A senior executive at SAP, owner of one of the world’s largest travel expense management platforms, expects it to take until at least 2023 before revenues from its Concur unit return to pre-pandemic levels. After losses for Concur during the pandemic, the service is seeing an uptick for bookings and transactional revenue, CFO Luka Mucic said. Mucic said that transaction volume -- which includes fees for extra usage of Concur -- was on the rise. He expects Concur to return to pre-pandemic growth rates next year, although it will take until 2023 at the earliest to revert to those levels in absolute sales terms. “Customers in the wake of the pandemic and the far reduced travel volumes are tiering down their fixed committed contracts,” Mucic said, adding that despite the smaller deals, “Concur actually had a very strong bookings performance in Q3. They grew again in sizable double digits.” Airlines have pinned their recovery hopes in a return to business travel, encouraged by the recent US decision to allow vaccinated air travelers from Europe to enter the country. <br/>
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Two major US airlines and the White House said they do not think the Biden administration’s executive order mandating federal contractors require employee vaccinations by Dec. 8 will impact holiday travel or result in employees leaving. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines announced earlier this month they would comply with the mandate that employees be vaccinated by Dec. 8 unless they receive a religious or medical exemption. Some airlines and industry-watchers had initially feared an exodus of unvaccinated airline or government employees involved in travel just before the Christmas season but airlines later said that would not happen and cited comments from the White House this week. Southwest CE Gary Kelly said on Thursday: “We are not on a campaign here to force everybody to get vaccinated ... We want our employees to know that nobody is going to lose their job on December 9 if we’re not perfectly in compliance.” He added: “We’re not going to fire anybody who doesn’t get vaccinated.” He said the vaccination issue will not disrupt travel. White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients on Wednesday told reporters the vaccine requirements for federal employees and federal contractors would not impact holiday travel. “Vaccination requirements will not impact holiday travel,” Zients said.<br/>
The FAA said Thursday it was proposing to require flight attendants receive at least 10 hours of rest time between shifts after Congress had directed the action in 2018, according to a document released Thursday. Airlines for America, a trade group representing major carriers including American Airlines, Delta, United, had previously estimated the rules would cost its members $786m over 10 years for the 66% of US flight attendants its members employ. Aviation unions told the FAA the majority of US flight attendants now receive 10 hours of rest from airlines and had urged the rule’s quick adoption for safety and security reasons. The FAA said “flight attendants serve hundreds of millions of passengers on close to 10 million flights annually in the United States” and added “flight attendants perform safety and security functions while on duty in addition to serving customers.” It cited reports that about the “potential for fatigue to be associated with poor performance of safety and security related tasks,” including in 2017, “a flight attendant reported almost causing the gate agent to deploy a slide” which was attributed to fatigue and other issues. The FAA estimated the regulation could prompt the industry to hire another 1,042 flight attendants and cost $118m annually, but said if hiring assumptions were cut in half it would cut estimated costs by over 30%. After the FAA published an advance notice of the planned rules in 2019, Delta announce it would mandate the 10-hour rest requirement by February 2020.<br/>
PM Justin Trudeau announced provinces and the federal government have agreed on a new national vaccine passport for domestic and international travel - and many Canadians already have them in their phones and wallets. Rather than distribute a separate federal document for international travel, provinces and territories have agreed to tailor their own vaccine passports so they will all have the same look, feel and security measures based on the international standard for so-called smart health cards, which contain features to help prevent tampering. Several have already begun to roll out the new proofs of vaccination, including Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories and Yukon. “I'm happy to confirm that all provinces and territories have confirmed that they will be moving forward with a standardized, national proof of vaccination,” Trudeau said Thursday. All provinces plan to have their version of the Canadian document available by the end of November, said government officials in a technical briefing held on condition of anonymity. The passport will be digital and feature a QR code that includes the vaccination history. Paper copies will also be accepted.<br/>
Thailand will let vaccinated visitors from 46 countries forgo COVID-19 quarantine from next month, up from 10 previously announced, PM Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Thursday. The Southeast Asian country is poised to introduce the new quarantine-free travel arrangements on Nov. 1 as it seeks to revive its vital tourism industry. The 46 countries include Britain, the United States, China, Singapore, Germany and Australia, according to the ministry of foreign affairs. Prayuth said the visitors could skip mandatory quarantine as long as they arrive via air, have been fully vaccinated and have a document to show they are virus-free. Thailand will reopen the capital Bangkok and other key tourist destinations, including Hua Hin and Pattaya, where curfews will be lifted at the end of the month, according to the Royal Gazette released late on Thursday. Strict entry requirements and quarantine measures helped keep Thailand’s coronavirus outbreaks under control until recent months, but the curbs saw arrival numbers plummet to a fraction of the nearly 40m visitors seen in 2019.<br/>
Indonesia is tightening air travel measures to ensure an anticipated jump in the number of passengers ahead of year-end holidays won’t lead to a resurgence in coronavirus infections. Airlines must allocate dedicated seats for any passengers who show symptoms during the flight, even when they have tested negative for the virus before departure, according to Covid-19 taskforce spokesman Wiku Adisasmito. Only vaccinated people who can produce a negative PCR test result are allowed to fly, particularly in Java and Bali areas, he said in a briefing Thursday. Previously, those who are fully inoculated only need a negative rapid antigen test in lieu of a PCR one. Indonesia has started reopening its international borders as cases and deaths from Covid-19 fell to their lowest since the middle of last year. The country has loosened much of its pandemic restrictions to revive the economy.<br/>
Private jet demand has boomed during the pandemic as the wealthy took control of their travel, yet the flight to luxury could have limited runway as some buyers spend beyond their means and the sector presents a prime target for climate critics. Bidding wars for second-hand planes and premiums for early delivery of new ones dominated chatter at the National Business Aviation Association's show in Las Vegas last week. It's a boon for publicly traded corporate planemakers who are increasingly selling aircraft without the discounts that had become pervasive after the industry fell from favor in the 2008-2009 financial crisis. General Dynamics Corp's Gulfstream Aerospace, Bombardier, Textron and Dassault Aviation are leaders by value of deliveries, which supplier Honeywell values at $238b over the next decade. "I'm hearing from people every day who are interested in getting into private aircraft," said Stephen Hofer, president of Aerlex Law Group, which does aircraft transactions. But the influx of new entrants, often wealthy individuals and families who upgraded their travel from first-class airline tickets during the pandemic, brings some new risks. One veteran broker described a new buyer who had purchased a plane at prices he could only afford by leasing the aircraft for part of the time to other travelers. If leasing demand wanes, the buyer could have difficulty paying for the jet, warned the broker who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity. "These are people who have never got a $1 million maintenance bill before," said the broker, adding such practices are reminiscent of market activity before the 2008 crash.<br/>
Brazilian airframer Embraer delivered 30 jets in Q3 2021, two more than in the same period during 2020. Of the aircraft delivered in the three months, nine were commercial aircraft and 21 were executive jets, the Sao Jose dos Campos-headquartered company says on 21 October. The Brazilian airframer handed over 28 jets in Q3 2020 – seven commercial aircraft and 21 executive jets. Included in the 2021 Q3 deliveries were six E175s and three new-generation E195-E2s. During the period, Embraer announced the sale of 16 E175s to SkyWest for operation in Delta’s network. That is in addition to 71 E175s SkyWest already operates for Delta. Embraer’s commercial aircraft backlog at the end of Q3 stood at 313 aircraft, including 151 E175s, three E190s, five E190-E2s and 154 E195-E2s. The company says the backlog is worth $16.8b.<br/>