Need to save ailing airlines industry

GOVERNMENTS and the aviation industry need to work together to address the challenges posed by the covid19 pandemic.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) regional vice president (Americas) Peter Cerda made this point during a virtual news conference on Wednesday.

“What is needed is to have a balance between public health and economic recovery.” Saying that governments cannot chose one or the other, Cerda said, “We certainly need to learn to co-exist with the pandemic until a vaccine is made available.

He explained this is why “IATA has put a call to governments to facilitate pre-departure screening for all international passengers.” He added, “We have also made a call for the opening of borders within our region as well.”

Cerda said Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador have reopened their borders to infernational flights. But Cerda said Nicaragua is facing some operational challenges in this regard. In Colombia, Cerda continued, limited international air flights have resumed. While Peru is supposed to resume international flights on October 5. During the news conference, it was mentioned that in TT and Guyana, domestic air operations continue and there are repatriation flights as well.

IATA external affairs director James Wiltshire said airlines have put in place multi layers of bio-safety measures to ensure the travel experience is bio safe and aviation is not the vector for the spread of covid19. Wiltshire said IATA has advocated that systematic covid19 testing is an alternative to quarantine to control the spread of the virus.

On the issue of affordability, Wiltshire said, “We not want the cost of testing to be a barrier for travel.” Information provided by IATA said the association was projecting air traffic for 2020 to be down 66 per cent compared to a 63 per cent decline in 2019.

IATA said based on flight data, “the recovery in air passenger services was brought to a halt in mid-August “by a return of government restrictions in the face of new covid19 outbreaks in a number of key markets. North American carriers’ traffic fell 92. 4 per cent in August compared to a 94.4 percent drop in July. Latin American airlines experienced a 93.4 per cent demand drop in August, compared to a 94.9 per cent decline.