Category Archives: Aviation

The Philippines will relax an almost two-year ban on foreign visitors and businesses entering the country next month, officials said, in an effort to resuscitate the country’s devastated tourism economy as the latest coronavirus outbreak eased. Returning Filipinos would be exempt from quarantine beginning February 1 and foreign visitors from February 10, but they must be vaccinated and test negative for COVID-19.

The 2022 travel forecasts by Bain & Company states that the Covid-19 Omicron variant’s surge continues to stall the travel recovery. It is projected that the global airline revenue for 2022 shall reach $432 billion in the baseline recovery scenario, representing 65% of 2019’s revenue. By the end of the year, global air travel demand could recover to 84% of 2019 levels in the baseline scenario.  

The WHO recommended at the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on COVID-19 that, the nations should remove the travel bans and restrictions. As per report, they do not provide value and continue to contribute to the economic and social stress and further stated that these restrictions have been incompetent in capping the international spread of the Omicron variant.

Ahmedabad airport will partially remain closed for around 9 hours till May 31 owing to runway re-carpeting work. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport has started scheduled runway re-carpeting work from 17th January  to 31st May, 2022, except on public holidays and Sundays. The work will be carried out from 9am to 6pm.

After more than a year, Lufthansa has resumed its scheduled flight from Munich to Delhi. The service will be operated three times a week with modern Airbus A350 long-haul aircraft. Departures from Bavaria’s aviation hub are scheduled for Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.  In the coming summer schedule, Lufthansa will operate a total of 21 long-haul aircraft of this type stationed at Munich Airport, which causes significantly less noise and emissions than comparable aircraft. 

As per the analysis by Forward Keys, there are signs to be optimistic about the future in 2022. Following four key trends show the potential to make a difference in the near future- while the international travel recovered, domestic travel remained strong, the gap between leisure and business travel is narrowing, the APAC region is to reopen soon and the pent-up demand is real, people still want to travel.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has released latest guidelines for international arrivals from 11th Jan, 2022, under which all international arrivals to India to undergo mandatory home quarantine for 7 days. This must be followed by a RT-PCR test to be carried out on 8th day, and the report has to be uploaded on the Air Suvidha portal. All arriving passengers must have ‘Arogya Setu’ App downloaded on their smartphones. Before travelling they have to upload a self-declaration form and a negative RTPCR report of test conducted 72 hr prior to travel. Those arriving from at risk countries have to go for a COVID test at the point of arrival. If negative they will go for 7 day home quarantine and undertake RTPCR test on 8th day, the result of which has to be uploaded on Air Suvidha portal.

As a result of a recent study by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), total passenger numbers are expected to reach 2.3B in 2021 and grow to 3.4B in 2022, which is comparable to 2014 levels. It is expected that airlines will offer lower prices, better seats, and longer flights by 2022.

Pune airport in Lohegaon is expected to start international flight from January 7 with flight for Sharjah. The international flight operations at Pune airport were completely shut since March 2020 due to the Covid outbreak. Flight for Sharjah may take off from Pune International Airport on January 7, we are waiting for final confirmation. Airport is ready to resume international flight operations. Before the first lockdown, Pune airport had two international flights to Dubai which were operated by SpiceJet and Air India Express.

The Centre has mandated pre-booking of RT-PCR tests from December 20. In the first phase, it will be applicable to those arriving at six airports —Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad—for passengers arriving from “at-risk” countries or those who have been in such countries in the preceding 14 days. The Air Suvidha portal would be modified to allow passengers to pre-book.