Introducing Travel Pass – digital health credential solution
According to TravelPulse.com, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed its Travel Pass digital health credential solution should be ready and required for use already in March.
Travel Pass is a mobile app that helps travelers store and manage verified certifications for coronavirus tests and vaccines, which provides more security and efficiency than paper processes.
IATA’s Alan Murray Hayden told PhocusWire the teams working on the project have been pulling 12-hour shifts to help complete the project and solve major industry problems associated with the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. For more details, please visit travelpulse by clicking here.
Indigo growting further
According to Simple Flying, Indian low-cost giant IndiGo is continuing its expansion in 2021, adding a series of new bases and its 63rd domestic destination. Alongside, its fleet of A320neos grew considerably, making it Airbus’ biggest customer in 2020.
While India might be the third-largest aviation market globally, only a small part (around 10%) of India’s massive population currently travels by air. Historically, this has been both due to cost and convenience, but as air travel continues to expand across the country, many may choose to take shorter flights rather than lengthy road or train journeys.
Airbus estimates that the share of Indians traveling by air will double to roughly 20% by 2038, giving India a huge growth opportunity. Assuming a successful vaccine rollout in 2021-22 is able to reopen travel, we could see India return to over 7% yearly growth. This means India can expect a significant market expansion in the coming decades. Continue reading here.
Another US based Airlines receiving government support
Just a few days ago you could read here on Treska, that Delta is receiving $3B USD goverment support to survive and being able to expand after the Covid situation will improve. Simply Flying just informed us, that Southwest Airlines will receive over $1.7 billion thanks to the latest extension of industry payroll support. The airline received the first funds under this on January 15th. This comes after the airline warned about furloughs before the US government passed a second round of support.
Southwest Airlines reached a final agreement with the United States Department of Treasury on the second round of funds for employee salaries, wages, and benefits, through March 31st, 2021. The carrier expects to receive a total of $1,727,370,400 (~$1.73 billion) under the second round of support.
In early December, Southwest Airlines warned of the potential for over 6,000 job cuts. This came after a strong Thanksgiving, but carriers still faced a bleak future as passenger numbers declined. Alaska Airlines, for example, outlined how, even amid the holiday season, the airline’s passenger numbers actually declined from November to December and October to November.
In case of more details, please click here and continue reading the full article.
Russia Re-opens air travel with 4 countries
According to Yahoo News and Reuters, Russian authorities said on Saturday that flights between Moscow and the capitals of Finland, Vietnam, India and Qatar, suspended since the early weeks of the pandemic, would restart from Jan 27, after certain epidemiological criteria were met.
A statement shared following a meeting of the government’s coronavirus HQ said that the four countries were seeing fewer than 40 new cases per fortnight per 100,000 people.
On the other hand this is not positively accepted by all 4 countries. Accordin to vnexpress.net, the Vietnamese government has limited inbound flights from now until the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February in light of new variants of the novel coronavirus spreading fast in many countries. Only flights with approval from the ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs, National Defense, Public Security and Transport can enter the country, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said last week.
On January 5, the Vietnamese government had suspended flights from countries and territories with the new variants, starting with the UK and South Africa. For further details please click here and read the full article on vnexpress.net
airbnb ceo to reuters: travel won’t never be the same again
Airbnb Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky on Thursday predicted travel would permanently change due to the pandemic with people seeking out thousands of smaller cities and spending more time visiting friends and family.
In his interview to Reuters he said: “Traditional tourism and sightseeing at top global destinations would be significantly reduced by travelers who will drive to smaller communities and fly less for business meetings.”
Travelers are “yearning for what was taken away from them,” Chesky said at the Reuters Next conference in an interview with Jonathan Weber, Reuters global technology editor. “They’re not yearning to see Times Square. What they are yearning to do is to see their friends and their families they have not seen in a long time.”
The startup was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 and its business dropped by 80% in a little over eight weeks. For more details, please visit reuters by clicking here.
China reports 109 new COVID-19 cases to keep concerns simmering before Chinese New Year
According to channelnewsasia.com, authorities on Sunday (Jan 17) reported 109 new COVID-19 cases, most of them in Hebei province surrounding Beijing. This makes worries specially as the country is ahead of Chinese New Year, which is expected next month.
Though the Jan 16 tally of new cases was less than the previous day’s 130, China has in the past week seen the number of daily cases jump to an over 10-month high.
Giving details of the latest daily caseload, the National Health Commission (NHC) said 96 were local infections, 72 of them in Hebei, 12 in northeastern Heilongjiang province, 10 in northeastern Jilin province and two in Beijing. Please read more on channelnewsasia.com.
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