Business travel as we’ve known it is a thing of the past. Businesses around the world are signaling that innovative new communications tools are making many pre-pandemic-era trips history. Take Akzo Nobel NV, Europe’s biggest paint maker, for instance. At its Amsterdam headquarters, CEO Thierry Vanlancker has spent the past year watching his manufacturing head, David Prinselaar, flap his arms, madly gesticulate and seemingly talk to himself while “visiting” 124 plants by directing staff with high-definition augmented-reality headgear on factory floors. A task that meant crisscrossing the globe in a plane before is now done in a fraction of the time — and with no jet lag. For Vanlancker, there’s no going back. A Bloomberg survey of 45 large businesses in the U.S., Europe and Asia shows that 84% plan to spend less on travel post-pandemic. A majority of the respondents cutting travel budgets see reductions of between 20% and 40%, with about two in three slashing both internal and external in-person meetings. The ease and efficiency of virtual software, cost savings and lower carbon emissions were the primary reasons cited for the cutbacks. According to the Global Business Travel Association, spending on corporate trips could slide to as low as $1.24t by 2024 from a pre-pandemic peak in 2019 of $1.43t. Story has more.<br/>
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Mexico could recover its Category 1 air safety rating with the US FAA in H1 2022, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday. The US aviation authority in May downgraded the country to a Category 2 rating, the lowest level. That barred Mexican carriers from adding new US flights and limited the ability of airlines to carry out marketing agreements with one another. The downgrade was a blow to the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which vowed to collaborate with US officials to remedy the situation as fast as possible. "We are working with that calendar. ... We are on our way to getting Mexico in the first half of next year again to level 1," Ebrard said. The Category 2 rating, according to the FAA, means Mexico lacks necessary requirements to oversee its air carriers in accordance with minimum international safety standards, or the civil aviation authority was deficient in one or more areas.<br/>
At least eight people were wounded on Monday in Houthi drone strikes on Saudi Arabia's Abha airport that also damaged a civilian airplane, Saudi officials said. Earlier, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen said it intercepted a Houthi drone that was targeting Abha International Airport. Shrapnel was scattered in the vicinity of the airport, the coalition said. State TV Ekhbaria said a second armed drone was intercepted, but debris wounded eight people and damaged a civilian airplane inside the airport. General manager of the airport Ahmed al-Qahtani said one person was in a critical condition and all the wounded were treated in the local hospital. "Tha airport hasn't cancelled any flight. We suspended the flights for security measures for several minutes or about half an hour," Qahatani said.<br/>
Jet-fuel demand in Asia suffered a blow last month as the delta coronavirus variant flared, prompting airlines to cut back on services and forcing local refiners to ship more of the unwanted fuel to the US and Europe. Airlines across 23 Asia-Pacific nations offered 22.2m seats in the final week of August, according to aviation-intelligence firm OAG. That’s about half the number at the end of January 2020 --- before widespread lockdowns savaged air travel -- and the lowest figure since February this year. The drop-off highlights the fragility of the recovery in energy demand, especially for jet fuel, which has been especially hard hit as many borders remain closed to fight the pandemic. China was among countries caught up in the delta wave, and saw seat capacity drop below 2019 levels, according to Mayur Patel, regional sales director of Asia Pacific and Japan at OAG. It’s unlikely there’ll be a significant recovery in international travel in Asia until at least 2022, when double-vaccination rates are likely to reach acceptable levels, according to Patel. “Even then, it is very likely that only those that have been double-vaccinated will be able to travel,” he said.<br/>
Changi Airport sunk into the red for the first time in the financial year ended March 31, with only 1.1m passengers passing through its gates as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaks havoc on air travel. It represented a 98% drop in passenger traffic from the previous year. The net loss attributable to shareholder was $954m, down from the $435m profit in financial year 2019/20. The number of planes passing through the airport fell by 80% in the same period, and concession sales plunged by almost 90%. The figures were reported in Changi Airport Group's (CAG) latest annual report released on Monday. CAG chairman Tan Gee Paw and CE Lee Seow Hiang said in a joint message that FY2020/2021 has been the most difficult year in Changi Airport's history. They said that hopes of travel recovery have been dampened by ongoing closure of borders, and that CAG has been especially hard hit due to the absence of a domestic air travel market in Singapore. The group said the $954m net loss registered was driven by the weaker performance due to the pandemic as well as non-cash impairment, depreciation and amortisation charges. It added that revenue from airport services, airport concessions and rental income all fell significantly, resulting in its overall revenue declining by 78% to $697m. But cargo demand has remained strong as countries sought to restore supply chains, CAG said.<br/>
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Board has moved to waive concessionaire rental payments in all its airports for the entire year, an official from the agency said on Tuesday. “Like MIAA (Manila International Airport Authority), CAAP Board in its ongoing Board meeting now just approved the recommendation to waive airport concession rental charges from January to December 2021,” CAAP Chief of Staff Danjun G. Lucas said. CAAP, an attached agency of the Department of Transportation (DoTr), said the initiative is part of efforts “to support aviation stakeholders, specifically concessionaires renting/leasing spaces in CAAP airport terminals, who were affected by the [coronavirus] pandemic.” “Waiving and deferment of airport concessionaire fees was first implemented by DoTr and CAAP in March 2020, following the order of the national government to place Luzon under Enhanced Community Quarantine or ECQ,” the agency added.<br/>