APA Issue 2, 2021
VIEW FROM THE TOP Director general, Stefano Baronci, reflects on the continued challenges of COVID-19 and ACI Asia-Pacific’s efforts to hasten the industry’s recovery and ensure its future sustainability.
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he road to travel recovery is proving to be bumpy and winding in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, with uncertainties playing out on many levels and a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in many parts of Asia. Asian countries are hesitant to relax travel restrictions for fully vaccinated passengers, not least because the vaccine roll-out in the large majority of the countries is proceeding at a slower pace than in other parts of the world. The scenario in the Middle East is more positive with a higher vaccine uptake, especially in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Bahrain. As we head towards the middle of the year, the majority of states, with some exceptions, are sticking to the status quo of travel restrictions and quarantine. TRAVEL BUBBLES AND TRAFFIC Travel bubbles potentially provide one solution to end today’s international travel restrictions, although as we have seen in recent months, making them happen and last the test of time is proving difficult due to the continued emergence of new COVID-19 variants.
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Indeed, examples of the volatile nature of the pandemic have led to the temporary suspension of flights between Chinese Taipei and Palau and the ill-fated travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore. On the plus side, the Trans-Tasman bubble between Australia and New-Zealand produced a very positive economic and social effect, and continuing the momentum, New Zealand established a corridor with the Cook Islands. However, the two state partners are already experiencing disruptions. Travel corridors are also being established with other regions of the world. The United Arab Emirates in particular has made a series of bilateral travel corridor agreements with Bahrain, Italy, Greece, Serbia and the Seychelles. These agreements waive the quarantine requirement in favour of testing, as advocated by ACI Asia-Pacific. While quarantine-free travel bubbles provide an opportunity to re-open borders in a measured way, it is not enough to recover lost traffic. Weekly trending of passenger volumes for both Asia-Pacific and the Middle East indicate that the overall recovery continues to be
