The International Air Transport Association (IATA) calledon governments in the Middle East to develop re-start plans to safely re-link their citizens, businesses and economies to global markets when the COVID-19 epidemiological situation permits. IATA also called for regional coordination to ensure that the plans can be efficiently implemented and urged governments to remain vigilant about the industry\u2019s financial situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRe-establishing air connectivity will energize the economic recovery from COVID-19. With millions of jobs at risk from the prolonged shutdown, not a day should be lost once the epidemiological situation enables a re-opening. Restarting safely after a year or more in lockdown will need careful preparations. At the national level it is important that governments work with industry, so everyone understands the benchmarks that need to be achieved to facilitate the lifting of travel restrictions. And at the regional level, where traffic is expected to ramp-up first, it is critical that governments are talking to each other so that all parties are aligned and ready for a restart,\u201d said Kamil Al Awadhi, IATA Regional Vice President for Africa and the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IATAdata showsJanuary air passenger traffic in the region was down 82.3% compared to January 2019. The ongoing crisis puts over 1.7 million jobs in the Middle East and $105 billion in GDP at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a unique situation. But we have good practices to rely on. Safety is the top priority for anything associated with aviation. That is because governments have long established global best practices for working together with industry and with each other. This same approach will help the re-start. There are two ends to every route. Both must be prepared or the restart cannot happen,\u201d said Al Awadhi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IATA highlighted two critical areas of areas wheregovernments need to work together:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A successful operational restart will include bringing aircraft and terminals back into service. Airlines need to ready their crew, technical personnel and aircraft. After a year of lockdowns, this requires refresher training and checks. A regional overview is needed to (1) ensure that the one country\u2019s restart qualifications are accepted by its regional partners and (2) ensure that sufficient infrastructure capacity is ready to meet demand as markets unlock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Testing and vaccinations will play a role in opening borders to travel as the pandemic comes under control. Simple, efficient, and harmonized standards for what credentials people will need to travel will boost consumer confidence and give strength to the recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ICAO Council\u2019s recent approval of requirements for globally accepted COVID-19 test certificates, including the technology framework for secure digital versions and the future incorporation of vaccination certificates provides a global framework. Cooperation for a harmonized implementation across the Middle East will put the region on a solid footing for recovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IATA Travel Pass will help to conveniently manage health credentials, while protecting against fraud. \u201cWith Qatar Airways already piloting IATA Travel Pass and Emirates, Etihad and Gulf Air signed-up for trials, the Gulf is at the forefront of preparations,\u201d said Al Awadhi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Continued financial relief essential Airlines in the region received $4.8 billion in government aid in 2020. Most of this support ($4.1billion)was distributed through direct cash injections. Despite this several airlines in the Middle Eastremain at risk of bankruptcy or business administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA financially viable air transport sector will be needed to energize the recovery. Government relief for airlines has avoided massive failures that would jeopardize a restart. This has not been uniform across the region. With no clear timeline to recovery the situation is far from resolved. Governments that have provided relief will need to be prepared for more. And governments that have not yet stepped-up must recognize the growing risks to their economies as the crisis drags on,\u201d said Al Awadhi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The International Air Transport Association (IATA) calledon governments in the Middle East to develop re-start plans to safely re-link their citizens, businesses and economies to global markets when the COVID-19 epidemiological situation permits. IATA also called for regional coordination to ensure that the plans can be efficiently implemented and urged governments to remain vigilant about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleasenetwork.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleasenetwork.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleasenetwork.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleasenetwork.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleasenetwork.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleasenetwork.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11222,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleasenetwork.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11220\/revisions\/11222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleasenetwork.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleasenetwork.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleasenetwork.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleasenetwork.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong>The financial trauma of the COVID-19 crisis continues. In 2020 Middle East airlines posted losses of$7.1billion in 2020; a loss of $68.47 for each passenger flown. With traffic at less than 20% of 2019 levels, the cash burn continues even with severe cost-cutting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n