Source: ALTA Over the past weeks, Airports Council International (ACI-LAC) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have come together to secure alignment between airlines and airports, with the aim of jointly engaging and supporting institutional stakeholders in the challenging endeavor of restarting the aviation industry. The proposed layered approach of measures across the entire passenger journey aims to minimize the risk of transmission of COVID-19 at airports and onboard aircraft, and to prevent aviation becoming a meaningful source of international re-infection. Such measures should be globally consistent and subject to continued review, improvement, and removal when no longer required, to ensure an even recovery. The aviation industry faces the biggest challenge in its history. International aviation is effectively shut [...]

Source: UNWTO The world is slowly opening up again, new research from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) indicates, with destinations cautiously easing travel restrictions introduced in response to COVID-19. As the United Nations specialized agency releases its Global Guidelines for Reopening Tourism, signalling a transition into gearing up for stronger and better recovery, 3% of all global destinations have now taken steps to ease travel restrictions. UNWTO has been monitoring the global response to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. The fourth edition of its COVID-19 Related Travel Restrictions: A Global Review for Tourism report, released today, again looked at the measures of 217 destinations worldwide as of 18 May 2020. The research shows that 7 destinations have eased [...]

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 [...]

Source: ACI NA Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA), the trade association representing commercial service airports in the United States and Canada, today announced that it is urging the U.S. government to adopt guidelines for the use of facial coverings by all individuals in the public areas of passenger airport terminals. ACI-NA is taking this position due to the extraordinary nature of the current COVID-19 pandemic, and in order to provide for the health and safety of passengers and airport employees, to instill confidence in those who work or travel through America’s airports.  Absent federal guidelines, ACI-NA supports state and local guidelines that all individuals in the public areas of passenger airport terminals wear facial coverings over their nose [...]

Source: US DOT U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao today announced two additional steps by the Department regarding airline service obligations and consumer protections in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency and to assist the Nation’s economic recovery. The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued a second Enforcement Noticeregarding airline ticket refunds given COVID-19’s unprecedented impact on air travel. The document provides answers to some of the most common questions about refunds to help consumers understand their rights and to ensure airlines and ticket agents are complying with aviation consumer protection requirements. In a typical month, the Department receives approximately 1,500 air travel service complaints and inquiries. However, in March 2020 and April 2020, more than 25,000 air travel service complaints and [...]

Source: ACI Airports Council International (ACI) World Governing Board has called for urgent relief measures for airports to assist in dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and also urged a globally coordinated programme of measures to aid in a balanced recovery for the aviation industry. The resolution passed by the board calls for coordinated industry engagement between States, regulatory authorities, and all aviation stakeholders, to promote an internationally recognized framework for a sound, seamless and sustainable recovery. The COVID-19 outbreak is a systemic crisis that has resulted in unprecedented disruption of global air transport. ACI World estimates a reduction of more than 4.6 billion passengers with a decline in total airport revenues on a global scale of more [...]