general

Airlines and airports are under growing pressure to avoid another wave of global travel disruption, as booming demand for flying puts new strain on a system that buckled over the past 12 months. Industry bosses are confident a combination of extra resources and some caps on capacity mean last summer’s chaotic scenes that marred the return to mass travel after pandemic-related interruptions will be avoided. But they still expect pockets of disruption during peak seasons as a lack of experienced staff and the pile-up of bookings weigh on a system that remains fragile. “Everyone had their fingers burnt during the summer. I think it is in everyone’s interest we improve,” said Jozsef Varadi, chief executive of Europe’s Wizz Air. Some companies have chosen to impose limits on passenger numbers to protect their operations during peak periods. Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport still has a cap on passenger numbers in place, and has asked airlines to cut ticket sales by 5 per cent on busy mornings during holidays in May. London’s Heathrow will stop airlines adding extra flights during the summer peak, while German carrier Lufthansa has cut some planned flights because of staff shortages, according to German media reports. The CE of British Airways owner IAG said he was “worried” about capacity at Heathrow this summer, as he pushed companies operating at the airport to ensure they were properly staffed. Heathrow CE John Holland-Kaye also warned that the industry still needed more experienced staff to cope, although he was confident major disruption at the airport would be avoided. Staff numbers at the 400 companies that work across Heathrow have recovered to about 75,000 people, up from 50,000 at the height of the pandemic, but still 2,000 fewer than in 2019. “We are aiming to have more than 77,000 for the summer because people don’t have the same levels of skills and efficiency than pre-pandemic,” he said.<br/>

Another close call between commercial airliners at a major US airport is under federal investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board announced Friday that it is investigating a Wednesday evening runway incursion at Bob Hope Burbank Airport in California. The NTSB says the crew of a landing Mesa Airlines CRJ900 “executed a pilot-initiated go-around” as a SkyWest Embraer E175 was taking off from the same runway. A go-around is a landing aborted on the approach. The NTSB says neither airplane was damaged and nobody on board was hurt. LiveATC.net recordings from the time of the incident chronicle confusion over whether the SkyWest flight was off the runway. “Is he off the runway yet?” asked one unidentified voice. “We’re going around,” responded the crew of the Mesa flight. The incident is the fourth runway incursion involving commercial airliners under investigation by the NTSB since the start of this year, including incidents at Honolulu, Austin and New York’s JFK airport.<br/>

Germany's Verdi union is planning strikes at two regional airports, Cologne Bonn and Duesseldorf, and several cities in the western state of North Rhine Westphalia, it said in a statement on Friday. The 24-hour Cologne Bonn airport strike will begin Sunday night, with Duesseldorf airport following shortly after, Verdi said, warning that delays, cancellations and even a partial shutdown of the airports should be expected. Verdi brought air traffic to a standstill last week with one-day strikes at seven major airports, including the Frankfurt and Munich hubs, affecting nearly 300,000 passengers according to the airport association ADV. Collective bargaining is currently underway for public service workers as well as aviation security workers, said Verdi, adding that an agreement had become a distant prospect. In North Rhine Westphalia, which includes the cities of Cologne, Leverkusen and Bonn, the public services strikes would start at the beginning of next week, Verdi said, adding that it would share more information in due time.<br/>

London's Heathrow Airport, Britain's main travel hub, expects passenger numbers this year to be at the upper end of its forecasts, as demand continues to bounce back after COVID restrictions despite business travel lagging. Heathrow, owned by Spanish group Ferrovial, Qatar Investment Authority and other investors, forecasts it will carry 58-73m passengers in 2023, which is around 90% of pre-pandemic levels at the upper end of the range. Pent-up demand for leisure travel after three years of COVID-19 restrictions is driving passenger numbers, said Heathrow's CEJohn Holland-Kaye on Thursday. "Business demand is probably the only area that is lower than we would have expected," he said. Business travellers represented 28% of passenger numbers during the final three months of 2022, compared with 32% in the same period pre-pandemic, he said. "What we're seeing there, is a lot of consulting companies, banks, tech companies, who are big travellers, are pulling back on travel as they're making the cost reductions," he said. In 2022, Heathrow reported passenger numbers of 62m, in line with forecasts, representing 75% of pre-pandemic levels. The company's annual adjusted loss before tax narrowed to GBP684m from the GBP1.27b loss it made a year earlier, when COVID-19 travel restrictions were still in place at the beginning of the year.<br/>

Central Asian airlines are seizing opportunities from Russia's closed airspace, with airline traffic into the region booming in the year since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, executives and analysts said. Flights in and out of the region have surged as airlines that previously flew over Russia are now passing through or flying over central Asia to get to Asia and the Middle East. New airlines, bolstered by government support, have also popped up to capitalise on the new traffic. "A lot of people have moved from the conflict area into Central Asia...they have the linguistic affinity so we're seeing more flights into this area and we're seeing more dynamic economies," said Raphael Haddad, the head of JetCraft Commercial, a firm that sells aircraft globally and in the region. Since the early days of the war, Russian airspace has been closed to dozens of Western countries. As a result, flights between many European countries and Uzbekistan have risen 105.9% since 2019 and 36% since January of 2022, according to Eurocontrol data. Kazakhstan's Aviation Administration says passengers are up 16.5% year-on-year, while Kazakhstan's Air Astana announced 2022 as its best year ever with after-tax profit at $78.4m. In Uzbekistan, authorities have helped launch a new airline called Silk Avia and another called Air Samarkand, hoping to capitalise on the increase in traffic. "The startups, some of them are supported by local governments or local businessmen that have seen an opportunity to enter a market which is becoming a more dynamic," Haddad said. The shift comes as European airlines struggle to figure out new routes into Asia since the closure of Russian airspace, while Russian airlines grapple with challenges in serving their local travellers still keen to go on holidays abroad.<br/>

Chinese carriers are chasing the vapour trails of the rest of the airline industry as international travel picks up again with the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. The number of passengers taking foreign trips with the country’s three main airlines last month was 10 per cent of pre-pandemic levels four years earlier, according to aviation consultancy Cirium. Despite Beijing abandoning its strict zero-Covid policies at the end of last year, flights in and out of mainland China are limited, airfares remain elevated and Beijing has been reluctant to grant new tourist visas to foreigners. Covid tests for travellers from China to countries around the world are still common and acting as a deterrent to flying. While North America and Europe are expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels of travel this year, China is facing a longer timescale. “We expect international passenger numbers in China will only return to pre-Covid levels in 2025, with short-haul recovery outpacing long-haul,” said Eric Lin, head of research at UBS China. The “Big Three” — Air China, the country’s flag carrier, China Eastern and China Southern — have all issued profit warnings in recent weeks and were weighed down with combined record losses of more than Rmb100b ($14.4b) forecast for 2022. Air China has been hit the hardest, with international flights having accounted for 31% of pre-pandemic revenues. It expects to report losses of up to Rmb39.5bn for 2022. To bolster its financial position, the carrier raised Rmb15bn through a private placement in December, with UBS and Air China’s state-owned parent China National Aviation Holding as co-investors. China Eastern Airlines also did a similar deal that month. “Financing through the capital market is a self-rescue behaviour for these enterprises,” said Chen Wei, partner at the law firm Commerce & Finance, which advised Air China on the placement. Private airlines have fared little better, though those focused on domestic flights showed greater resilience while China was closed to the world under zero-Covid.<br/>

Wealthy passengers in China are having to book private jets weeks in advance on sought-after routes as companies struggle to meet surging demand after the country’s exit from zero-Covid. Beijing’s decision late last year to scrap mandatory quarantine for inbound arrivals and reopen its borders, pivoting away from previous tight curbs on travel, has sparked a scramble to charter aircraft, in an echo of the clamour for private flights seen in other markets during the pandemic. The number of domestic and international flights made on private jets from mainland China was 32 per cent higher in January compared with last year and 10 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to aviation data firm WingX. Demand for private jets has also been driven by the slow reopening of international commercial services between China and the rest of the world, while some of the country’s wealthy sold their private aircraft during the pandemic. Asian Sky Group, which offers private jet charter brokerage services to wealthy clients, said jets in China are facing significantly “tight availability” after the borders reopened. “Sometimes we simply cannot secure the jet that the client wants,” said charter services manager Daniel Tsang. A private jet charter from Shanghai to Bangkok now costs about $120,000 for a maximum of 13 people in a Bombardier Global 6000, according to Tsang, compared to less than $100,000 before the pandemic. Other popular international destinations from China include Singapore — where increased numbers of wealthy Chinese are parking their assets — and Japan. Availability is also tight on heavily used domestic routes. Paul Desgrosseilliers, chairman of Metrojet Haite Business Aviation which owns Shenzhen-based Funian Aviation, has seen clients struggle to secure a Gulfstream 550 at short notice to fly between Beijing and the southern commercial hub of Shenzhen. Funian has already “received many requests” for April and beyond, he said.<br/>

Hong Kong’s goal of reclaiming its spot as Asia’s premier financial hub is being tested by a scarcity of air industry workers vital for re-establishing the city’s international links. The damage caused by years of closed borders is proving hard to undo. The number of workers employed at the Norman Foster-designed airport at the end of December 2022 was just 68% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the most recent figures provided by the Airport Authority of Hong Kong. Airlines are struggling to hire staff locally, prompting carriers to put off resuming routes shuttered during the pandemic. Qantas Airways delayed the restart of flights between the city and Melbourne by three months to mid-June because of a labour shortage at its contractor at Hong Kong International Airport, according to a source with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified as the information is not public. Manpower constraints are making it tough for local start-up Greater Bay Airlines to add flights from Hong Kong, chief executive Stanley Hui told Bloomberg News in February. Even the city’s in-town check-in service has yet to reopen, another sign of the slow pace of recovery. “The substantial loss of manpower is the crucial factor affecting the aviation industry,” said Mr Perry Yiu, a lawmaker representing the tourism sector. “The shortage includes not only pilots, flight attendants and engineers, but also ground staff and grassroots workers.”<br/>

Authorities in Macau, the world's biggest gambling hub, said on Sunday they would drop COVID 19-related mask requirements for most locations, except for public transportation, hospitals and a handful of other areas. The rule change takes effect from Monday, the government said in a statement on its website. "The epidemic situation in Macau has continuously remained stable over the last two months," it said. "Making reference from the anti-epidemic experience world wide, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre will adjust its mask-wearing requirements." The neighbouring Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong, one of the last places globally that still imposes a mask mandate, extended its requirement until March 8, although the authorities have said they hope to drop it as quickly as possible. Hong Kong and Macau both followed China's zero-COVID policy for much of the past three years. Hong Kong started unwinding its stringent COVID rules last year but mask-wearing has remained constant since 2020. Residents of mainland China are not required to wear masks outdoors, although authorities encourage them to do so in public indoor areas such as airports and train stations. Macau's government said that individuals who develop flu-like symptoms should wear a mask when going out and that members of the public should carry face masks with them when commuting around the city.<br/>