Business travel has started again, but in fits and starts. Hotels and airlines have reported a rise in bookings for travel in the United States in the last couple of months. The expanded Javits Convention Center, New York City’s main convention hall, reopened on Sunday and had a number of big events on its schedule for the rest of the year, including the New York International Auto Show. Then last week, as Covid-19 cases rose, the auto show’s organizers canceled it, though the center said it was keeping other events on its books. San Diego’s convention center, which reopened last week, is still expecting a series of shows this fall. (On the calendar for Thanksgiving weekend: a “special edition” of Comic-Con.) But the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus is throwing a new wrench into businesses’ plans, and the question is whether the spike in cases will be brief or more long-lived. Travel experts said they remained optimistic that business travel will pick up substantially later this year and early in 2022. Or as Christopher J. Nassetta, the president and CE of Hilton, put it on an earnings call last month, “People have to meet.” Leisure travel has come roaring back this summer. But the airline and hotel industries long depended on business travel for a substantial portion of their revenues because those customers, who often made their plans at the last minute, could be counted on to pay more for seats and rooms. Now that the pandemic has upended the notion that travel is necessary to do business, the question is how much it will resume, even when Covid is brought under control. Even the experts who were most optimistic about the prospects for business travel a month or so ago have begun to temper their forecasts. Story has more.<br/>
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Long delays were reported at the border on Monday as Canada finally opened to fully vaccinated American tourists for the first time in 16 months, causing a rush of travelers during the busy summer season - and bottlenecks for a desperate tourism industry. Government data showed a seven-hour wait for the Fort Frances, Ontario, and International Falls, Minnesota, crossing. Fort Frances advertises itself online as "rarely experiencing delays." Several crossings in Ontario and New Brunswick - between the states of New York and Maine - had waits of three hours. Canada barred all leisure travel from the United States in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But as of Aug. 9 fully vaccinated Americans are able to enter the country. International travelers who are fully vaccinated will be allowed to enter in early September. Late on Friday, the Canadian government and border staff reached a tentative deal to end a strike that began earlier in the day and caused delays even before Americans began arriving. Toronto's Pearson International Airport, Canada's biggest, has also asked travelers to brace for delays as American leisure travelers return. <br/>
Qatar’s government is advancing a plan to establish its own separate airspace, aiming to withdraw from the long-standing arrangement under which Bahrain oversees much of the emirate’s air traffic. Its proposal would split the Bahrain flight information region – which stretches along much of the western Persian Gulf from the United Arab Emirates to Kuwait – into two sections of airspace, with a new boundary of about 90nm running between Bahrain and Qatar. ICAO’s Council agreed in principle, at a session on 21 June, on the establishment of a new Doha FIR and invited Bahrain and Qatar to “discuss co-operatively” the technical arrangements. Qatar’s ministry of transport says co-ordination efforts with Bahrain have started, and findings from the discussions with Bahrain are due to be presented at the next ICAO Council session scheduled for October-November. Through its proposal, the ministry adds, Qatar aims to “support development of safe and sustainable air transport operations” in the region, adding that the change relies on “good relations” and “mutual respect” among the states involved to ensure smooth services. Bahrain oversees air traffic in Qatari airspace except for the Doha terminal area. ICAO’s Council points out that Bahrain has provided “safe and efficient” air navigation services over several decades in the area, after being delegated the responsibility by Qatar. But it also acknowledges that Qatar has the right to request establishment of its own FIR and search-and-rescue region. Story has more background.<br/>
From wellness workshops to dinner with a celebrity chef and flights to nowhere, Asia’s big international airlines are working hard to keep their most lucrative customers engaged as the pandemic-related travel halt stretches beyond 18 months. While flights are starting to rebound in the United States and Europe, international travel is still down 96% in Asia due to tough travel restrictions, making it harder to maintain a relationship with grounded premium clients. Elite frequent flyers, many of them business travellers, are coveted by full-service carriers like Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, and the airlines want them back when travel resumes. Before the pandemic, around 5% of international passengers globally flew in premium classes, but they accounted for 30% of international revenue, data from airline industry group IATA shows. Asian airlines have given status extensions of at least two years to elite tier customers who have earned access to airport lounges and other perks such as priority access to seats and upgrades to higher flight classes. Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth said customers had made clear to the airline that such extensions were important. “They work in many cases for years to achieve these high statuses and high tiers, so it was really important for us that we were going to continue to be loyal to them just as they had been loyal to us in the years gone by,” she said. For airlines, the extensions come at relatively little cost given the potential future reward. Grounded elite members are not accessing airport lounges stocked with fine wines, made-to-order meals and day spas, although Qantas did host a dinner in Sydney for a few of them with celebrity chef Neil Perry and CEO Alan Joyce in June. Story has more.<br/>
The number of seats being offered by airline carriers in China dropped the most since early in the Covid-19 pandemic, as rising cases of the delta variant spurred fresh restrictions on movement. Seat capacity plunged 32% in one week, hastening a decline in the country that began at the end of July, based on data from aviation specialist OAG. China’s stumble sent global capacity on a weekly 6.5% slide, as travel comebacks also stagnated in Europe and North America. The surge in Chinese cases has dealt a fresh blow to tourism on the mainland during the peak summer holiday. China, which at one point during the pandemic overtook the US as the world’s largest aviation market, is battling its broadest outbreak since the virus first emerged in the city of Wuhan in late 2019. After starting in India, the delta variant spread to the UK, interrupting its reopening plans, and is now putting recoveries in the U.S. and European Union at risk. Other Asian countries, such as Thailand and Vietnam, also continue to struggle with outbreaks. Globally, airline capacity now stands at 64% of pre-pandemic levels, after a 4-point slide versus 2019 in a single week. The US was little changed, as was Europe, following rapid gains in June and July. “The data is beginning to point to a recovery being further away than we had perhaps hoped a few weeks back,” said John Grant, the chief analyst at OAG. “In the next few weeks, airlines will begin to look long and hard at their winter 2021/22 programs, and many of the data points would suggest that capacity will not be much better than last winter.”<br/>
Singapore's Changi has finally been replaced as the world's best airport. Skytrax's annual ranking of the world's best airports has a new name on top – Doha's Hamad International Airport in Qatar. Changi, which has ruled for the last eight years, has slipped to third behind Tokyo's Haneda Airport.<br/>The rankings are voted for by the public, and Skytrax admits that the rankings have been affected by the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. "The 2021 World Airport Awards recognise the efforts of global airports in adapting and meeting the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. The past 18 months has been the most challenging and financially difficult period ever experienced by the world air transport industry, and airports have invested to provide the safest possible environment for their customers and staff during the global pandemic." It added that "many travellers (are) voting for their favourite/best airport based on pre-pandemic travel experiences, whilst other customers voted after their Covid-19 Airport Experience during the past 12 months".<br/>