Fitch Ratings has revised private forecasts of the global passenger traffic for the 2021 and 2022 on account of the Omicron mutations.
economy
The Coronavirus Pandemic Could Set Tourism Back by $1 Trillion
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres just released a new report today citing UNWTO data on the level of devastation COVID-19 will exact on the tourism industry.
The U.S. Covid-19 Travel Ban Signals a Disaster of a New Order
Stock markets are in freefall over the COVID-19 pandemic and Europe is in a panic over Trump’s travel ban. But this is only the beginning.
Ethiad Airways bailing out on Air Berlin
Beleaguered airline Air Berlin is to cut its fleet by half and is all set to lay off 1,000 employees by the end of this year. The airline, which is in a tailspin caused by stiff competition, and the delayed opening of Berlin Brandenburg Airport, plans to reduce its fleet to about 70 aircraft and cut its workforce down to 7,600 employees.
According to the reports, Air Berlin’s biggest shareholder, Etihad Airways, was in talks with Lufthansa and travel company TUI over chopping up the dead weight and aircraft of the troubled airline. The reports paint a picture of a kind of midair rescue where TUI’s German airline TUIfly and Air Berlin’s Austrian subsidiary Niki might absorb unwanted parts of the business.
Euros Left in the Vapor Trail: Plight of the Single European Sky
With 27 separate bits of airspace connecting European countries, is it any wonder the the old continent still seems fragmented and inefficient? Well, back in 1999 the European Commission launched a plan termed Single European Sky (SES), aimed at uniting all the airspace to fuel a more efficient air travel industry. The big question today it; “What happened to the plan?”