Source: IATA International (ACI) World and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have called on governments to ensure any new measures introduced for airports and airlines in the wake of COVID-19 are supported by scientific evidence and are consistent across the world. The aviation sector has been brought to a standstill and a balanced and effective restart and recovery depends on collaboration among the key participants in the global aviation ecosystem. ACI and IATA have jointly issued a paper laying out a pathway for restarting the aviation industry - Safely Restarting Aviation - ACI and IATA Joint Approach. Airlines and airports have cooperated to build a roadmap for resuming operations which reassures the travelling public that health and safety remain [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed details of its proposed temporary layered approach to biosecurity for re-starting passenger flights amid the COVID-19 crisis. IATA has published Biosecurity for Air Transport: A Roadmap for Restarting Aviation (pdf) which outlines IATA’s proposal for a layering of temporary biosecurity measures. The Roadmap aims to provide the confidence that governments will need to enable the re-opening of borders to passenger travel; and the confidence that travelers will need to return to flying. “There is no single measure that will reduce risk and enable a safe re-start of flying. But a layering measures that are globally implemented and mutually recognized by governments can achieve the needed outcome. This is the greatest crisis that [...]

  Geneva – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced a commitment by the airline CEOs on its Board of Governors to five principles for re-connecting the world by air transport. These principles are: Aviation will always put safety and security first: Airlines commit to work with our partners in governments, institutions and across the industry to:   Implement a science-based biosecurity regime that will keep our passengers and crew safe while enabling efficient operations. Ensure that aviation is not a meaningful source for the spread of communicable diseases, including COVID-19. Aviation will respond flexibly as the crisis and science evolve: Airlines commit to work with our partners in governments, institutions and across the industry to: Utilize new science and technology [...]

Source: ICAO ICAO is encouraging the establishment of special COVID-19-free Public Health Corridors (PHCs) to address the “extensive and varied” country-to-country border restrictions now in place due to national pandemic measures.   In an attachment and appendix to its latest bulletin, issued under the authority of ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu, the UN aviation agency underscored to national governments that current disruptions to international air movements have “severely disrupted the global aviation network, including the transport of essential items such as medical supplies and food.”   To keep supply lines open, and access to needed supplies better assured, the ICAO Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA) has recommended that PHCs [...]

Source: US FAA   U.S. airlines carried 51% fewer scheduled service passengers in March 2020 than in March 2019, according to preliminary data filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) by 24 airlines that carry 99% of the passengers, dropping to the lowest level of air travel in more than two decades.   The 51% decline in the number of passengers from March 2019 was the largest year-to-year decrease on record.   The airlines carried slightly more total, domestic and international passengers in March 2020 than in September 2001, the month of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.   March 2020 passenger numbers (24 carriers reporting): Total: 7 million passengers, down 51% from March 2019 (79.9M) Domestic: 34.1 million passengers, down [...]