Brazil’s government aims to jointly tender concessions to run Rio de Janeiro’s Galeao and Santos Dumont airports by the end of the first half of 2023, Infrastructure Minister Tarcisio de Freitas said on Thursday. RIOgaleao, the current concession-holder of Tom Jobim International Airport, as the city’s main hub is also known, announced earlier on Thursday it had told the government it plans to return its holding due to the impacts of COVID-19 on the aviation sector. The government had been hoping to tender the city’s smaller Santos Dumont airport this year, along with various others. <br/>
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The number of flights in European airspace is tracking Eurocontrol’s ‘low’ scenario so far in February, despite Ryanair operating at above pre-pandemic levels, as the region’s response to the Omicron variant of Covid-19 hits the recovery trajectory. Traffic in the week of 3-9 February was at 68% of 2019 levels, the European air traffic manager said on 10 February, against a ‘low’ scenario of 67% for the whole month, which was projected pre-Omicron in October last year. Low-cost airline flights were down 39% for the week and network airline operations down 41%, with higher business aviation, cargo and non-scheduled flights versus 2019 levels offsetting those declines to an extent. Of the airlines tracked, Ryanair’s aggressive reintroduction of capacity means it continues to have an outsized impact on the overall numbers, operating 1% more flights on 3-9 February than it did in the same period of 2019. Ryanair’s average of 1,920 flights accounted for around 11% of the average daily total of 17,719 for the Eurocontrol region. Had Ryanair’s flight numbers been down in line with its peers’, the overall number of flights in the region on 3-9 February would have fallen below Eurocontrol’s ‘low’ scenario for the whole month. The Irish carrier’s flight numbers were almost double the daily average of 1,003 operated by the next-busiest carrier on 3-9 February, Turkish Airlines, whose numbers were down 20% from 2019. In third place, EasyJet operated an average of 800 daily flights on 3-9 February, a fall of 46% from 2019, followed by Lufthansa at 720 flights (-50%), Air France at 651 flights (-41%), KLM at 559 flights (-22%), British Airways at 410 flights (-53%), Wizz Air at 355 flights (-22%), Pegasus at 352 flights (-19%) and SAS at 348 flights (-56%).<br/>
International bookings for flights to Southeast Asian countries that are relaxing tight pandemic-related border controls rose sharply in January, data from online travel company Skyscanner shows, in a positive sign for the region’s hard-hit airlines. International passenger travel in the Asia-Pacific region was down 93% from pre-pandemic levels last year, leaving airlines heavily reliant on freight for revenue, and the large Chinese outbound tourism market remains closed. However, countries like Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore are emerging from an Omicron-variant related pause and reopening to vaccinated travellers. Return economy-class bookings to those destinations from travellers in places like Britain, the United States and Germany rose by between 19% and 300% in January relative to December, according to Skyscanner, which is owned by Trip.com Group . “From Skyscanner’s global footprint, we’ve seen that when restrictions do ease, travellers react and are willing adapt to new measures in order to be able to travel internationally again,” Skyscanner Senior Regional Director Asia Pacific Paul Whiteway said Thursday. “Over the coming weeks, we will see markets react to the news, airlines announcing new schedules and building capacity to allow the return of international travel at scale,” he added. Australia on Monday said it would reopen here its borders to international tourists from Feb. 21, leading to a 200% rise in bookings on the first day, Skyscanner data showed, with the highest volumes coming from Britain.<br/>
A new whitepaper about air travel in Southeast Asia contends that the region’s Covid-hit hubs should look to boost regional connectivity. The whitepaper observes that Southeast Asia’s connections with long-haul routes have been restored faster than regional routes. This, however, should start to change in 2022. Sponsored by the Aviation Studies Institute at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, the whitepaper was penned by independent aviation consultant Brendan Sobie. It focuses on the five biggest hubs within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) before 2019: Singapore Changi, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Kuala Lumpur International, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta, and Manila Ninoy Aquino. These five airports accounted of about 40% of passenger traffic before the pandemic. While 50% of long-haul routes to ASEAN hubs have been restored, just 25% of international routes within the region and just 20% of international routes between ASEAN and the rest of Asia-Pacific have come back. “As more markets in Asia-Pacific reopen the regional international segment – excluding China – is expected to start recovering faster than the long-haul segment,” writes Sobie.“The recovery within ASEAN should be particularly fast once borders reopen and travel restrictions are lifted. There are close cultural and economic ties between ASEAN countries and there is huge pent-up demand for travel within ASEAN.” There is, however, little hope of an imminent return of the strong China traffic that the region enjoyed in the pre-pandemic era. One way to help offset this is through improved regional connectivity.<br/>
The Philippines welcomed back more than 200 foreign tourists on Thursday, becoming the latest Southeast Asian nation to reopen in a bid to revive a battered tourism sector after its borders shut to visitors nearly two years ago due to the pandemic. Popular for its white sand beaches and rich marine life, the Philippines has seen a sharp drop in coronavirus cases. Tourism officials at Manila's airport greeted passengers flying in from countries including the United States and China to visit beaches or reunite with family and friends. "I think it will be a good boost for tourism and the Filipino economy," said Shawn James Stickney, 31, a Malaysian social media influencer living in Australia who flew in to surprise his girlfriend. At the Walled City of Intramuros in Manila, horse carriage drivers and bike rental operators were preparing for what they hoped would be a steady flow of vacationers to revive their incomes. Tourists need to show proof of vaccination but do not need to quarantine and travel companies hope the trickle of arrivals will turn into a flood to give the sector a lift.<br/>
The head of the Civil Aviation Authority Singapore (CAAS) believes 2022 will be a year of rebuilding Singapore’s position as a leading international hub. CAAS director-general Han Kok Juan notes that air travel is essential for Singapore, which thrives on connectivity with other countries. He notes that the coronavirus pandemic has “severely impacted” this connectivity. “The survival and continued success of our air hub is existential to Singapore, an island state which relies on our connectivity to the world for people-to-people exchanges, the flow of goods, capital and talent, and our position as an international financial and business centre,” he says. “Therefore, government assistance in the last two years has been critical in helping to retain Singapore’s connectivity with the world and in helping companies and workers retain core capabilities built up over many years.” Han notes that air travel sectors in both Europe and North America have staged strong recoveries, and that this demonstrates the resilience of air travel demand, and how quickly things bounce back when restrictions are removed. Asia, however, will likely trail behind the rest of the world, with the risk of new coronavirus variants<br/>
The likelihood of business travel demand weakening permanently could lead Boeing to tweak the design of whatever jet it develops next. That is according to aerospace analyst Kevin Michaels, who thinks the pandemic could lead Boeing to develop a smaller aircraft than previously planned. Boeing is widely expected to launch development of a new jet in the coming years, though exactly when remains unclear. Also unclear is the capacity of that aircraft: Boeing could potentially launch a 737 replacement, or — and perhaps viewed as more likely — it could move forward with a slightly larger jet: a “mid-market” aircraft, like a modernised 757. Of course, Boeing’s design parameters will reflect its expectations about air travel demand – a future that Covid-19 has clouded. Though leisure travel has rebounded nicely on domestic and short-haul routes, business travel has not. When that high-profit sector will fully return, if ever, is up for debate. US airlines have predicted a protracted rebound. But Michaels, managing partner of consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, suspects business travel might never again resemble the pre-Covid normal. “I, for one, think it will change forever,” he says on 9 February, speaking during the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance annual meeting in Lynnwood, Washington. Specifically, Michaels thinks some “intra-organisational travel” – meaning employees travelling to meet with colleagues who work for the same company – will never fully return. That segment accounts for 30% of business travel, he says.<br/>