The aviation industry could return to pre-pandemic passenger traffic levels sooner than expected, according to the director general of the International Air Transport Association.  

Willie Walsh told Reuters that the industry could reach 2019 traffic levels in 2023, a year earlier than previously forecast. The war in Ukraine, ongoing restrictions in China, high oil prices, and travel delays from staff shortages are not denting the recovery so far, he said.   

“I don’t think we should be distracted from the fact we are seeing a strong recovery and I think that recovery will gather momentum as we go through the rest of this year into 2023,” Reuters quoted Walsh as saying in an interview on May 9, 2022. 

“We’re seeing very strong bookings,” Walsh added. “Certainly all the airline CEOs I’m talking to are seeing not just good demand for year-end travel but they continue to see demand as they looked through the year.” 

IATA data for March 2022 showed strong growth in passenger traffic compared to 2021, with Europe leading the recovery.  

In March 2022, traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometers rose 76% compared to March 2021. That’s still a drop of 41.3% compared with March 2019 levels, but an improvement on the 45.5% drop seen in February.  

“With barriers to travel coming down in most places, we are seeing the long-expected surge in pent-up demand finally being realized,” Walsh commented in the traffic data release on May 4, 2022.   

However, Walsh also cautioned about a lack of resources to handle the return of demand.  “Many people have waited two years for a summer holiday – it should not be ruined through lack of preparation.” 

Source: Aerotime Hub

Despite a slowdown in the pace of year-over-year total increases, passenger air traffic in March was the closest to 2019 levels since the pandemic began, according to the International Air Transportation Association. 

March passenger air volume was 58.7 percent recovered compared with March 2019 levels, versus February’s 54.5 percent. Revenue passenger kilometers in March were up 76 percent year over year, compared with an increase of nearly 116 percent in February.

Effects on air travel from the conflict between Russia and Ukraine were “limited.” However, the Covid-19 omicron variant spread in China has affected domestic air travel, though not international traffic for Asia-Pacific carriers, according to IATA.

“With barriers to travel coming down in most places, we are seeing the long-expected surge in pent-up demand finally being realized,” IATA director general Willie Walsh said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we are also seeing long delays at many airports with insufficient resources to handle the growing numbers.”

Total global capacity was up 46 percent year over year, representing a slowdown from the increase of 68.4 percent in February 2022. Capacity was down 35.5 percent compared with March 2019. Europe led both traffic and capacity changes, at 246.9 percent and 162.8 percent, respectively. Asia-Pacific continued to report year-over-year declines for both categories, at 17.9 percent and 14.9 percent, respectively. Total load factor was 74.7 percent.

March domestic air traffic continued its recovery, increasing 11.7 percent year over year, representing a 23.2 percent decline from March 2019 levels. Domestic capacity was up 1.5 percent year over year and was down 18.4 percent from 2019 levels. Brazil showed the strongest year-over-year traffic increase at 99.1 percent. China’s domestic traffic declined 59.1 percent, due to “drastic lockdowns” and travel restrictions following the spread of omicron in the country.

Still, Asia-Pacific airlines saw international traffic increase 197.1 percent year over year in March, up from the 146.5 percent increase in February, following relaxed restrictions in South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand. Every region except Africa reported triple-digit percentage increases in international traffic, with Europe leading the regions at a 425.4 percent gain as well as a 224.5 percent increase in capacity. 

“The ongoing recovery in air travel is excellent news for the global economy, for friends and families whose forced separations are being ended, and for the millions of people who depend on air transport for their livelihoods,” Walsh said. 

Source: BTN

APG Interline E-Ticketing (APG IET), an airline servicing firm, on Wednesday announced that it would begin sales of air tickets in U.S. dollars from April 19 amidst scarcity of foreign currency in Nigeria.

“Dear travel partners, warm greetings from APG. This is to bring to your notice that with effect from April 19, 2022, GP would only accept issuing of tickets in US dollars and not naira,” APG IET said in a travel advisory to its trade partners.

The group said the move became necessary due to the difficulty in repatriating airlines’ funds stuck in Nigeria and other countries, coupled with foreign exchange fluctuations.

“This is mainly due to repatriation issues and the forex situation in the country. This would most likely be a temporary measure till the forex situation improves,” the firm said.

This is coming less than three weeks after Nigeria’s aviation minister, Hadi Sirika, asked the federal government to grant access to both local and foreign airlines to foreign exchange.

Trapped funds

Last month, Mr Sirika asked the Nigerian government to facilitate the repatriation of ticket sales proceeds trapped in Nigeria.

The minister said Nigeria currently holds $283 million worth of foreign airlines’ funds in the country.

“Aviation business suffers from issues of foreign exchange by local and foreign airlines and their inability to repatriate blocked funds. Nigeria currently holds $283mn worth of foreign airlines funds in the country. I humbly ask for the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria through the directives of President Muhammadu Buhari, to aid access of both local and foreign airlines to foreign exchange,” the minister said.

According to the Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs) with countries, airline tickets are mostly sold in naira while the airlines would repatriate the funds in dollars through the country’s central bank.

The federal government in 2018 cleared $600 million blocked funds but there has since been a backlog.

Analysts say the decision by the APG IET may worsen the challenges faced by air travellers in Nigeria who may have to source forex from the black market to purchase their tickets.

The notable carriers on the APG IET platforms include South African Airways, South African Airways, Fly Dubai, Kenya Airways, Middle East Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, Rwandair, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines, French Bee, Egypt Air, ASKY, Air Seychelles, Air Algerie, and Air Namibia.

Others are Air Panama, Air Burkina, Avianca, Bangkok Airways, Cabo Verde Airlines, Fiji Airways, Hong Kong Airlines, and Malaysian Air amongst others.

Some of the carriers which fly directly into Nigeria are South Africa Airways, Turkish Airlines, Asky Airlines, Egypt Air, Royal Air Maroc, Middle East Airlines, Rwandair and Kenya Airways.

Source: Premium Times

African passenger traffic is set to rise but the recovery may be hit by the recent spike in jet fuel prices, says the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) in its latest report. 

In a statement released by the association, passenger traffic volumes across Africa have remained depressed, however the sector is making ground in its recovery. 

In March 2022, African airlines’ capacity reached 67.3% and traffic 56% compared to the same month in 2019, according to AFRAA estimates.  

AFRAA estimates the sector revenues will fall by $4.7 billion compared to 2019 levels.  In 2021, revenue for African airlines fell by $8.6 billion compared to 2019 levels.  

“In Africa, the jet fuel price hike is worrying and has the potential to slow down the travel recovery,” the association commented. “Platts estimates that the total impact of the price increases on the overall jet fuel bill will reach $86.3 billion based on an estimated average price of $115 per barrel.” 

Travel in and across Africa is continuing to make a steady recovery towards pre-covid levels.  

In February 2022, intra-African connectivity reached 72% of pre-covid levels. AFRAA estimates that this will increase to 75% in March 2022 as travel restrictions continue to ease across several African states. 

Domestic traffic in Africa accounted for the largest share of capacity and passengers carried on the continent. This is in comparison to intra-Africa traffic (flights from one African country to another African country) and intercontinental traffic (flights to and from an African country to a destination outside Africa). 

According to AFRAA: “domestic demand at 46.5% outperformed intra-Africa and intercontinental [demand] which remained subdued at 31.3% and 22.3% for intra-Africa and intercontinental respectively.” 

However, African airlines made significant ground in expanding their international operations. In February 2022 African airlines “reinstated approximately 79.9% of their pre-Covid international routes,” according to the report.  

“Five African airlines continued their international routes expansion drive and had surpassed the number of international routes operated pre-Covid,” added AFRAA. 

AFRAA also said that 10 other African airlines either re-opened suspended routes or launched new international routes. 

Source: Aerotime Hub

A new agreement signed by government officials from the Minister of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Cabinet Affairs and the International Civil Aviation Organization will form a new ICAO-UAE partnership to improve aviation cybersecurity strategy and policy for aviation stakeholders in the Middle East.

The agreement was signed during an ICAO mission to the UAE last week, where ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano addressed the UAE’s “High Level Conference on Cybersecurity in Civil Aviation,” which is held as part of the annual World Government Summit in Dubai. In his speech, Sciacchitano highlighted the presence of some of the legacy systems and networks that comprise what he describes as the backbone of aviation’s “information architecture” or “system of systems.”

“Legacy systems most especially can contain outdated hardware and software that is not always easy to replace. They also can pose inherent security vulnerabilities, being unable to accommodate latest security and encryption best practices,” Sciacchitano said.

While the pandemic led to a historic decrease in the annual volume of passenger-carrying airline flights between 2020 and 2021, a report from Eurocontrol’s new cybersecurity data collection initiative showed a major rise in the number of cyber attacks reported to the agency by aviation companies based in Europe. Several recent cyber attacks that have caused disruption to airlines, airports, and aviation service providers have also shown how large of a target the system of systems is for hackers and bad actors.

In February, Swissport, an airport ground services provider with operations at 285 airports in 45 countries, reported a ransomware attack that took some of its main information sharing systems temporarily offline. Newsweek published an article last year showing how the personal data of more than 4 million passengers was compromised in a cyber attack targeting several airlines that operate in the Asia Pacific region including Air India, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Finnair.

“The pandemic has also fostered a significant public expectation for touch-less technologies to make their future traveller experience healthier and safer, meaning that we face an entire new wave of compartmentalized digitalization, and still further system-of-systems vulnerabilities arising,” Sciacchitano said in his speech.

The UAE-ICAO aviation cybersecurity agreement will focus on collaboration between the two sides that fosters knowledge and information sharing leading to “accelerators, innovation in future civil aviation, and cybersecurity,” according to ICAO’s announcement of the new agreement. ICAO’s agreement with the UAE government is the agency’s latest progress on standardizing the way the global aviation industry responds to and regulates cyber attacks against aviation assets.

The agency adopted Assembly Resolution A40-10—Addressing Cybersecurity in Civil Aviation, during the 40th Session of the ICAO Assembly that calls upon ICAO member-states to implement the ICAO Aviation Cybersecurity Strategy, first published in October 2019. Sciacchitano also advocated in his speech for more ICAO member-states to adopt the Beijing Convention and Protocol of 2010 to establish a global legal framework for dealing with “cyberattacks on international civil aviation as crimes.”

“In addition, ICAO has been developing an international aviation trust framework to support the cybersecurity and cyber resilience of civil aviation in the air navigation domain,” Sciacchitano said. “This is a very important project, probably the most important of recent years, to support the secure global exchange of digital aviation information, and will include procedures, technical specifications, and guidance material supporting current and future global network requirements.”

Source: Aviation Today

The unprecedented demand for airport capacity to handle essential cargo such as temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals and Covid-19 vaccines over the past two years of the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the massive shortage of airport infrastructure in Africa.

Even among major airport hubs in various parts of Africa, passenger and cargo figures have overwhelmed available capacity or would do so in the near future. This poor capacity restricts African airports’ growth and associated revenue. In response to this challenge, Ethiopian had increased the existing Bole International Airport capacity from seven million passengers per annum capacity to 22 million capacity. In addition, Ethiopian Airlines a few years ago announced plans to build a $5 billion massive airport in Addis Ababa, to complement the existing Bole International Airport and accommodate fast-rising passenger and cargo traffic. The airport would cover an area of 35 square kilometers and accommodate 100 million passengers annually.

Agreeably, this lack of airport capacity in Africa represents investment opportunities for investors. Transit sheds, cold stores, specialized freight consolidation centers, and e-warehousing, among others, present good investment opportunities all over the continent. Daniel Eckstein, Business Development Manager Middle East, and Africa of Munich Airport International (MAI) – Munich Airport’s international business subsidiary, said African airports and investors have opportunities to create airport cities, business parks, or free trade zones in order to tap further non-aviation revenue potential.

On the landside too, African airports could diversify revenue streams with shopping, restaurant, hotel, and conference centers, office leasing for international companies, rental events spaces and construction of a smart city in form of the cross-industry innovation centre, among other businesses.

Leading from the front Currently, a number of African airports and airport authorities are already developing or executing future expansion plans to meet crucial current and future demand, ensure steady growth and development of their airports, and contribution to their economies. The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), which refers to itself as “the largest air freight service provider in Africa”, is implementing its Air Cargo Strategy 2019-2022 to drive cargo development.

At Isiolo International Airport, KAA says cargo handling sheds have been completed to take care of the export of agricultural produce and Miraa. Construction of a modern transit shed is underway at Mombasa’s Moi International Airport, and a new cold storage room and specialized consolidation area will form part of the upgrade planned for the airport. Kisumu is being positioned to attract massive trade and investment in its Great Lakes region.

Early January 2022, Kisumu Airport announced its first cargo flight to international markets on Kenya Airways. “Local and international investors are attracted to Kisumu International Airport due to its multi-modal transportation capabilities and proximity to the Kisumu Port, the ICD, and the modern road network,” KAA states. KAA is also in the process of modernizing and expanding Eldoret International Airport’s transit sheds to handle more cargo “as we envisage increased airfreight activity, both local and international.”

Cameroun recently announced infrastructure improvement inaugurated at the Yaounde-Nsimalen International Airport including the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), the patrol road, the rehabilitation of the security fence, and the Yaounde-Nsimalen International Airport ring road. Sierra Leone also reported efforts to improve safety at its airports. Jack Massaquoi, General Manager of Sierra Leone Airports Authority (SLAA), says the Sierra Leone Airports Authority wants to keep first responders on their toes and to always stay cognizant of their safety roles. For Seychelles airports, they have a “strategy to proactively pursue innovative business ventures to provide more diverse services for our customers.”

Public-private partnership Partnerships are vital to reposition African airports to meet the current and future needs of airport users including airlines, tourists, and business meetings. Public-private partnership is instrumental to the development of Kenya airports, and this offers the solution to develop Africa’s remote airports where agriculture and other primary produce are generated.

In West Africa, Nigeria’s move to concession its major international airports in Kano, Port Harcourt, Abuja, and Lagos could be a first step towards positioning the country’s airports to benefit from the air transport and trade liberalization in the continent. Without the intrigues and controversies that marred previous concessions in Lagos, Nigerian airports development could be another example for other African airports to toe their line.

Airline-airport synergy Both Kenya and Ethiopian Airports expansion are significantly driven by their well-established national carriers, Kenya Airways and Ethiopian, respectively, which spearhead cargo and passenger traffic to the airports. Other African states could drive their airports expansion relying on traffic from privately-owned domestic or regional African airlines, which have now been empowered to fly into airports on the continent unfettered by the glorious Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) established in 2018.

About 35 states have signed the SAATM, so airlines from these states are expected to explore the airports in these states and the high volume of trade is expected to ensue from the operationalization of the complementary African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) launched continent-wide in January 2021. Under the new SAATM and AcfCFTA environment, there must be robust collaboration and partnerships between African airlines and African airports. This also presupposes that African airports must intensify their non-aeronautical revenue drive which would enable these airports, in turn to reduce emphases on charges on airlines. Most African airports operate far below 50 percent of non-aeronautical revenue.

Ethiopian Airports, for instance, is showing good example in non-aeronautical revenue development, with its luxury Skylight Hotel that offers 373 guest rooms and conference hall for 2500 guests, being the biggest hotel in Addis Ababa. Targets and timelines The examples of multi-year development plans by Kenya Airports Authority, Ethiopian Airports, and Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) have clearly demonstrated benefits. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa enabled ACSA develop especially the Johannesburg airport to accommodate the traffic resulting from the event and future traffic.

Setting airport expansion and development targets would enable African airports measure their direction, as well as growth achieved within a given period. It will also guide the private sector investors and concessionaires to expedite action in areas of immediate need. Most importantly, Africa is still providing less than two percent of global air traffic; thus, setting a realizable target of 5-10 percent of global market share over the next 5-10 years is a project all African airports should strive towards, as a priority. Synergize with cargo value-chain Aviation cannot develop in a silo.

Airports development stakeholders must collaborate with especially cargo sources such as the agricultural sector and the transport and packaging value-chain to develop and facilitate acceptable products and package standards for movement by air. This would reduce spoilage and economic losses associated with movement of perishable agricultural and other products by poor road networks over long distances in Africa. Embrace technology and e-commerce Africa’s 1.3billion population has remarkably the youngest population that is also largely immersed in mobile technology and e-commerce. African airports should realign accordingly and adopt new airport technology to enhance customer experience, and further explore the fast-rising e-commerce industry.

E-commerce should be a key feature among businesses in the evolving Free Trade Area in Africa which is designed to drive massive trade activities within Africa. The current traffic trend mired by the Covid-19 pandemic could make short-term traffic projections rather difficult. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) says “Africa and the Middle East recovering moderately, until Africa plunged again due to Omicron restrictions.” In fact, Ali Tounsi, secretary-general of Airports Council International Africa Region (ACI-Africa), says that cargo is now one-third of the airline business; and it is hoped that air cargo can grow even further with the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area, e-commerce and the linkages to manufacturing facilities and Special Economic Zones (SEZ).

Despite this challenge, 2022 presents a window of recovery for African airports and investors to take the better option of planning and executing for the immediate- and longer-terms, given that the pandemic would become better managed to unstop reopening of borders and flow of air traffic to African airports.

Government must take responsibility According to Tounsi, African airports are controlled nearly 90 percent by governments. This puts the responsibility of driving the evolution of African airports on the governments. Governments must, in turn, create the enabling environment that attracts private investors, including airport-airline partnerships. African governments must take responsibility to ensure that African airlines are supported – under a robust Dispute Settlement Mechanism of the SAATM – to drive cargo and passengers to African airports, including airports with huge cargo potentials. Foreign airlines are already positioned to take away the opportunities emanating with the AfCFTA, with Qatar Airways relishing prospects of cargo from Nigeria’s Kano International Airport.

Source: Logistic Update Africa

Thousands of Nigerian travelers have been left stranded at airports throughout the country because of a massive fuel shortage.

In the past week, more than three airlines reported shortages of aviation fuel, forcing them to reschedule or cancel flights.

Nigeria’s largest carrier, Air Peace, confirmed Wednesday that the shortage will impact on a number of its flights to Dubai and Johannesburg, its major routes.

Its other major airline, Arik Air, also confirmed it will experience many delays from Wednesday and onwards and many domestic flights will have to be canceled if the problem persists.

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer and exporter but the West African country is forced to depend almost entirely on fuel imports because of its inability to refine most of its oil for use at home.

Vanguard, a local publication, reports that the price of Jet A1, the principal fuel used by airlines, has ranged between 1.39 and 1.44 U.S. dollars per liter in the last few days, compared to the 1.08 price at which it previously sold.

In response, airlines that were able to acquire the fuel and continue operating hiked their ticket costs to cover for the increased charges.

Authorities blamed the scarcity of fuel on the withdrawal of adulterated gasoline, which the West African nation’s national oil company said was found to have been imported by four oil marketers.

Speaking with Vanguard on the cause of the scarcity and current high price, Chief Executive Officer of Cleanserve Energy, Mr Chris Ndule, said the current price of crude oil in the international market had affected the prices of all petroleum products, aviation inclusive.

“It is not only aviation fuel price that has increased, other petroleum products prices have also increased. This is partly due to the current price of crude oil in the international market, which is going for between 110 and 125 U.S. dollars per barrel.”

In the aftermath, the oil regulator has been unable to sustain distribution to retail outlets nationwide.

Outside airports, motorists have also been forced to abandon their cars or pay more to public transport operators following a hike in petrol and diesel prices.

Taxi operators have reported long queues, with some spending multiple hours to acquire the precious commodity.

Reports of brokers have also emerged, as scrupulous dealers sell petrol and diesel to desperate Nigerians for more than triple their usual price.

Despite being Africa’s top crude producer, gasoline shortages are common in Nigeria.

The Nigerian government said a “major investigation to unravel everything” has been launched to resolve the latest crisis.

“We are working very closely with the authority that is entrusted with the responsibility of regulating what is going on. Not only that. We are working with the government security agencies to ensure that products get to the stations and that there are also continuous sales in the stations,” the Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, said last week as he sought to assure the country that the situation was under control.

The NNPC had earlier ordered fuel retailers with the commodities to operate throughout in order to avoid long queues.

Source: CGTN

The UK government has announced the implementation of tighter sanctions on Russian aircraft.  

On May 9, 2022, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced a new suite of actions against Russia that will allow the UK government to detain any Russian aircraft and remove any aircraft owned by Russian individuals and entities from the UK register.  

“The ban includes any aircraft owned, operated or chartered by anyone connected with Russia or designated individuals or entities, and will include the power to detain any aircraft owned by persons connected with Russia,” the UK government announced in an official statement. 

The UK government also introduced additional trade measures banning the export of goods and technology related to aviation and space to Russia, including technical assistance and any other related services, such as insurance and reinsurance. 

“This means the cover is withdrawn on existing policies and UK insurers and reinsurers will be unable to pay claims in respect of existing policies in these sectors,” the statement continued.  

The Foreign Secretary said the new sanctions will apply further economic pressure on Russia. 

“Banning Russian flagged planes from the UK and making it a criminal offense to fly them will inflict more economic pain on Russia and those close to the Kremlin,” the Foreign Secretary said. 

“We will continue to support Ukraine diplomatically, economically, and defensively in the face of Putin’s illegal invasion, and work to isolate Russia on the international stage,” she added. 

Source: Aerotime Hub

The Russian government has prepared a draft decree that could allow Russian airlines to pay for leased aircraft in roubles throughout 2022. 

However, if a foreign lessor decides to terminate a leasing contract and requests that the aircraft be returned earlier than specified in a leasing agreement, the airline will have a right to continue flying the plane, according to Interfax.ru.  

Under a new law drafted by the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation on March 10, 2022, the decision to terminate lease agreements and return aircraft to foreign lessors will be overseen by a special government commission, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov. Without the commission’s decision, Russian carriers will be allowed to continue operating the leased aircraft and the leased planes. 

Russia’s Ministry of Transport also proposed that aircraft are expected to be insured and reinsured by Russian insurance organizations under the same conditions specified in the contract. 

The draft decree will apply to all aircraft lease agreements concluded before February 24, 2022. 

Western sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine require foreign lessors to terminate lease contracts in Russia by March 28, 2022. However, foreign leasing companies are unlikely to be able to reclaim aircraft from Russia while the conflict in Ukraine continues. 

On March 7, 2022, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) issued a host of recommendations for airlines in an attempt to negate Western sanctions.  

Russian authorities have recommended airlines avoid operating to foreign destinations with leased aircraft in order to mitigate the likelihood of planes being seized while on the ground outside of Russia. The authorities have also discussed re-registering aircraft owned by foreign lessors, effectively nationalizing the aircraft, and have urged operators to keep all technical documents to hand. 

Source: Aerotime Hub

The latest data from ForwardKeys reveals that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused an immediate stall in flight bookings to Europe and within Russia domestically.

In its second public analysis since the outbreak of war, ForwardKeys compared flight bookings in the week following the invasion, February 24th-March 2nd, to the previous seven days.

Excluding Ukraine and Moldova, which closed their air space, and Russia and Belarus, which were subjected to flight bans and safety warnings, the destinations worst affected were generally those closest to the conflict.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia all saw a 30-50 per cent collapse in bookings.

All the other European countries, except for Belgium, Iceland, and Serbia, which saw single digit drops, experienced a decline in bookings between ten and 30 per cent.

Domestic flight bookings in Russia fell 49 per cent.

Analysis by source market shows that intra-European air traffic was worse affected than transatlantic travel.

Flight bookings within Europe fell 23 per cent, whereas they fell 13 per cent from the USA.

The only European air corridor left open to Russia is via Serbia, which is now acting as a gateway.

This is most clearly demonstrated by an immediate uplift in seat capacity between Russia and Serbia in March and by the profile of bookings.

Seat capacity scheduled in the first week of March shows around 50 per cent increase in available seats for flights from Russia to Serbia, compared to February 21st (before full scale military operations began).

Some 60 per cent more flight tickets were issued for travel from Russia to another destination via Serbia in the week immediately after the invasion, than there were in the whole of January.

Also, in January, 85 per cent of transfers from Russia via Serbia were to Montenegro; in the week after the invasion, the figure was 40 per cent, as Serbia became a hub for onward travel to Cyprus, France, Switzerland, Italy and elsewhere.

Olivier Ponti, vice president, insights, ForwardKeys, said: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made an immediate impact, stalling what had been a strong recovery in travel since early January.

“What I find surprising is that transatlantic travel and western European destinations have been less badly affected than I feared – North Americans can tell the difference between war in Ukraine and war in Europe, and so far, it seems that travellers regard the rest of Europe as relatively safe.

“There is also a strong pent-up demand.

“What’s most notable is the speed with which Serbia has become the gateway for travel between Russia and Europe.

“However, these are early days in a global political and economic crisis; so, what happens to travel will certainly be affected by the progress of the war and the impact of sanctions.

“Over the coming weeks, I expect we will see inflation and possible fuel supply issues pulling back what would otherwise be a strong post-pandemic recovery, as Covid-19 travel restrictions are progressively lifted.”

Source: Breaking Travel News