Source: UNWTO The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) of the United Nations calls out against the introduction of blanket restrictions on travel, as witnessed in recent days. This call echoes the concerns raised by UNWTO Members during the 24th UNWTO General Assembly (30 November–3 December). Countries from all global regionsexpressed their solidarity with Southern African states, calling for the immediate lifting of travel bans imposed on specific countries and for freedom of international travel to be upheld. UNWTO takes note of the recent declarations of the United Nations Secretary-General and the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the unfairness and ineffectiveness of blanket travel in respect to the countries of Southern Africa. Restrictions ineffective and discriminatory In light [...]

Source: ICAO This International Civil Aviation Day, the UN Aviation and World Tourism organizations (ICAO/UNWTO) have issued a joint call for efforts to reconnect the world to be accelerated. The COVID-19 pandemic brought global air mobility and tourism to an abrupt halt. It also pressed pause on trillions of dollars’ worth of economic activity. Millions of livelihoods and businesses have been placed at risk. And while increasing vaccination rates are helping to kickstart the return of international aviation and restart tourism, much more still needs to be done. We therefore add our organizations’ voices to those of the G7, G20, and the many countries who have called for borders to be opened both to fully vaccinated travelers and to travelers [...]

Source: ICAO For the first time since International Civil Aviation Day was established, in 1994, ICAO is commemorating 7 December this year with a special Joint Statement with the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) calling for accelerated global efforts to reconnect the world. With global connectivity recovery on course, both UN bodies called for intensified efforts towards vaccine equity and stressed that restrictions on travel due to new variants of COVID-19 must only be used "as a very last resort," noting they're "discriminatory, ineffective and against the guidance of the World Health Organization." They also underscored that the pandemic has "pressed pause on trillions of dollars' worth of economic activity, affecting millions of livelihoods globally," and that with better mitigation [...]

Source: ALTA Given the recent announcements of new border closures, quarantines and requirements for travelers due to the Omicron variant, the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) calls on the governments of the Latin American and the Caribbean region to use a multi-layered approach to mitigate the risk of spread. ALTA strongly recommends that States implement the biosafety recommendations for air transport compiled by the ICAO CART Group, whose updated documents were developed by government representatives and the airline industry. ALTA emphasizes that this is not the time to make decisions based on fear, especially when it has been shown that air transport is not a vector of contagion and that rapid tests are an efficient and safe way [...]

All ACI-LAC members are invited to the second ACI-LAC & InteVISTAS Consulting Inc. webinar on “COVID Air Travel Recovery and Trends in Air Service Development” This webinar will review industry capacity and demand trends since COVID-19 with a special focus on Latin America, progress towards recovery, and impacts of government action/inaction on carriers.  The presentation will also provide insights on potential recovery focus areas from an air service development perspective. Date: Thursday, December 09, 2021 Time: 10:00 AM (Panama / Quito / Bogota) Speaker:  Daniel Skwarek, Senior Vice President, InterVISTAS Consulting Inc. To participate, you have to register here: https://bit.ly/3Gjpa5j NOTE: Simultaneous Interpretation available

Source: ALTA The meeting took place after the joint call of the main industry associations to the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean, to join the European Digital COVID Certificate system. The Executive Director and CEO of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), José Ricardo Botelho, met with the Vice Minister of Health of Brazil, Rodrigo Cruz, to discuss the importance of standardizing measures and requirements for passengers, which provides safety, confidence and the possibility of making use of air transport, as it does not represent a risk of contagion when biosafety protocols are followed. During the meeting, ALTA’s top executive reiterated to Vice Minister Cruz the call they made, together with the main industry associations, [...]

Source: CANSO CANSO and Cirium have produced a detailed report looking at the global impact of COVID-19 on airline fleet utilisation. The data shows the percentages of different aircraft types in storage, by region, throughout the course of the pandemic. Before COVID hit, over 90% of the world’s passenger aircraft were in active service and being operated at high rates every day. Each had load factors of nearly 95%. An aircraft would normally only go into storage if it was close to the end of its economic life. But when COVID hit, capacity vastly exceeded demand almost overnight, and some 17,000 passenger jets were put in storage in April 2020. By working with Cirium, we can know show the full [...]

Source: ALTA Airports Council International Latin America and the Caribbean (ACI-LAC), the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) are jointly calling on Latin American and Caribbean governments to adopt the European digital COVID certificate (DCC) system to facilitate the recovery of air transport in a harmonized manner. While vaccination should not be a prerequisite for travel, international travel would benefit significantly if vaccinated passengers were exempted from quarantine and a harmonized approach is adopted. For this to be possible, a vaccination certification and verification system is needed, which is simple, agile, robust, and inexpensive. The EU DCC ticks all these boxes: all software is [...]