The Wrap is a round-up of news in the travel and technology industries, and to keep track of developments in these sectors as the green shoots of recovery slowly take root.
IATA, AAPA applaud Singapore’s initiative to reopen air travel corridors
On August 21 the Singapore government announced the partial easing of border resrictions, allowing general travel to New Zealand and Brunei from September 1, and travellers coming in from these two countries will not need to serve a stay-home notice.
Students will also be allowed to travel overseas for studies, while the stay-home notice period for travellers from low-risk regions, which include Vietnam, Macau and Australia (excluding the state of Victoria), will be reduced from two weeks to one.
Singapore’s move has been lauded by both travellers and travel trade associations. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has welcomed Singapore’s move on the easing of border measures for entry into the country, describing it as “positive and a step in the right direction”.
The association hopes to work closely with the government so that Singapore’s aviation industry can restart safely while mitigating the possibility of Covid-19 transmission, stated its regional vice president for Asia-Pacific, Conrad Clifford.
“And we urge other states in the region to look at ways to resume international travel safely, including through the implementation of travel bubbles.”
Describing the impact of Covid-19 as “unprecedented” Clifford said the airline industry is on “life support and the additional financial measures announced by (Singapore’s) Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Heng Swee Keat, earlier this week is a big help and greatly appreciated by the industry.”
Clifford said the recent remarks by the city-state’s Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung was “reassuring and a breath of fresh air as the government clearly recognises aviation’s strategic contribution to the Singapore economy.”
With the massive blow dealt to the airline industry by Covid-19 the road to recovery is going to be long and slow, he disclosed.
According to IATA, the global airline industry is expected to lose US$84.3 billion this year. Asia-Pacific airlines will post the largest absolute losses at US$29 billion. Global passenger numbers are expected to decline by 55% compared to 2019.
The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) too applauded the Singapore government’s efforts to restart air travel in a “safe yet progressive way.”
The trade association’s director general, Subhas Menon, said the Singapore’s unilateral opening of its borders to travellers from Brunei and New Zealand “is a very important step in the right direction” as cross border travel in Asia Pacific has stalled since March.
“Adopting a testing regime without onerous quarantine requirements sets a standard worth emulating in facilitating air travel and economic recovery in the region,” he noted.
He reaffirmed the commitment of Asia Pacific airlines to work closely with governments across the region to explore initiatives to reopen international air travel corridors, “based on objective risk assessments in conjunction with the relevant public health authorities.”
Despite Singapore’s invitation, both New Zealand and Brunei are not allowing foreign visitors to enter.
The New Zealand border is currently closed to almost all travellers wanting to enter the country by either air or sea. In Brunei, travel restrictions remain too, and the country has no plans to reopen its borders that has remained closed since mid-March to curb the spread of Covid-19. Residents of both countries are only allowed to leave for essential travel. Additonally, Singapore residents cannot travel to either country.
Beiing Capital Airport goes touchless with biometries and contactless technologies
Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA), China’s busiest airport and the world’s second busiest, has gone contactless with its implementation of SITA Smart Path technology.
Calling the technology its “most extensive biometric deployment to date”, SITA said the technology completely automated the entire passenger journey – from check-in and bag drop through to immigration, security and finally boarding.
Passengers only need to enroll once during check-in, then experience a seamless journey through the airport enabled by facial recognition. Improved processing efficiency means shorter queuing time and more social distancing for all passengers. The process also removes the need to touch any airport equipment, reducing the risk of infection during the pandemic.
According to SITA, Smart Path can significantly speed up passenger processing at BCIA, processing over 400 passengers boarding an Airbus A380 in less than 20 minutes. Additionally, the solution also enables hands-free and touchless duty-free payment abd remove the need to retrieve and show a boarding pass at check out, enabling quicker processing.
The deployment included the implementation of over 600 biometric checkpoints through the airport including 250 lanes of automatic gates, 80 kiosks and 30 self-bag drop stations that process passengers from international flights.
The biometric technology is currently activated across multiple checkpoints at BCIA including manual check-in, self-service check-in, bag drop, restricted access, security, and boarding.
Passenger volume at BCIA exceeded 100 million between 2018 and 2020. To date, it serves 31 domestic airlines and 62 foreign airlines, with 133 international routes and 161 domestic routes.
WTTC unveils interactive dashboard to track recovery of travel demand
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has launched an in-depth data dashboard highlighting the recovery of travel demand across flights and hotels, as well as revealing the shifting intentions of travellers through online travel searches.
The Covid-19 Travel Demand Recovery Dashboard, developed with the support of global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, provides users with easy access to qualitative and quantitative travel data at the global and regional level, as well as for 33 major countries around the world.
The tool reveals travel demand since the beginning of the year, and is updated on a fortnightly basis. It offers a useful way to navigate through a vast array of data as travel demand around the world changes with the easing of travel restrictions and the gradual reopening of country’s borders.
The dashboard, which is free to to WTTC members and non-members, presents two distinct views based on Google trends and searches, and bookings via WTTC’s research partners in the project.
The first – data sourced via Google Trends – has been organised into easy-to-understand holiday or trip segments like Adventure, Culture, Urban, Family, Sun & Beach and Travel Services.
WTTC said each segmentation has been devised using a set of 20 keywords, covering popular activities, sites and destinations. The segments provide insights at both the regional level and for key travel and tourism countries, such as the UK, the US, France and Brazil.
The second comes via regional insights through bi-monthly updates on movements and bookings with flight information from travel analytics company ForwardKeys, and hotel occupancy and average daily room rates from STR and the Google Mobility Index, which shows local recreational activity.
In addition, Global Rescue that provides medical, security, evacuation, travel risk and crisis management services, provides data showing how ‘open’ each country or key market is, in the context of travel restrictions to combat coronavirus.
As an example, the dashboard shows that while search for travel interest is still lower than last year, Europe is leading the recovery with search now just 20% down on last year. Adventure is the fastest recovering search segment globally, at just 10% down on last year, versus 40% for other segments such as urban, sun and beach, family and culture.
In a number of countries such as France and Germany, adventure travel searches are 50-70% above 2019 levels.
“Our dashboard will enable decision makers to track the impact of public policies by monitoring the positive and negative fluctuations of flight and hotel bookings and also online travel searches, as well as consumer confidence,” commented Gloria Guevara, WTTC president & CEO.
“Data is essential for businesses, government and other organisations to make informed choices and drive the policy which will revive a sector that has suffered disproportionally due to the pandemic.”
The Travel Demand Recovery Dashboard can be found here.
• Featured image credit: ikryannikovgmailcom/Getty Images