UPFRONT
UAE CARRIERS RAMP UP SERVICES
Global air passenger numbers to recover in 2024 says IATA THE INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION (IATA) expects
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EMIRATES AND ETIHAD have announced several new or resumed services, upped frequencies, and deployed larger aircraft on multiple routes. Emirates has increased its Gatwick service to twice daily, added a second daily A380 service to Sydney, resumed its A380 services to Brisbane, confirmed a codeshare deal with Garuda and set a June 23 launch date for its Tel Aviv service. Etihad has added flights to the French city of Nice to its summer schedule. The airline will operate a twice-weekly B787 service on Wednesdays and Sundays from June 15 between Abu Dhabi and Nice Côte d’Azur airport. This marks the fifth summer route announced by Etihad, with flights to Crete, Malaga, Santorini and Zanzibar also starting in June.
passenger numbers to reach four billion in 2024, exceeding pre-COVID levels. The recent update to the association’s long-term forecast revealed traveller numbers in 2021 were 47 per cent of 2019 levels. This is expected to improve to 83 per cent this year, followed by 93 per cent in 2023, 103 per cent in 2024 and 111 per cent in 2025. International traveller numbers were 27 per cent of 2019 levels in 2021. This is expected to improve to 69 per cent this year, 82 per cent in 2023, 92 per cent in 2024 and 101 per cent in 2025. “The trajectory for the recovery in passenger numbers from COVID-19 was not changed by the Omicron variant. People want to travel. And when travel restrictions are lifted, they return to the skies,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh. “There is still a long way to go to reach a normal state of affairs, but the forecast for the evolution in passenger numbers gives good reason to be optimistic.” The Middle East will see a slower recovery than the global average, said IATA, with numbers forecast to reach 81 per cent of 2019 levels this year, 98 per cent in 2024 and 105 per cent in 2025. IATA continues to urge governments to remove all travel bans and ease restrictions, including the removal of quarantine and testing for fully vaccinated travellers and the introduction of pre-departure antigen testing for quarantinefree travel for non-vaccinated travellers.
Qatar Airways heads back to Gatwick QATAR AIRWAYS will resume daily flights from Doha to London Gatwick from June 5. The airline will operate a B787-8 Dreamliner service featuring 22 seats in business class and 232 seats in economy. This comes after its joint business partner British Airways relaunched daily flights from Gatwick to Doha in December 2021. Passengers will be able to earn Avios points when travelling on both airlines by the end of the month. Qatar Airways already operates a five-times daily service from London Heathrow, 18-times weekly from Manchester and four-times weekly (rising to daily from June 2) from Edinburgh.
APRIL 2022
