Australia will impose quarantine on travellers from New Zealand following the emergence of new coronavirus cases in Auckland. The Australian Department of Health announced that all flights from New Zealand in the 72h from 12:01 on 15 February will be classified as “Red Zone” flights, meaning that passengers will need to undergo 14 days of supervised hotel quarantine. Given Auckland’s strong record of keeping Covid-19 under control, New Zealand travellers had been permitted to fly to Australia, although a ‘travel bubble’ between the two neighbours has remained elusive owing to outbreaks in Australia. “States will determine how to manage people who have already arrived in Australia from New Zealand and who may pose a risk of transmitting the Covid-19 virus,” says the department. Australian officials will also decide on whether to extend the bubble suspension based on case numbers in New Zealand. According to the New Zealand government’s Covid-19 website, three new cases have emerged in the community, with Auckland placed under lockdown until midnight on Wednesday 17 February. New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed that the three new local cases are the highly infectious B117 variant, which was originally detected in the UK.
Data shows that airlines offered just 28,000 seats on trans-Tasman routes in January 2021, a 97% decline from 944,000 seats in January 2020.

Dubai International's passenger numbers collapsed in 2020, but the airport operator is reporting "positive strides" in the second half of the year.Of the 25.9 million passengers passing through the airport last year, 17.8 million did so in the first quarter, much of which was unaffected by the Covid-19 crisis. Traffic picked up in the second half of the year against the April-June period, and Dubai Airports notes a "recovery in many areas, especially the return to services in global markets thanks to the strength in operations of Emirates and Flydubai, and the confidence shown by international airlines coming back into the region." For parts of the year Dubai was closed to foreign travellers altogether, including transiting passengers. The United Arab Emirates reopened to tourism from 7 July. The airport operator asserts that the 2.19 million customers processed in December exceeded industry expectations. "In the past year we have witnessed the most difficult circumstances the travel industry has ever faced," states Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths. "The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been felt not only in our sector, but across the entire world. These DXB [Dubai International] passenger traffic figures are reflective of that testing environment, but also come with an element of hope and confidence." He adds: "Looking forward, we are confident of a steady, but optimistic outlook." Dubai Airports is advocating a global rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations and the introduction of contactless travel as ways to improve passenger confidence and encourage customers back to the skies. "From a markets and destination perspective, the recovery is strong," argues the operator. Dubai International now serves 142 destinations, 61% of its pre-pandemic reach. Fifty-six airlines are currently flying to and from the airport, which is three-quarters of the pre-Covid figure. India was the top destination by passenger numbers, followed by the UK and Pakistan. Total air freight handled at the airport declined by a relatively moderate 23% in 2020, to 1.9 million tonnes.

Trade body ACI Europe is calling for further financial support for European airports as they struggle for survival after a year in which passenger volumes fell back to levels last seen 25 years ago. Fresh data published by ACI Europe today shows a 70% fall in passenger numbers last year – a decline of 1.72 billion. ACI Europe director general Olivier Jankovec says: “With just 728 million passengers in 2020 compared to 2.4 billion passengers in the previous year, Europe’s airports were back to their traffic levels of 1995. ”No industry can on its own withstand such a shock. While some states have taken steps to financially support their airports, only €2.2 billion has so far been earmarked for that purpose in Europe. This is less than 8% of the revenues airports lost last year. “With further decreases in traffic over the past weeks and no recovery in sight, more needs to be done,” he states. ”Without more financial support, investments in decarbonisation, digitalisation and SESAR are at risk.” Airports within the EU were hardest hit, as passengers fell by 73%. Passenger numbers fell 62% at European airports outside the EU, notably driven by those in Russia and Turkey, which were helped by relatively strong and sizeable domestic markets. This is reflected in the major upheaval among the biggest airports in the region last year. Between them, the biggest hubs in 2019 – London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam Schiphol, Frankfurt and Istanbul – lost 250 million passengers last year. By the fourth quarter, Istanbul was the only one of these hubs to feature among the biggest five airports, leading the way alongside Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen and three Russian airports – Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo. Freight traffic has been less heavily impacted, but cargo volumes still fell 11.8% in in 2020. ”The recovery in freight traffic accelerated as of last September, with December seeing a marginally positive result,” ACI Europe notes.