Source: ACI NA Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), the trade association representing commercial service airports in the United States and Canada, today released the following statement from President and CEO Kevin M. Burke in support of the bipartisan infrastructure deal in the Senate. The package is set to include $25 billion for American airports and air traffic control towers – with $20 billion allocated for U.S. airports – as the industry recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to invest in measures to limit the spread of the virus. “Airports across the U.S. support this bipartisan infrastructure agreement because it makes a much-needed down payment to upgrade aging facilities,” Burke said. “Chronically underfunded, airports have struggled to make necessary terminal, [...]

Source: GOV.UK The UK government has today (28 July 2021) announced that passengers arriving from amber countries who have been fully vaccinated in Europe (EUMember States, European Free Trade Association countries and the European microstate countries of Andorra, Monaco and Vatican City) and the USA will not have to quarantine when entering England, as part of a range of new measures designed to continue to drive forward the reopening of international travel, set out as part of the second Global Travel Taskforce checkpoint review. From 4am 2 August 2021, passengers who are fully vaccinated in the EU with vaccines authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or in the USAwith vaccines authorised by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global air cargo markets for June showing a 9.9% improvement on pre-COVID-19 performance (June 2019). This pushed first half-year air cargo growth to 8%, its strongest first half performance since 2017 (when the industry posted 10.2% year-on-year growth). 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 June 2019 which followed a normal demand pattern. Global demand for June 2021, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs*), was up 9.9% compared to June 2019. Regional variations in performance are significant. North American carriers contributed 5.9 percentage points (ppts) to the 9.9% growth rate in June. [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced passenger demand performance for June 2021 showing a very slight improvement in both international and domestic air travel markets. Demand remains significantly below pre-COVID-19 levels owing to international travel restrictions. As comparisons between 2021 and 2020 monthly results are distorted by the extraordinary impact of COVID-19, unless otherwise noted, all comparisons are to June 2019, which followed a normal demand pattern. Total demand for air travel in June 2021 (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) was down 60.1% compared to June 2019. That was a small improvement over the 62.9% decline recorded in May 2021 versus May 2019. International passenger demand in June was 80.9% below June 2019, an improvement [...]

Source: ACI As the Canadian government announced it will re-open the international border, Airports Council International (ACI) World has today announced that Walt Disney Imagineering Vice President Luc Mayrand will deliver a keynote at this year’s Customer Experience Global Summit.   The third edition of ACI World’s Customer Experience Global Summit will be held as a hybrid conference at Montreal’s Palais des Congres on 8 and 9 September exploring the theme Gateway to the new travel journey: Share. Rethink. Evolve. The event will comprise physical and virtual elements.   The Canadian government has announced that fully vaccinated citizens and permanent residents from the United States will be allowed to enter the country as of 9 August – with fully vaccinated [...]

Source: US DOT   U.S. airlines carried 607% more scheduled service passengers in May 2021 than in May 2020 (preliminary), according to data filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) by 18 airlines that carry more than 90% of the passengers.   The large airlines carried 56.6 million passengers in May 2021 (preliminary), compared to 8.0 million passengers in May 2020 and up from 3.0 million in April 2020, which was the lowest monthly total in BTS records dating back to 1974.  The previous low was 14.6 million passengers in February 1975.   In May 2021, the large airlines carried 30% fewer total passengers, 27% fewer domestic passengers and 51% fewer international passengers than in pre-pandemic May 2019 when [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has launched an environmental sustainability training program together with the University of Geneva (UNIGE). While sustainability has played an important role in the industry for many years, it is a key priority as the sector rebuilds from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent survey of more than 800 industry training professionals, sustainability was identified as a top training need, in order to ensure that employees can obtain the necessary fundamental technical and operational skills, but also the required soft skills. The IATA - UNIGE Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Environmental Sustainability in Aviation consists of six modules covering the following topics: Design a Sustainability Strategy Environmental Management Systems [...]