ACI World and IATA have issued a joint call for non-debt-generating financial support to “prevent the systemic collapse” of the aviation industry. “The Covid-19 pandemic remains an existential crisis, and airports, airlines and their commercial partners need direct and swift financial assistance to protect essential operations and jobs,” said ACI World director general Luis Felipe de Oliveira during a briefing today. “Without this action, it is not an exaggeration that the industry is facing collapse.” The airports and airlines bodies also reiterated their demand for a universal testing regime to be introduced globally as a means to “safely reopen borders and re-establish global connectivity” amid a dire situation for international flights. “We need action quickly,” states IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac. “Momentum is building in support of testing to reopen borders. It’s the top operational priority.” The two associations believe that the measures described would avert an employment crisis in the travel and tourism sector, while at the same time keeping “critical aviation structure” viable, supporting the economic and social benefits of the industry. Governments are therefore being urged by ACI and IATA “to address the devastating impact of border closures and other government-imposed travel restrictions by supporting aviation’s viability through direct financial support”. On testing, the two bodies have again called on the ICAO Council Aviation Recovery Task Force to provide an internationally agreed approach to replace the quarantine requirements and travel restrictions that are currently stymieing connectivity.

Source: Cirium

The chief executive of Spirit Airlines suspects his carrier will recover from the coronavirus downturn faster than major US carriers, though the pace of Spirit’s long-term fleet-growth plan remains uncertain. “I think the future is still bright,” CEO Ted Christie says during the Boyd Group International’s Aviation Forecast Summit, held this week in Cincinnati. “We view this particular environment as more of a speed bump than a paradigm shift.” Christie attributes his relative optimism to Spirit’s focus on carrying leisure travellers, a segment he and industry observers suspect will rebound faster than business and long-haul international travel. “Our leisure segment will come back faster than traditional corporate travel,” Christie adds. “I don’t think its long-term impaired in any way.” Domestic and international routes to leisure destinations undergird Spirit’s network. The carrier also targets “visiting friends and relatives” travellers, another leisure segment. Its international flights include those to warm-weather Caribbean destinations and Central- and South American cities. The industry has never experienced an event like the Covid-19 pandemic, but Christie finds similarities with past events, such as the early 1990s Gulf War, the 2001 terrorist attacks, and oil price spikes. “A similar theme in all cases was that the leisure travel tended to be the most resilient during the crisis and the first to come out." Christie says Spirit will keep its network flexible, and has ability to shift rapidly, adding or removing flights as market conditions demand. He does not, however, predict when Spirit’s network will return to pre-coronavirus levels. The company operated 550 flights in July, down from 750 daily in pre-pandemic times. Observers have speculated that the broader global airline industry will not fully recover for four years or more. The pandemic has led Spirit to ground Airbus A319 aircraft, at least temporarily, and to delivery of new Airbus A320neo-family jets that it previously expected to receive this year and early next year. The airline will now take those jets in 2023 and 2024. Spirit has received 16 new Airbus jets this year and will not receive more in 2020, Christie says. Previously, Spirit had planned to receive 23 or 24 of those jets this year, Christie says. The company’s agreements with Airbus enable Spirit to convert its Airbus orders to the smaller A220, though potential adjustments will depend on opportunities that develop and the pace of recovery, Christie says.

Source: Cirium

Could the coronavirus pandemic cause a long-term bump in air travel from small- and medium-size airports? Delta Air Lines thinks it might. Work-at-home policies and related Covid-19 factors have already led many Americans to relocate their lives from larger to smaller cities, says Delta senior vice-president of network planning Joe Esposito. “Now big cities are getting smaller,” Esposito says during the Boyd Group International’s Aviation Forecast Summit on 12 October. “The forecast of where people live and move has changed. We are writing that new forecast.” He notes, for instance, that many New Yorkers are moving to smaller cities like Syracuse, and to towns in Connecticut and New Jersey. Others are moving to Florida. “Some people don’t want to live in New York City,” Esposito says. “New York may not come back for more years than we’d like.” Delta in recent years pulled out of some smaller cities and reduced its regional network. In 2011, for instance, eight regional airlines operated 1.2 million flights for Delta. By 2019, that figure had slipped 32%, to 812,000 flights operated by six regional airlines, according to Cirium fleets data. Currently, only three regional carriers – Endeavor Air, Republic Airways and SkyWest Airlines – operate regional aircraft for Delta. Esposito says changing market conditions could lead Delta in the coming years to assign narrowbody jets to routes currently operated by regional aircraft like Embraer E175s, and to assign those jets to routes operated by Bombardier-built CRJ200s. Questions about shifting demand come as international travel remains badly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.“People just can’t move internationally,” Esposito says, citing travel restrictions and threats of quarantine. “We have to be really, really careful about how we deploy international… We have to do it at a much more measured pace,” he says. “Domestic is coming back much faster than international, and that will likely be the theme in 2021.”

Source: Cirium