proof of a negative coronavirus test are permitted to bypass quarantines, Canada’s new rule requires passengers isolation even if they test negative.<br/>

The US government screened 500m fewer people at US airport checkpoints in 2020, down 61% over 2019, as air travel slowed sharply during the coronavirus pandemic, the TSA said Monday. The TSA said it screened 324m passengers throughout its airport security checkpoints in 2020, down from 824m passengers screened in 2019. In recent weeks, travel has rebounded slightly. On Sunday, TSA screened 1.327m people at airport checkpoints, the most since mid-March, but still down 45% from the same day in 2020. TSA said it anticipates “daily travel volumes will continue to rise steadily and follow seasonal patterns. However, the agency expects volume will remain well below pre-pandemic levels through most of 2021.” Airlines for America, an industry trade group, said US airline passenger volumes were down 57% over 2019 levels in mid-December, with domestic travel down 56% and international air travel down 66%.<br/>

Airbus shares jumped on the year’s first trading day after the European planemaker closed in on 560 aircraft deliveries for 2020, despite the impact of the coronavirus. Shares in the Toulouse, France-based company advanced as much as 4.4%, the biggest intraday gain in more than a week. Bloomberg reported Saturday that Airbus was nearing the top end of its internal target, with the final audited tally of deliveries due for release later this week. The 2020 total will be well short of the record 863 aircraft the company handed over to customers in 2019, but would still help bolster Airbus’s coffers in a year which has seen widespread groundings wipe out demand for travel. Reaching 560 deliveries would be “likely ahead of buyside expectations,” Morgan Stanley analysts Andrew Humphrey and Joseph Ayoola wrote in a note on Monday.<br/>