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Vaccine passports will probably become redundant as more people are inoculated against Covid, and efforts to create a common standard are stymied by differing entry requirements, the head of the world’s biggest airline alliance said. “There’s no way that this has been integrated in one place,” Star Alliance CEO Jeffrey Goh said. “If you look to the future, if we were all vaccinated, or if we were all 90% vaccinated, why would you get a vaccination certificate? There will come to a point where maybe you don’t really need this.” Efforts to create a vaccine passport to make travel easier have faced challenges because governments initially didn’t recognize some vaccines, Goh said. Airlines and governments also use many different technology platforms, making it difficult to find a common standard, he said. Governments have been working to create a unified policy that will ease travel for vaccinated people. Airlines have supported a number of tech solutions to verify passengers’ vaccine status or testing results, such as the IATA Travel Pass app by the IATA. With travel starting to show signs of revival, the immediate concern is that people may take longer to check in because a lot of documents are needed, putting strain on airport infrastructure, Goh said. Leisure will lead the recovery in travel and could reach a comparable level to that seen in 2019 probably in late 2023 or early 2024, Goh said. There is a possibility that business travel may see some structural change because companies are trying to keep costs down and reduce their carbon footprint, he said.<br/>

Greece’s largest carrier Aegean Airlines swung to a net profit in 2021, after losses in the previous year, as passenger traffic recovered from pandemic travel restrictions. Aegean said on Wednesday it made net earnings of E5.1m (US$5.6m) last year, compared with a loss of E227.9m in 2020. Sales rose 63% to E674.8m. CE Dimitris Gerogiannis said the pandemic had a significant impact last year, and the recovery in passenger traffic mainly took place in June-to-October, as it was interrupted by the emergence of the Omicron variant in November. “In 2022 the sector expects a significant rebound and demand for Greece’s tourism product looks particularly strong. At the same time though, Russia’s invasion in Ukraine caused new uncertainties, seriously impacting the cost of fuel,” he said. The airline flew 7.19m passengers last year, up 39% from 2020, with its load factor - a key industry measure of filled seats - easing to 65.5% from 67.4% in 2020. The company’s cash reserves at the end of December stood at E474.4m, the airline said.<br/>

SAS’s CFO, Magnus Ornberg, is to step down from his position in the next few weeks. Ornberg has chosen to leave the airline in spring, says SAS. He has held the post for less than two years, having joined in autumn 2020, after being recruited from the top financial role at Swedish defence and security firm Saab. “It has not been an easy decision to leave such a stimulating environment, and an absolutely fantastic team,” says Ornberg. SAS says it has started the “prompt recruitment” of a successor. CE Anko van der Werff says Ornberg has made “great efforts” during his time at the company and accepts his decision to leave with “regret”. Ornberg has not indicated where he might be heading. But he leaves the airline at a crucial point in its development. The carrier remains under financial pressure following the impact of the pandemic, and it has embarked on a transformation plan – known as ‘SAS Forward’ – to secure its long-term competitiveness.<br/>

Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam, who transformed the airline into Africa's biggest carrier, said on Wednesday he had resigned to focus on his medical treatment. In an internal memo to employees seen by Reuters he said he had had health issues for almost a year and had been working from the United States for the past five months and was not able to return to the head office any time soon. "I am retiring early due to health issues," he said, echoing the language in the memo which said he would focus on his treatment. In his 11 years at the helm, Tewolde grew the carrier from just 33 planes into a fleet of 130 planes operating on local and international routes, and from 3m passengers to 12m passengers, pre-COVID, the airline said. "Mr. Tewolde led the airline for over a decade with remarkable success reflected in its exceptional performance in all parameters including but not limited to exponential growth from 1b USD annual turn-over to $4.5b," the state-owned carrier said. "Under his leadership, the airline group has grown by four fold in all measurements." The airline confirmed the board had accepted his request for early retirement and said a successor would be announced shortly. Tewolde led the company through the coronavirus pandemic without bailouts by pivoting to cargo, keeping the company profitable and cash positive. Tewolde also helped the airline recover from the crash three years ago of flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX bound for Kenya, killing all 157 passengers and crew. Tewolde's career saw him win a number of accolades including "African CEO of the Year" and "Best African Business Leader", according to the Ethiopian Airlines website. "Tewolde is one of the best performing CEOs of a multinational anywhere in the world. He has more than delivered on every performance matrix," said Zemedeneh Negatu, global chairman of Fairfax Africa Fund, a Washington-based investment and transaction advisory firm.<br/>

Air New Zealand has brought back 800 furloughed or former staff before the border reopens to tourists. Air NZ CEe Greg Foran said it was a combination of pilots and flight attendants. "They're really thrilled to be back." However, he said unvaccinated pilots would not return just yet. "Not at this point, until we change our policies on that and that's something that we're considering." He said the airline would look to bring back all the staff it had let go. "We ended up letting 4500 Air New Zealanders go... that's reflective of what happens when a business loses 95 percent of its revenue. The great thing about it is we're now seeing a recovery. It's been almost 800 days since this began and we're excited about being able to get up and running." The airline also revealed it would be flying to New York City from September. The trip is at least 17 hours long. Air NZ estimates the three-flight per week service could pump $65m a year into Aotearoa. The news comes on the same day the government announced significant loosening of Covid-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.<br/>