As Omicron Spreads, the CDC Tightens Its Health Advice on Travel

In its latest travel advisory issued Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) moved Canada to its highest risk level category, “Level 4: Very High COVID-19.”

With the new designation, most of the world’s countries as well as nearly every county in the U.S. are on the agency’s list of places to which Americans travelers should avoid non-essential trips. There are currently 81 countries and territories ranked as Level 4 by the CDC, with nearly all of Europe, Scandinavia, Canada, and the U.S. a deep shade of red (which indicates the highest level of transmission) on the organization’s world map tracking the virus.

“If you must travel to these destinations, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel,” the CDC travel guidelines say.

A handful of countries, including Mexico and most countries in South America, are ranked in the CDC’s slightly less urgent category “Level 3: COVID-19 High.” 

While the majority of destinations are still allowing fully vaccinated travelers to visit if they follow certain testing protocols, many governments are discouraging tourists. Canada, for one, has been ramping up testing requirements for arriving visitors, and the nation’s government has also been discouraging its citizens from traveling abroad.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mexico’s borders remain open to travelers from both the U.S. and around the world with very few restrictions: Travelers aren’t currently required to show a negative test result to enter. Similarly, the U.K. recently relaxed its requirement for a pre-departure test for fully vaccinated travelers in favor of a test within two days of arrival.

But advice from health officials in the U.S. on what modes of travel are safe have slowly been growing more stringent in recent weeks. In late December, the CDC travel guidelines for cruise ships were upgraded to Level 4, and the top infectious disease doctor in the U.S. Dr. Anthony Fauci made a more vocal case for a vaccination requirement for domestic flights, saying in an interview with MSNBC that the measure is “something that should be seriously considered.”

Source: Conde Nest Traveller

How China’s Zero-COVID Goal Is Impacting The Aviation Industry

Inbound international flights to China are operating at a fraction of comparable 2020 numbers and don’t look like recovering any time soon. If anything, capacity may further tighten. Among many industries, the aviation industry is a casualty of China’s zero-COVID policy.

While most of the world wrestles with learning to live with COVID, China maintains a zero-COVID stance, attempting to crush the virus wherever it appears. Anyang, with a population of about five and a half million people, Xi’an, home to around 13 million people, and Yuzhou, where over one million people live, are all experiencing extremely tough lockdowns.

No Olympics financial sugar hit for the aviation industry

China closed its international borders to nearly all foreigners in March 2020, shutting down the inbound tourism and business markets. China has not relaxed that policy since. If anything, they’ve become tougher on who they award the few visas they grant to. That’s having a big impact on the aviation industry.

Beijing is set to host the Winter Olympics in February. Normally, the Olympics offers a guaranteed boost in passengers numbers for airlines flying into the host city. But Beijing is not inviting non-residents, which neutralizes any airline’s chances of a quick financial sugar rush from the games.

According to Bloomberg, across January 8 – 15, 2020, China welcomed around 10,000 international flights. This week, the country will see about 500 international flights land, and capacity cuts are intensifying.

Beijing penalizes airlines

China appears hell-bent on hosting the Olympics next month, and if that means tightening movement and travel restrictions to curb the threat of COVID, so be it. Airlines are being penalized for flying in passengers who later test positive to COVID.

Those penalties usually involve blocking a fixed number of future flights. As a result, this week, American Airlines confirmed it had axed six of its flights from Dallas-Fort Worth to Shanghai in late January and early February.

United Airlines has canceled six flights from San Francisco to Shanghai in late January, and Delta Air Lines had also canceled a couple of flights. Even the flights that do get to go ahead are limited to flying 75% of their maximum capacity.

“We don’t expect international travel to and from China to recover to 2019 levels for the next three quarters at least,” said John Grant, OAG’s chief analyst. Grant noted in the lead up to COVID-19, China had been one of the fastest-growing airline markets in the world.

It’s not just US carriers feeling the pinch. Four China Southern flights from Los Angeles to Guangzhou in early February are canceled. So far this year, more than 60 flights on the China-United States country pair have been canceled.

Normalization of flights to China a long way off

The big three US airlines and four Chinese carriers continue to maintain scaled-back flights between the two countries. And China’s heavy-handed approach extends beyond the United States. Multiple flights from France and Canada have been suspended this week.

Now under the control of Beijing, Hong Kong last week banned all flights from eight countries for two weeks. From this weekend, Hong Kong will also ban transit passengers from 150 countries for one month.

“The abrupt re-imposition of travel restrictions by many governments in the face of the rising spread of the omicron variant threatens to hold back the long-awaited revival of Asia’s travel and tourism industry,” said Subhas Menon, Director General of the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines recently.

China is expected to issue special landing permits for participants and officials flying in for the Olympics before reverting to their current zero-COVID-related entry policies.

Source: Simple Flying

Unvaccinated passengers to be blocked at airports

Unvaccinated Kenyans coming back to the country will not be allowed in after the expiry of a seven-day window that the aviation regulator had issued amid talks with the Ministry of Health to extend inoculation exercise for these passengers at the airport.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority had from December 28 allowed Kenyans who do not have Covid-19 certificate to be admitted in the country but had to undergo mandatory vaccination at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

KCAA director-general Gilbert Kibe says they are in discussion with the health officials to see if an extension on the vaccination exercise at the airport can be issued so that they would allow those without certificates to be inoculated at the port of entry.

“We are not allowing Kenyans without vaccination certificates at the moment but we are the waiting for Ministry of Health to update on the possibility of an extension,” Mr Kibe told the Business Daily.

KCAA had offered Kenyan travellers a sigh of relief in the last two weeks following a directive allowing them to fly without a vaccination certificate.

Previously, Kenya would not allow those without proof of vaccination entry and had issued a directive to the airlines not to board them.

KCAA required these individuals to register on the Chanjo platform and must have a negative Covid-19 certificate.

Source: Business Daily

Why Kenya is in perennial aviation tiff with UAE

Kenya has suspended all inbound and transit passenger flights from the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) to retaliate against Dubai’s move to ban all passenger flights from Kenya over fake Covid-19 tests.

In a statement, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said the suspension took effect Monday midnight for a period of seven days.

The ban does not, however, affect cargo flights that are normally flown by carriers such as Kenya Airways and Emirates airline from UEA into Kenya.

“Inbound and transit passenger flights from UAE are suspended for a period of seven days. We are doing this to reciprocate a ban on Kenyan passenger flights to UAE,” Director-General Gilbert Kibe said. 

The ban comes barely two weeks after UAE extended Kenya flight ban after it established that travelers from Nairobi were testing positive for Covid-19 after arrival in the Middle East nation, despite carrying negative test results.

On December 20, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) announced a 48-hour suspension on all flights from Kenya after several passengers arriving from Nairobi tested positive for Covid-19. 

However, the Arab League nation extended the ban that was to end on  Christmas eve

“Until further notice, flights to and from Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda are suspended,” DCAA said.

It asked passengers who have been in or transited through these countries in the last 14 days will not be allowed to enter or transit through Dubai,” said the notice from the airline.

“They banned flights from Kenya due to many false negative Covid-19 PCR results. The Ministry of Health is investigating and will report findings soon,” KCAA said. 

The aviation tiff between the two is likely to hurt Kenya’s growing labour export to the UAE, considering that majority were yet to travel back after Christmas festivities. 

Government data shows that there are at least 40,000 Kenyans working in UAE, with the figure rising by the day. 

Even so, this is not the first time Kenya and UAE are embroiled in an aviation war. 

In March, Kenya blocked UAE’s push to have more flight frequencies by the Emirates Airline.

This, despite Dubai writing to Nairobi not to fly any carrier with more than 220 passengers into its territory yet Emirates is using aircraft of more than 400 seat capacity into Nairobi.

This angered Kenya, with the Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia calling out the Arab nation for unfair air transport trade. 

According to him, Emirates was seeking an additional daily flight to Nairobi yet it does 14 weekly flights.

“When you add Etihad Airlines and Air Arabia, in total they have 28 weekly flight frequencies against Kenya Airways’ seven, an arrangement that is a skewed advantage in favour of airlines from the Gulf region,” Macharia said. 

The CS said Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airlines and Air Arabia—all designated to fly from the UAE—currently have a combined weekly seat capacity of 15,400 against Kenya Airways’ 5,510.

”Giving Emirates more flight capacity means they will get 90 per cent of business between Nairobi and Dubai while KQ receives 10 per cent. This is not tenable,” said CS Macharia.

He said Emirates Airlines benefits from substantial government subsidies and can sell out the seats in the Nairobi-Dubai route at throw-away prices due to the support.

More than a decade ago, Nairobi and Dubai were involved in a bitter diplomatic exchange after four members of the Dubai royal family were kicked out by immigration officials in Nairobi on suspicion that they were a terror gang.

Dubai retaliated by imposing restrictions requiring all Kenyans entering the UAE to present proof of higher education to obtain a visa.

The 2010 incident triggered fear of deportation among thousands of Kenyans working in the Gulf nation, prompting truce talks.

Even so, the two nations have enjoyed a cordial relationship, more so during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s tenure. 

In 2014, Uhuru travelled to UAE where he held talks with rulers from Jordan and UAE on expanding and deepening cooperation in areas of mutual interest between Kenya and the UAE.

The discussions were centered around issues of security, combating terrorism, and stemming out radicalization.

In 2018, UAE and Kenya signed a memorandum of understanding that aimed to promote cooperation in domestic employment.

The MoU, which is complemented by a cooperation agreement on domestic workers, was signed by Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, and Ukur Yatani, then CS Labour and Social Protection.

Dubai said the MoU was the outcome of solid cooperation in employment and includes the regulation of the recruitment and employment of Kenyan labour and the work of the private recruitment agencies, with the aim of adopting transparent practices in all stages of the contractual work cycle.

In 2019, Kenya lobbied Dubai officials to support Kenyatta’s Big 4 Agenda and held talks over logistics, infrastructure, retail, tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, and finance. 

In February last year, Uhuru sent Interior CS Fred Matiang’i to Abu Dhabi for bilateral discussions on security sector collaboration between the UAE and Kenya.

Matiang’i and his host His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed also discussed the possible easing of VISA restrictions for Kenyans travelling to the UAE in the wake of the Covid- 19 pandemic.

Source: The Star

Delhi to challenge Canadian court order against Air India

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is taking legal recourse against a Canadian court order that allows the seizure of millions of dollars collected by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on behalf of Air India (AI, Mumbai Int’l) and the Indian regulator, reports Indian Express.

This follows after the Superior Court of Quebec passed separate orders on November 24 and December 21 on multiple petitions filed by three Mauritius-based shareholders of India’s Devas Multimedia Private Limited to enforce arbitration awards against the Indian government.

This includes USD6.8 million in air service fees collected by IATA on behalf of the AAI and an as-yet-undisclosed amount in Air India ticket sales collected through IATA’s Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP).

“The AAI has not been served any order by the Quebec Court, Canada, in this matter. However, IATA shared certain documents on the AAI’s request for suspending the transfer of the amount collected on behalf of the AAI. The AAI is taking legal recourse to defend itself,” the regulator said in a statement.

The Devas shareholders involved are Devas (Mauritius) Ltd, Telcom Devas Mauritius Ltd, and Devas Employees Mauritius Pvt. Ltd. Air India removed its inventory from the Global Distribution System (GDS) following the December 21 court order.

The dispute dates back to a deal annulled in 2011 between Devas Multimedia and Antrix Corp, a state-owned Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) unit, by which Antrix Corp would have leased satellite transponders to Devas. Antrix Corp has initiated liquidation proceedings against Devas Multimedia pending before the Karnataka High Court in India.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on January 4 dismissed an attempt to have the government’s disinvestment in Air India set aside. The appeal by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy was based on the allegation that the government’s methodology in the valuation of the national carrier was “arbitrary, illegal, and against the public interest,” reported The Economic Times. Swamy is an economist and statistician who serves as a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.

This comes ahead of the Tata Group’s 100% takeover of Air India and Air India Express (IX, Mumbai Int’l) following its successful bid announced in October last year, representing the first privatisation in the country in 20 years. The Tata Group also takes over 50% of ground handler Air India SATS in a joint venture with the government, which retains 50%. The Tata Group has been granted indemnity from USD4.7 billion worth of Air India debt in its shareholder agreement with the government.

According to the share purchase agreement signed on October 25, the government has sold Air India for INR180 billion (USD2.4 billion), of which the Tata Group will pay INR27 billion (USD362.6 million) in cash and INR153 billion (USD2 billion) for Air India’s existing debt.

Lenders to Air India have reportedly offered Tata a loan of INR350 billion (USD4.6 billion) for a weighted average dividend of 4.25% – the rate at which the state is lending for one year, reports Hindi publication Zaroorat. Tata had invited bids from the airline’s existing lenders for a one-year general loan of INR230 billion (USD3 billion). This would include INR180 billion (USD2.4 billion) to repay the carrier’s debt and an additional INR50 billion (USD671 million) for initial operating costs.

Tata will notify each lender of the allotment in the first week of January and draw the sanctioned limit between January 10 and 15, 2022, the report said. The takeover and refinance of Air India’s debt was due to be completed before January 23, the long-stop date for closing the Air India agreement with the government. However, regulatory processes appear to have delayed the deadline, now extended by mutual consent to the end of January, reports the Hindu newspaper Jagran.

By August 31, 2021, Air India had a total debt of INR615.62 billion (USD8.2 billion); 75% of this debt will be transferred to Air India Assets Holding Limited (AIAHL), a special purpose vehicle, before the airline is handed over to the Tata Group.

According to company information, in 2020/21, the combined revenue of Tata companies was USD103 billion.

Source: Ch-Aviation

Inside Travelport’s Tech Revamp

Travelport has been running a slick marketing campaign about its innovations that showcases dancers and snowboarders. But we wanted the nerdy details about what’s technologically changing. So here’s the first in-depth interview with the company’s new tech chief.

Travelport is best known for helping travel agencies sell airline tickets. It joins rivals Amadeus and Sabre in processing nearly half the world’s air bookings.

In 2019, Travelport went private. Since then, owners private equity firm Siris Capital and a unit of Elliott Management have been making changes. Turnaround artist and CEO Greg Webb has been overhauling operations.

In June 2021, Webb appointed Tom Kershaw chief product and technology officer. Kershaw is leading an effort to reinvigorate the company‘s technology.

I checked in with Kershaw for an update.

“(This year) is going to be a watershed year for Travelport,” Kershaw said.

For years, the UK-based travel technology company has run three global distribution systems — Worldspan, Galileo, and Apollo.

It now aspires to run on one platform, Travelport+, with Galileo as the main framework. I’ve heard a rumor of an October 1 goal.

But Kershaw said he hasn’t decided on a “sunset date” for Worldspan and Apollo.

“Our goal is not necessarily about consolidating,” Kershaw clarified. “It’s about leapfrogging to the next generation of technologies across the board for our customers, leapfrogging from a legacy model to an internet shopping model.”

“There are some components of the systems that will be available throughout 2022 for sure,” Kershaw said. “But the goal is to get a vast majority of customers on Travelport+ in the coming quarters.”

One challenge facing Travelport is with the reservation software it offers travel agents. The agents differ on the kind of software they prefer.

Many veteran agents prefer using a classic industry user interface, nicknamed the “green screen.” The agents book trips and service bookings by using specific, command-based keystrokes.

Newer agents, by contrast, typically want software that looks like consumer applications from Apple or Amazon, which use “graphical user interfaces.”

Travel agencies need to appeal to veterans and newbies alike. So Kershaw intends to appeal to both tastes with a hybrid approach.

“We want a completely cloud-based, front-end user interface for travel agents,” Kershaw said. “It will allow us to coexist in a terminal world and a graphical user interface world and jump back seamlessly between the two.”

I was too polite in the call to mention that I heard this exact same pitch in 2012 when I visited Travelport’s headquarters in Langley, UK. I sat through a demonstration of its then-latest-system Smartpoint. The system back then promised a similarly effortless toggling between interfaces. Of course, the company may get it right this time.

The company is also adopting a broader array of ways of exchanging and analyzing data.

Kershaw believes Travelport can differentiate itself in a few ways.

It is adopting technologies and processes to make it easier and more cost-efficient for agencies to handle complexity.

“We’re developing strong automation capabilities for things like exchanging tickets and issuing refunds,” Kershaw said.

One of the striking aspects of the new Travelport is its focus on simplification and its related decision to double down on its core business of distribution.

The previous management’s theme had been to diversify Travelport’s business. The thinking was to make the company less dependent on its core airline distribution business. Some equities analysts believe that distrbution, while a cash cow, is in terminal decline.

The company’s current financial sponsors have been instead slimming down Travelport’s portfolio, such as by jettisoning the group’s stake in payments unit eNett, and investing more in the distribution core.

For instance, the previous management bought Mobile Travel Technologies in 2015. It morphed the vendor into an outsourced development shop for airlines, such as when EasyJet needed help in designing mobile apps.

Kershaw said Travelport would “continue to support specific products in specific markets.” But that group is now primarily working on re-building Travelport’s portal to let customers self-service their accounts where appropriate.

“We’re trying to bring all parts of the company under the same umbrella as part of our broader move to standardize as much as possible,” Kershaw said. “We want to reduce having customization all over the place — while still allowing for regional and customer-specific solutions.”

“That group is really charged with building out self-service tools for agencies who need to make changes to accounts at all times of the day,” Kershaw said.

Kershaw has a few principles that animate his plans for Travelport. “Less is more” is one of the them.

A case in point: Like its peer companies, Travelport must cope with a fast growing array of airline products, such as the bundling of seats with ancillary services like free checked luggage.

“In travel, we have this explosion of options, and every airline has a different view of how they want to approach this,” Kershaw said. “We in the travel industry need to use machine learning to help pick the correct, relevant bundle for any given user.”

Travelport does face rising upstarts as fresh competitors, including Duffel on the distribution front and Aeronology in the agency ticket servicing front. But the company has said it has been making strides, especially versus its traditional peers such as Sabre.

“We’re very happy with the feedback we’re getting from customers about how we’re onboarding new content quickly and effectively,” Kershaw said.

Kershaw believes that the airline sector could do a better job with standardization in distribution and selling.

The New Distribution Capability, or NDC, is a shorthand for an airline effort to attempt to standardize how airline content is distributed and displayed to agencies and end-users.

“I don’t think the industry has done a good enough job with standardization,” Kershaw said. “There’s too much customization and variation, with everyone interpreting the standards in different ways, which is holding back the industry’s velocity in adopting modern retailing.”

Kershaw has experience with this issue. He founded Prebid as an open-source, unified auction for programmatic advertising.

“The travel industry could learn more from how other verticals have approached standardization,” Kershaw said. “I’m not saying that travel’s terrible at this. But I think we can do a better job cooperating and developing standards faster.“

To give some context, a decade ago, independent advertising technology platforms were stabbing each other in the eyeballs over technical application issues while Google took market share from everyone. About a half-dozen years ago, Google became the only real choice for publishers to monetize with ads.

Kershaw blamed the problem on a lack of standardization from design and technical perspectives. He helped create Prebid on the theory that publishers needed a competitive option to Google’s auctions.

In a key point for engineering nerds, Kershaw doesn’t believe Travelport’s goal should be to universally adopt a particular class of API, or application programming interface.

Travelport embraced the use of APIs years ago because they enable much better capabilities for sales and data analytics. But APIs come in different flavors.

“I don’t want to leave the impression that the endgame is all about moving everything from quote-unquote ‘legacy APIs’ like SOAP to Rest APIs like JSON [JavaScript Object Notation, or probably the most widely used data format for data interchange in ecommerce],” Kershaw said.

“The plan isn’t to port everything to JSON and then pop Champagne,” Kershaw said. “Our intermediate-term goal is instead to get everything on a single well-documented family of APIs. We also want those APIs to be easy to consume, meaning friendly for developers to use for executing agency workflows.”

Cynics might wonder if Kershaw has adopted that position because Travelport doesn’t have the resources for a full shift.

After all, Travelport hasn’t generated as much cash as its financial sponsors expected it would have by now because of a botched sale of its stake in payments firm eNett.

Regarding eNett selling for only $577.5 million instead of $1.7 billion or more, a Travelport spokesperson responded: “We (leadership and owners) reached an agreement that, all things considered, was right for all parties. The close of the transaction allowed us to focus on our core business and invest further in Travelport.”

I didn’t ask Kershaw about resources. But he volunteered that practicalities dictate his company’s technology policy. Travelport has an array of functions that need a breadth of APIs, Kershaw said.

For example, its search function for airfare content demands APIs that can handle a huge amount of data volumes. That might require one type of API. But the company’s other tasks, such as letting an agent check a passenger name record or void a transaction, happen with less frequency — yet require a lot of customization for agency-specific workflows. So those tasks might need other types of APIs, Kershaw said.

“APIs are a journey, not a destination,” Kershaw said. “The evolution is ongoing, with people talking already about GraphQL and other newer technologies.”

A mistake Kershaw is trying to avoid is being one of those companies that’s in a rush to roll out “features, features, features.”

Kershaw said some organizations at companies outside and inside travel overlook how developers need support to help maintain data feeds at a high standard of performance.

“Non-experts tend to think about APIs as either they work or don’t work,” Kershaw said. “But if an API degrades over time, there can be subtle hits to performance that have negative impacts for travel agents. So it’s critical that speed and synchronization are in your design from the beginning.”

“That’s why we’re focused on ‘provisioning,’ or having a unified, alarming and monitoring capability for developers,” Kershaw said.

Some industry experts will agree that a focus on building “features, features, features” without a focus on support and maintenance can lead to problems down the line.

In one rumored example, I’ve been hearing scattered complaints recently about technology Accelya acquired from a vendor formerly called Farelogix. Some developers are nicknaming it “Failogix,” claiming they see increasing glitches — though Accelya hasn’t heard this and reports high retention rates and sales.

Hiring top developers is critical for Travelport to stay ahead.

“The travel sector faces an explosion of options coming into the ecosystem and a growing demand for smoother travel experiences,” Kershaw said.

“These are the kinds of challenges that excite the best engineeers,” Kershaw said. “Think about how people used to book taxis and short-term rentals and then Uber and Airbnb came along. Air travel and hotel booking are the next sectors that will experience this revolution of next-gen internet shopping.”

Kershaw, based in California, has been getting to know the company’s developers in Denver and Atlanta.

To help further associate its name with innovation, Travelport ran a contest with AWS (Amazon Web Services) to give prizes for the most interesting travel startups, picking two winners late last year.

Source: Skift

Why is this country so resilient?

Even as the Omicron variant has parts of Europe on lockdown again, the UAE has managed, so far, to stay open to most travellers while keeping infections low.

Throughout the pandemic, the United Arab Emirates has been one of the most resilient in the face of changing Covid variants, with the world’s highest vaccination rate and extensive, affordable testing. In fact, the UAE is currently ranked number one in Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience ranking, which ranks 53 countries on 12 indicators like healthcare quality, virus mortality and reopening travel. Even as the Omicron variant has parts of Europe on lockdown again, the UAE has managed, so far, to stay open to most travellers while keeping infections low.

Due to the pandemic, its most populous city, Dubai, has also transformed itself from a global tourism hub into one more invested in its own community. “We all had to work together to protect each other,” said Kathy Johnston, chief chocolate officer at Mirzam chocolate company, who has lived in the city for more than 30 years. “People are supporting more local concepts and projects with authenticity behind them. Things are moving a little slower and more considerately. Being here now feels like a different planet to two years ago, and I love it.”

Why should I go now?

For one, the weather is perfect right now, say residents. “October to May is the best time of year to visit because it’s not excruciatingly hot anymore,” said Dubai resident Tala Mohamad. That also has meant the return of outdoor events and activities and leisurely evenings spent on the city’s numerous patio and rooftop seaside lounges.

The city is also hosting Expo 2020 until the end of March 2022, a global six-month event featuring pavilions from all over the world, showcasing unique innovations and futuristic projects. “Don’t miss [the] Expo. Just don’t,” said Johnston. “Give yourself a whole week. Wait three hours in line for Japanese sushi and enjoy the date pudding with dukkah at [on-site restaurant] Baron, and dream under the stars at the Australian pavilion.”

Travel with no trace

Dubai has worked diligently over the past decade to become more sustainable, with major investments in solar energy, water conservation and green building and infrastructure. Expo 2020 is also hosting a Sustainability Pavilion, showcasing projects like solar trees that provide shade while creating energy and a huge vertical farm growing 9,000 plants and herbs.

The pandemic unexpectedly created a boom in chefs engaging with local ingredients and talent, said Johnston, with a handful of new spaces opening up in the past two years. Some of her favourites include Orfali Bro’s for its Arabic inspirations; Tresind Studio for its upscale dinner and breakfast; and The Barn speciality coffee bar and next-door HAPI for their sweet potato pancakes.

For a unique take mixing Japanese inspiration with local produce, Mohamad recommends Moonrise at the rooftop of Eden House and its omakase menu. “For example, one dish is chutoro from Spain with honey from Ras Al Khaimah [the emirate 100km north-east of Dubai],” she said. With just eight seats, it’s usually fully booked so reserve in advance.

Resident Vibha Dhawan, a travel advisor with Ovation Travel Group, recommends Boca, which uses local ingredients like salmon from the UAE’s Fish Farm and milk from local camel dairies; and The Sum of Us, one of the first cafes in Dubai to become eco-friendly by using avocado seed straws and offering 10% off to customers who bring a reusable takeaway cup.

For a more in-depth look at the city’s sustainability initiatives, Dhawan recommends checking out the Emirates Bio Farm, the largest private organic farm in the country. “Book a group tour and sunset session,” she said. “This gives you an in-depth visit around the acres of land followed by the chance to harvest your own vegetables. They also offer pop-up dining experiences throughout the year.”

To experience the natural desert of the region, she recommends the Al Maha resort and spa. Located within Dubai’s first national park, the five-star resort is dedicated to preserving the unique ecology of the desert, including the endangered Arabian oryx. A herd of 300, the largest in Arabia, now roams freely after decades of conservation efforts. On-site field guides give guided wildlife tours on foot, 4X4, camel and horseback.

For an experience in the heart of the city, the new 25hours One Central hotel, which opened in December 2021, celebrates the country’s traditions by immersing visitors in theme of hakawati, Arabic for storytelling. The experience starts in the lobby with the circular “Fountain of Tales” library with more than 5,000 books, topped with rotating art from local artists, and continues throughout the hotel with Bedouin-inspired art and décor, a tribute to both ancient and modern nomads.

Know before you go

The Omicron variant has travel restrictions changing rapidly, so check the UAE Travel to Dubai page for the latest notices and requirements. Currently, travel is open to vaccinated tourists with a WHO-approved vaccine, though visitors must undergo a rapid test on arrival. Unvaccinated travellers must provide a negative PCR test within 72 hours of departure. Travel is currently suspended for those coming from or transiting through certain African countries.

Travellers must download the Al Hosn app, the UAE’s official contact tracing and health status app, which uses a colour-coded system (grey, red, green) to reflect test results and vaccination status. The Dubai Health Authority offers the DXB Smart app, available for Android and iOS, which gives visitors real-time information about UAE’s current Covid rates, tracks test results and exposures, and is used to show vaccination status within the emirate.

Source: BBC Travel

Africa must redefine its tourism as it sets post-Covid recovery strategy

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted our societies and economies and continues to reshape the world with the emergence of new variants. The crisis has tipped the scales for the tourism sector in the region, which pre-pandemic, contributed significantly to the bloc’s economic growth.

In 2019, the sector contributed an average of 8.1 per cent to the gross domestic product of East African Community (EAC) partner states and brought about an average increase of 17.2 per cent to total exports.

Tourism plays a catalytic role in the broader economy through direct revenues for airlines, travel agents, hotels, shops, restaurants, and other tourist facilities. It also contributes to indirect economic impact through induced spending in agricultural produce, manufactured goods, transportation, entertainment and handicraft.

Travel restrictions to curb the pandemic saw EAC partner states lose 92 per cent of revenues in tourism. Arrivals dropped from approximately 7 million in 2019 to 2.25 million in 2020 (Sixth EAC Development Strategy).

With Omicron, the latest variant of the coronavirus, prompting fresh border closures, it is about time we started to interrogate the effectiveness of travel restrictions by weighing their disruptive social-economic impact. This seems timely as recent studies suggest that reducing community transmission rates could be more effective in containing the spread of the virus than border closures.

Coordinated response

To trigger travel demand and keep global borders open, we must ensure equitable access to vaccines, coordinate international travel procedures, and embrace technology to authenticate test and vaccination certificates.

Like the rest of the world, the resumption of travel and tourism in Africa will depend largely on a coordinated response among countries regarding travel restrictions, harmonised safety and hygiene protocols, and effective communication to help restore consumer confidence.

We must, however, appreciate that the current global health concerns and barriers to travel may take time to wane. As such, the continent must self-reflect, and promote domestic and intra-continental tourism for a more sustainable recovery.

Africa needs to address critical tourism competitiveness drivers, to foster intra-continental tourism. Top on our agenda should be visa openness.

The Africa Visa Openness Report 2020 findings show that African citizens still need visas to travel to 46 per cent of other African countries, while only 28 per cent can get visas on arrival. These restrictive and cumbersome visa requirements diminish tourists’ motivation to travel and indirectly reduce the availability of critical services. The continent should prioritise ongoing efforts to enhance its visa openness.

Another critical pillar to address is the liberalisation of African skies to improve intra-continental connectivity. Try flying from any East African capital to northern Africa, and you will quickly discover how poorly connected we are as a continent.

A trip that should take no more than five-and-a-half hours in some cases takes an estimated 12 to 25 hours, as one has to take connecting flights via Europe or the Middle East! A direct flight would probably cost an estimated $600; however, you will be lucky to get a flight for less than $850.

The African Union has taken steps to make open skies a reality through the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) created to expedite the full implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision. Once operationalised, greater African connectivity will reduce air travel time and costs, catalysing intra-continental trade and tourism growth.

Early warning

The current Covid-19 crisis and past disease outbreaks have demonstrated Africa’s preparedness to manage pandemics. Early warning systems and continuous investments in public health have seen the continent handle infectious outbreaks relatively better. However, though well-intended, the requirements for testing before departure, confirmatory testing on arrival, and in some cases quarantine, are both costly and inconvenient, hence deterring travel, particularly for leisure purposes.

The African Union-backed PanaBIOS has been critical in disseminating Covid-19 test results on a secure digital platform accessible to all member states. The EAC has also developed an EACPass that integrates and validates EAC partner states’ Covid-19 tests and vaccination certificates to ease entry across the region. Once fully rolled out, the EACPass will be integrated with other regional and continental digital health platforms to enhance transparency and guarantee the authenticity of certificates.

The continent could benefit from investing in targeted and effective tourism promotion campaigns for the African market. The EAC’s recently launched “Tembea Nyumbani” campaign is a key step towards catalysing intra-regional tourism. A similar approach across all regional economic communities could fundamentally transform the continent’s tourism and reduce our reliance on international arrivals, as has happened in Europe over the years, where intra-regional tourists account for 80 per cent of total tourism arrivals.

Finally, allow me to quote an African proverb: “Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.” For years, international media has created negative perceptions and representations about Africa. Scenes of civil wars, hunger, corruption, greed, diseases, and poverty have defined us. Perhaps it is time to start interrogating our role in their narratives, but even more importantly, define Africa ourselves.

Source: The East African

The future looks bright: updating Africa’s ageing airline fleets

Africa has the oldest aircraft fleet in the world. Despite Africans representing more than 17% of the world’s population, their aircraft fleets amount to roughly 6% of global commercial passenger and cargo aircraft in 2020, the African Airlines Association (AFFRA) data indicates. This means that Africa has the lowest level of aircraft per capita of any other region in the world.  

For the past two decades, the average age of global aircraft fleets has varied between 10 and 12 years. In comparison, the average fleet age across Africa stands at around 17 years, the oldest of any world region.  

For instance, according to Planespotters.com data, South African Airways, South Africa’s flag carrier, operates a fleet of 14 jets with an average age of 15.4 years. Meanwhile, Nigerian carrier Arik Air has a fleet of 18 jets, with an average service age of 14 years. 

Similarly aged fleets are also operated by the national airline of Tunisia, Tunisair (14 years in service on average) and Air Algerie (13.9 years on average).  

Even the Moroccan national carrier, Royal Air Maroc, one of the largest African airlines by aircraft size, which joined the Oneworld alliance in 2020, flies 59 passenger aircraft that have already spent 13 years in operation.  

However, not all major carriers in the region operate such aging fleets. For example, Kenya Airways, a primary competitor airline of Royal Air Maroc, flies 39 aircraft, which have already spent a decade on average in passenger operations. Meanwhile, Egyptair, another large African carrier and the operator of 68 passenger jets, boasts an even younger fleet where the average age of a jet is just over seven years.  

Even the leading African airline operates a relatively old fleet. Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest carrier, operates almost twice as many aircraft as Egyptair. The data shows that the Ethiopian government-owned company flies 130 jets that have completed almost eight years of service.  

Elderly planes usually have a longer list of former owners. For example, an 18.2-year-old Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-700 jet, registered as ET-AVO, was previously owned by Aeromexico and Sun Country Airlines before it was passed to the hands of its current owner.  

Another Boeing 737-700 aircraft, the EI-GVW, which is currently owned by Arik Air, has been in operation for 11 years. Initially delivered to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in 2011, the jet was re-registered and handed over to Mongolian carrier Eznis Airways in August 2011. But a month later it was leased by African airline Arik Air.  

South African Airways is another example of an African carrier that successfully uses older planes for commercial passenger services. The company’s Airbus A340-300 jet, the ZS-SXG, is more than 21 years old and was primarily used to serve Spanish carrier Iberia’s flights between 2001 and 2010. In March 2010, the aircraft, which was initially registered as EC-HQF, received a new registration number, F-WJKF, and was transferred to Airbus Financial Services before it joined South African Airways.  

What will African aircraft fleets look like in the future? 

While the region’s leading airlines operate much older planes, some experts have noted that there is a more promising outlook for the future.  

American plane manufacturer Boeing states that the global commercial fleet in 2021 was composed of 25,900 aircraft. In the Boeing Commercial Market Outlook, a long-term forecast of commercial air traffic and aircraft demand, the company forecasts that the global fleet will consist of around 49,405 jets by 2040. The majority, reportedly 43,610 planes, will be newly delivered aircraft that will expand the existing airlines’ fleets or will become replacements for older jets.  

Boeing estimates that the aviation market in Africa will see a demand for 1,030 new planes valued at around US $160 billion. Such a demand for the emerging African market will be driven by the anticipated 3% annual economic growth over the upcoming two decades, Boeing analysts say. They add that this should result in the need for more than 63,000 new aviation staff by 2040, including 19,000 pilots, 24,000 cabin crew, and 20,000 technicians. 

The continent expects 740 new deliveries of narrow-body jets as well as 250 wide-body aircraft over the next 20 years, meaning that fleets across the African region are expected to grow by around 3.6%.  

It is also expected that 80% of African aircraft deliveries will serve fleet growth with more sustainable aircraft such as the Boeing 737, Boeing 777X, and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Meanwhile, the remaining 20%, will serve as a replacement for older commercial planes.  

Source: Aerotime Hub

Holiday bookings take off as pre-departure Covid tests scrapped

Airlines have seen bookings soar after Boris Johnson announced the pre-departure Covid test rule for travellers heading to England was being scrapped.

The change – which was coming into force at 4am on Friday – has handed a major boost to the beleaguered travel industry.

The Prime Minister also announced the requirement for flyers to self-isolate on arrival until they receive a negative PCR test is being dropped.

On Thursday, Jet2holidays and Jet2.com reported a massive surge in bookings since the PM’s statement on Wednesday.

Customers behind a 150 per cent daily spike are said to be planning trips to Spain, the Canaries, the Balearic Islands, Turkey and Greece.

Virgin Atlantic said searches were up 150 per cent week on week, peaking at 8pm on Wednesday, a few hours after Mr Johnson addressed the Commons.

The most popular destinations departing from the UK were Orlando, New York and Barbados, it said.

British Airways said visits to its 2022 holidays website increased by nearly 40 per cent with New York, Dubai and Barbados the most searched.

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: “The relaxation of travel restrictions is welcome news for both the travel industry and holidaymakers and comes during what is traditionally a very busy period for holiday bookings.

“We have seen an immediate and dramatic spike in bookings, with volumes since the government announcement heading towards pre-pandemic levels, which demonstrates just how much demand is out there amongst people wanting to get away for a much-needed holiday.

“We were already heading into the New Year with a strong feeling of positivity and confidence, and the removal of these restrictions really gets 2022 off to a great start.”

A Virgin Atlantic spokesman added: “It’s also important to note that most people were searching for inbound travel to the UK – highlighting we’re open for business and tourists once again.”

In his statement to MPs on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said the Omicron variant is now so prevalent in the country that pre-departure tests are having limited impact on the spread of the disease.

Instead, the rules will revert to the system in place in October, with travellers required to take a lateral flow test no later than the end of day two after their arrival.

The measures were originally introduced following the identification of the fast-spreading Omicron variant in South Africa last November.

The announcement – which covers those passengers who are fully vaccinated or are under the age of 18 – has been broadly welcomed by the travel industry, which has been particularly hard-hit by the pandemic.

EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said: “This will make travel much simpler and easier and means our customers can book and travel with confidence.

“However, the Government must now urgently take the final step towards restriction-free travel and remove the last remaining unnecessary test for vaccinated travellers so flying does not become the preserve of the rich.”

A spokesman for Heathrow Airport said: “Although this is welcome news, there is still a long way back for aviation which remains the lifeblood of the UK’s economy, supporting millions of jobs in all four nations.”

NHS lateral flow tests cannot be used for international travel, and the tests must be brought from a private provider.

While those who have already brought PCR tests for travelling needs can still use these.

Source: Evening Standard