Airlines are getting ready to fly into an uncertain future

The world’s air carriers are preparing their cabins for take-off. After 18 months in which passenger planes were laid up in desert boneyards, converted into makeshift medical-supplies freighters, and even flown on short return hops just to maintain their pilots’ certifications, the machinery of the global aviation industry is gradually creaking back into life. Emirates, the biggest carrier by international traffic, is planning to hire 6,000 people over the coming six months and will have restored 70% of its pre-pandemic capacity by the end of the year. Heathrow Airport Tuesday reported its first quarter of passenger growth since 2019. Sales from General Electric’s business that makes and services jet engines climbed 9.7% in the September quarter. On a tracker of more than 100,000 daily flights maintained by FlightRadar24, a data provider, weekly average flight departures last week briefly moved ahead of the same period in pre-Covid 2019. It’s hard to believe it, but the moment that airlines have been waiting for is finally arriving. The EU largely opened itself up to vaccinated travelers last month, as did Canada and Turkey; India followed Oct. 15, and Thailand will begin a limited reopening Nov. 1. The biggest change was announced Monday: From Nov. 8, the US, the biggest recipient of inbound tourist dollars and the second-biggest spender on outbound tourism, will join the club of nations largely open to vaccinated travelers. This may all seem a little premature at time when half the world’s population has still not been inoculated — but air travel, like vaccines, is a luxury good hogged by richer nations. Story has more.<br/>