For Mandarin translation, click here.
Air travel will rise again in the region, but the real question is when and how.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has devastated air travel, especially in the Asia Pacific region. With strict international travel restrictions in place, years of strong growth in the airline industry has been reversed in the past year.
Countries within the region have started putting forward initiatives such as rapid testing, vaccines, and travel passports as ways to reboot air travel as a start. But what will the future of Asia Pacific’s Air Network look like in the near future? A panel of industry experts came together to explore what Asia’s post-COVID-19 reality might look like at a recent Flight Global Webinar Series in association with the Singapore Airshow.
Victor Viera dos Santos, Marketing Director for APAC Embraer, acknowledges that crises have a transformative effect, and the industry will emerge from this downturn in a completely different environment, with new dynamics and underlying trends.
He lists a few drivers that we can see primarily changing in the industry including airlines having to adapt to an environment that is characterised by highly volatile schedules and ever-changing travel restrictions, accepting that business travel, the real money maker for airlines, will take years longer to recover especially with work from home becoming a norm, a global trend in favour of sustainable growth rather than just aggressive capacity expansion, and airlines gradually moving from the one size fits all strategy to a more diversified fleet.
Victor admits that the next few years will be challenging, and the pace of recovery will be determined by proximity (i.e. fewer regulations and lower risks). This means nearby travels and the mass inter-regional traffic will be the foundation of growth, while international travel will take longer to rebound.
Stefano Baronci, Director General of ACI Asia Pacific, adds that it is hard to see what will happen in the next four to five years. For now, airports will need to ensure there is continuity in the business, maintaining dialogue with other stakeholders and the government to make sure some processes that are proportionate to the risk are implemented.
The ongoing crisis could also mean a shift to a bigger focus on the travel consumer says Subhas Menon, Director General of AAPA. The travel consumer’s perception will be the fundamental driver of how airlines respond and behave in the new century, and airlines should be prepared for borders to reopen on a stop-start basis. Even with travel bubbles, they could be closed at very short notice for the next 12-18 months.
On a more positive note, Subhas is positive that the demand will return to pre-covid levels, as evident by the surge of bookings during both announcements of the Hong Kong – Singapore travel bubble. However, to ensure the demand stays, he believes that airlines, airports, and all the aviation ecosystems including governments have to work closely to ensure that the travel process is going to be smooth and seamless.
To watch the full video, simply click the button below.
