The US remains closed to tourists from the EU and the UK – a situation that has prompted frustration and urgent calls for the reopening of international travel to vaccinated individuals by industry and countries.

The UK and EU states have both slammed the decision of the administration of US president Joe Biden to extend travel restrictions, calling instead for reciprocity.

Europeans are currently banned from entering the US, while Americans can visit Europe just with proof of vaccination or a negative test. British citizens are also forbidden from entering the country, while fully vaccinated US travellers will be allowed into Britain without the need to quarantine from next Monday (2 August).

The White House said earlier this week that the extension of travel restrictions was due to concerns over the more-transmissible Delta variant.

Germany’s coordinator for transatlantic affairs, Peter Beyer, has urged Biden’s administration to reconsider the entry ban for Europeans, arguing that such measures are hampering German businesses.

“Industry above all is waiting desperately for a loosening,” he said in an interview published on Wednesday (28 July). “We’re not talking peanuts here”.

“We urgently need fact-based reciprocity in the entry rules between the US and the Schengen area,” he added, referring to the border-free region that encompasses most EU countries.

After the UK announced on Wednesday the loosening of travel restrictions on US and EU tourists, British transport minister Grant Shapps said that he expected a similar move from the US in due time.

“We can only set the rules at our end,” he said.

“We cannot change that on the other side, but we do expect that in time they will release that executive order, which was actually signed by the previous president and bans inward travel,” Shapps added, according to the AP.

Earlier this week, the European Commission said that they are in talks with its US counterparts, arguing that “there is a strong case for the US to reopen to travellers from Europe”.

Meanwhile, industry players have called for the resumption of transatlantic travelling, arguing that closing borders have not prevented the Delta variant from spreading across the US.

“Given the high rates of vaccination on both sides of the Atlantic, it is possible to begin safely welcoming back vaccinated visitors,” said Tori Emerson Barnes from the US travel association in a statement.

“We respectfully urge the Biden administration to revisit its decision in the very near term and begin reopening international travel to vaccinated individuals, starting with air corridors between the US and nations with similar vaccination rates,” they added.

Source: EU Observer

With certain destinations reopening for travel it may seem as though things are heading back to normal, but it is far from true. The United States for example has announced that the country will continue its international travel restrictions for now as the delta variant becomes a cause for concern. The authorities in America are currently concerned regarding the surge in this deadly variant coupled with the opposition to vaccination.

Earlier, President Joe Biden had said that the administration is in process of deciding as to how soon the country can lift the ban. This is mainly in regards to the ban on European inbound travel, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel had raised the issue during her visit to the White House. Now that the authorities have cleared the air, it remains to be seen whether the delta variant goes away anytime soon.

Jen Psaki, Press Secretary, White House, said that driven by the delta variant, the cases in America are rising. This is particularly true for the unvaccinated people. She said that this trend is very likely to continue for the coming days. Authorities are also taking a look at its policies on mask wearing.

Already, the Department of Veterans Affairs has made it mandatory for its health care workers to get vaccinated. This is the first major federal agency to do so.

The delta variant is now a major concern in countries across the world, and US health officials are thinking of changing its policies on wearing masks in order to curb the spread. The variant was first detected in India where it caused numerous deaths, crippling the health care system of the country. There is now a 32 percent increase in hospitalisation in the US from the previous week.

Source: Times Travel

Global airline passenger demand performance for June 2021 showed a slight improvement in both international and domestic air travel markets. However, overall demand remains significantly below pre-Covid-19 levels owing to untiring international travel restrictions.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) this week announced that African airlines’ traffic fell 68.2% in June versus the same month two years ago, an improvement from the 71.5% decline in May compared to May 2019. June capacity however contracted 60.0% versus June 2019 as the load factor declined 14.5 percentage points to 56.5%.

Meanwhile, total demand for air travel in June 2021 (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) was down 60.1% compared to June 2019. This was a small improvement over the 62.9% decline recorded in May 2021 versus May 2019. IATA pointed out that comparisons between 2021 and 2020 monthly results are distorted by the extraordinary impact of the global pandemic.

Moreover, international passenger demand in June was 80.9% below June 2019, an improvement from the 85.4% decline recorded in May 2021 versus two years ago.

Total domestic demand was down 22.4% versus pre-crisis levels (June 2019), a slight gain over the 23.7% decline recorded in May 2021 versus the 2019 period.

“We are seeing movement in the right direction, particularly in some key domestic markets. But the situation for international travel is nowhere near where we need to be. June should be the start of peak season, but airlines were carrying just 20% of 2019 levels. That’s not a recovery, it’s a continuing crisis caused by government inaction,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.

In terms of cargo, African airlines’ international demand for June increased 33.5% compared to the same month in 2019, which was the strongest performance of all global regions. The increase was however notable on small volumes as African carriers carry 2% of global cargo). Overall international cargo capacity in June decreased by 4.9% compared to the same month in 2019.

“Air cargo is doing brisk business as the global economy continues its recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. With first-half demand 8% above pre-crisis levels, air cargo is a revenue lifeline for many airlines as they struggle with border closures that continue to devastate the international passenger business. Importantly, the strong first-half performance looks set to continue,” said Walsh.

Source: IATA

Amadeus reported another quarterly loss as higher-priced international air traffic hasn’t recovered as quickly as domestic air traffic in the pandemic rebound. But executives at the Madrid-based travel technology firm struck an optimistic note when they reported earnings on Friday. June was the company’s best-performing month since the onset of the pandemic.

Given that Amadeus is the world’s biggest provider of booking services to travel agencies and a provider of other travel software solutions, it can serve as something of a proxy for how well the global travel sector is coping with the pandemic.

Amadeus saw monthly air booking growth rates throughout the first six months of the year compared with 2019 pre-pandemic levels gradually improve each month. In June, Amadeus saw bookings had declined 58.7 percent compared to 2019 levels, which was an improvement over the levels of decline in previous months.

North America has unsurprisingly been the best performing geography, followed by Central Europe, which includes Russia.

During the second quarter, the company reported an adjusted loss for the second quarter of about $28 million (€23.6 million) on approximately $742.6 million (€624.4 million) in revenue. The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization on continuing operations were about $172 million (€145 million).

Amadeus’s biggest revenue generator is its distribution service for airlines and agencies. In the second quarter, distribution revenue amounted to approximately $318 million (€267.6 million), a 66 percent contraction relative to the pre-pandemic second quarter of 2019. That represented a notable improvement over the revenue performance delivered in the first three months of the year.

Amadeus’ earnings are strongly tied to the number of reservations it handles, as the company essentially charges a commission for every reservation made on its platforms. About a fifth of its revenue comes from its IT hospitality business and non-air bookings.

Amadeus’s revenue fell partly because the booking volumes it processed in the second quarter were only 67.6 percent of the level of the comparable period in 2019. Yet another factor was that distribution revenue per booking diluted slightly compared with 2019 levels partly because of the higher weight of local bookings, driven by the faster recovery in domestic air traffic than in international air traffic. Short-haul domestic trips don’t generate as high a fee for the company as sales of international plane tickets do.

Amadeus addressed analyst questions about the company’s ongoing efforts to adopt NDC (New Distribution Capability), which has come to represent a set of more modern ways of selling airfares. The company said it had made moderate progress on NDC, but industry adoption will take years. It cited agreements signed with United Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, LOT Polish Airlines, and Kenya Airways. It also signed during the quarter deals to offer NDC content to travel agencies including Tiket.com in South East Asia and Seera Group and Sharaf Travel in the Middle East.

“With time, we will not be talking about NDC any longer,” said Luis Maroto, president and CEO. “There will be new technology to help you merchandise your products.”

Source: Skift