Source: A4E At the annual A4E Aviation Summit today -- held virtually due to continued lack of EU coordination on COVID-19 travel restrictions, CEOs of Europe’s biggest airlines called on governments to restore freedom of movement for citizens and gradually lift all travel restrictions this summer, citing rising vaccination rates and tools such as the EU’s Digital COVID Certificate system, which is expected to be in place across the majority of EU Member States by 01 July. “The science is clear that unrestricted, safe travel is possible for many intra-European flights already – and this will only increase as the vaccine rolls out further. We all have a responsibility, including European governments, to ensure that European travel is accessible and [...]

Source: ICAO Delivering another important contribution to the international community’s efforts to realize a responsible and sustainable air transport recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, ICAO has announced the publishing of new technical specifications for a Visible Digital Seal (VDS) for non-constrained environments. The ICAO VDS stores datasets for test and vaccination certificates in a two-dimensional barcode which can be paper- or screen-based. Border control and other receiving parties can verify the data against established requirements efficiently and seamlessly, including through the use of traveller self-service kiosks and processes. The VDS barcode is digitally signed for security, with the signature being based on the same public key cryptographic infrastructure principles already used to support ePassport issuance and authentication by more than [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that domestic travel demand improved in April 2021 compared to the prior month, although it remained well below pre-pandemic levels, while recovery in international passenger travel continued to be stalled in the face of government-imposed travel restrictions. Because comparisons between 2021 and 2020 monthly results are distorted by the extraordinary impact of COVID-19, unless otherwise noted all comparisons are to April 2019, which followed a normal demand pattern. Total demand for air travel in April 2021 (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) was down 65.4% compared to April 2019. That was an improvement over the 66.9% decline recorded in March 2021 versus March 2019. The better performance was driven by [...]

Source: US DOT U.S. airlines employed 706,504 workers in April 2021, 6,531 fewer than in March 2021 (713,035) and 48,591 fewer than in March 2020 (755,095). The April industry numbers consist of 592,931 full-time and 113,573 part-time workers. The largest March to April reductions among major airlines were American Airlines, down 2,410 employees, and SkyWest Airlines, down 2,329 employees.  From the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the largest employment reductions were Delta Air Lines, down 24,321 employees, and United Airlines, down 23,632 employees. From March 2020 to April 2021, Federal Express added 24,392 employees.   Regulations require airlines to report employment numbers to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics for employees who worked or received pay for any part [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released April 2021 data for global air cargo markets showing that air cargo demand continued to outperform pre-COVID levels (April 2019) with demand up 12%. As comparisons between 2021 and 2020 monthly results are distorted by the extraordinary impact of COVID-19, unless otherwise noted, all comparisons to follow are to April 2019 which followed a normal demand pattern.   Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs*), was up 12% compared to April 2019 and 7.8% compared to March 2021. Seasonally adjusted demand is now 5% higher than the pre-crisis August 2018 peak. The strong performance was led by North American carriers contributing 7.5 percentage points to the 12% growth rate in April. [...]