BUSINESS NEWS
Iata says recovery of aviation sector stalled in August
The global recovery in travel has stalled and air traffic in Europe has dropped after leading the international restart this summer, according to latest Iata figures. Iata reported growth worldwide
“levelled off” in August after “recovering” to 75% down on last year compared with 96% down in April. However, international air traffic remained 88% down on August 2019 with the average load factor on flights below 50%. Iata chief economist Brian
Pearce noted: “That is way below what airlines need to break even.” He said the latest flight data
Brian Pearce
“shows clearly the improvement more or less stopped early in August. Europe, the one international market that showed improvement, hit a decline in September.” Pearce said the second Covid
wave “was clearly affecting confidence” alongside government travel restrictions. He said an Iata air passenger survey in September showed “consumer confidence remains extremely low”.
Tui considers selling Marella and hotels to plug €1.5bn funding gap
Tui has confirmed it could need to raise an additional €1.5 billion in funds through the partial sale of assets or a shares issue. Chief executive Fritz Joussen
said the group is considering selling UK cruise business Marella Cruises and some of its 400 hotels. A sale of Marella would most likely be to joint- venture partner Royal Caribbean. Marella Cruises last week
announced its Marella Dream ship would be retired in October 2021. Joussen said: “If you look at our
balance sheet, you can see we have to find something like €1.5 billion.” But he said an equity issue was
not imminent given the company’s current share price.
In a statement, Tui said it
“continues evaluating various measures to achieve an optimal balance sheet structure”. The confirmation came after Tui
met the remaining conditions on a deal for an additional €1.2 billion in credit from the German state bank KfW and a loan in the form of a bond from Germany’s Economic Stablisation Fund. In a statement, Tui said: “The
package ensures sufficient liquidity to cover the seasonal fluctuations over winter 2020-21.” Joussen said: “We have to bridge this period without significant turnover and at the same time accelerate the restructuring for the post-Covid-19 period.”
Germany eases travel restrictions Ian Taylor
Germany, Europe’s biggest outbound travel market, lifted its ‘blanket’ warning against international travel from October 1, but foreign ministry advice against all but essential travel continues to apply to all but 11 countries. The German government
will impose 14-day quarantine restrictions on travellers arriving from most countries from October 15, with early release from self-isolation only for those who test negative for Covid-19 after five days. The regime Germany then has
in place would match what the UK government is working towards, with a UK decision expected soon on Covid tests for arriving passengers after five or seven days. The German travel industry has
vowed to campaign against the new restrictions. However, German health
travelweekly.co.uk
minister Jens Spahn urged people to “avoid unnecessary vacations abroad”. German foreign ministry
advice against travel does not just cover ‘high-risk’ countries but also lower-risk destinations. The government introduced
a three-tier, traffic-light system of travel advice as it ended the blanket warning. This categorises high-risk countries as ‘red’, those with lower rates of infection but restrictions in place as ‘amber’ for ‘wait before travel’, and low-risk nations as ‘green’ with advice to ‘take special care’. The red category currently applies
to 123 countries – including Spain – and to parts of an additional 15 including most of France, Croatia and Turkey. Only nine of the other 26 EU member states fall wholly in the green category and only two beyond – Tunisia and Georgia. The change in Germany came as Europe’s airlines and airports urged
the EC and EU states to save the Christmas holiday and “one in two aviation jobs” by ditching quarantine restrictions in favour of EU-wide tests for arrivals from ‘high-risk’ countries. Airlines for Europe (A4E),
Iata and airports association ACI Europe propose testing international passengers for Covid-19 before departure. They urged the EC and governments to develop an EU-wide Testing Protocol for Travel (EU- TPT) in a joint letter sent last week to the EC president, EU heads of state and European health ministers. The industry associations argue
the framework could “re-establish freedom of movement” in time for the Christmas-New Year holiday. They also demanded travel restrictions “be coordinated” with a “common colour coding system/mapping of designated areas already proposed by the EC but yet to be endorsed and fully implemented by EU states”.
8 OCTOBER 2020 39
Germany continues to advise against non-essential travel to all but 11 countries
PICTURES: Shutterstock
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
