CAPA - Centre for Aviation announced (16-Jun-2021) the session 'CEO Interview with Finnair's Topi Manner' from CAPA Live From Seattle June 2021 is now available on demand on CAPA TV, including a full transcript. In the interview, Mr Manner outlines Finnair's plans for recovery and growth, including an adjusted fleet strategy, financing initiatives and new products designed to meet evolving passenger needs. [more - CAPA TV]
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Russia has been hit hard by the pandemic, but compared to some countries its airline capacity has held up well and people have continued to travel, at least domestically, although international travel remains as difficult there as it is anywhere.
While this peculiar situation has promoted two of Moscow’s airports into the top three in Europe in 1Q2021, it is the regional airports that are witnessing the largest increases in capacity – in many cases exceeding comfortably not only the capacity recorded in 2020, but also in 2019 as well.
These regional airports are almost exclusively handling domestic flights, and that makes the overall seat capacity gains even more surprising. What is more, this degree of activity is helping put important regional cities like Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Krasnodar back on the map again, and also the resort town of Sochi, two to three years after they received exposure during the World Cup, which will do them no harm.
What will do them harm is a return of the virus in another one of its many guises, and Russia may be teetering on the edge of that outcome.
This report examines the current status of 10 airports: four in Moscow, one in St Petersburg and five others.
The Russian Federation is now Europe's biggest aviation market by seats, having recovered 82% of its 2019 capacity in the week of 07-Jun-2021. By contrast, Europe's historical leader, the UK, has recovered only 19% and now ranks seventh.
Russia's performance has been strengthened by its domestic market, the largest in Europe, which is back above 2019 levels of capacity and traffic.
Total passenger numbers (domestic and international) carried by Russian airlines were back to 77% of 2019 levels in Apr-2021, the most recent month for which data are available, compared with approximately 20% for Europe as a whole.
Russia's leading airline, Aeroflot, carried only 45% of pre-crisis traffic in Apr-2021, but its regional subsidiary Rossiya carried 80%. Remarkably, its LCC Pobeda was 33% above Apr-2019 passenger numbers.
Premium Analysis
Tweed New Haven Airport's innovative public-private lease schemeThe US airport privatisation process, which began in 1996 as a pilot programme and was dragged screaming into the 21st century in 2019 by way of a revamped procedure, remains in limbo. At the same time, the number of public-private deals to build and operate airport infrastructure has been increasing quickly.
Now a small, secondary level airport in Connecticut, with a handful of air services each week, has come up with an innovative deal with its existing operator to build a runway extension and associated infrastructure to service the needs of a start-up low cost carrier based on the other side of the country, and with that operator taking on much of the risk.
For all parties it is either a masterstroke or a disaster waiting to happen.
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Both capacity and traffic data show the impact of changes in travel restrictions in Europe. Most recently, the expansion and contraction of the UK's green list – specifically the addition and then removal of Portugal – is clearly visible in capacity data.
Seat capacity in Europe is 59.5% below 2019 in the week commencing 7-Jun-2021, almost the same as the previous week after six weeks of a clear improvement. Europe remains below the other regions on this metric.
Middle East seat capacity is down by 54.4% versus 2019, Africa is down by 48.8%, Asia Pacific by 41.3%, Latin America by 36.8%, and North America by 27.3%.
Weekly passenger data from ACI Europe are only available up to the final week of May-2021. Nevertheless, this week's capacity data – coinciding with Portugal's removal from the UK green list – suggest that the previously improving trend of passenger data will also pause, or even reverse.
Moreover, Europe's airlines suffered the most negative cash flows in 1Q2021 (source: IATA). There is a real risk that this underperformance will continue into the European summer peak if travel restrictions do not relax.
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Travel Tech Corner - start-up studio
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CAPA - Centre for Aviation announced (16-Jun-2021) the session 'Exploring the granularity of corporate travel recovery' from CAPA Live From Seattle June 2021 is now available on demand on CAPA TV. The panel features MW Travel Consultancy principal Martin Warner and McKinsey & Company partner and travel practice lead Americas Vik Krishnan discussing duty of care in corporate travel, coronavirus impacts and how much corporate travel will be lost, corporate travel spend and domestic travel. [more - CAPA TV]
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16-Jun-2021 5:32 PM
Middle East Critical Thinkers panel with AACO, Gulf Air & Qatar Airways now available on CAPA TV
CAPA - Centre for Aviation announced (16-Jun-2021) the session 'Middle East - Critical Thinkers - Leading an airline in 2021' from CAPA Live From Seattle June 2021 is now available on demand on CAPA TV, including a full transcript. The panel features Arab Air Carriers Organisation (AACO) secretary general Abdul Wahab Teffaha, Gulf Air acting CEO Waleed Al Alawi and Qatar Airways CCO Thierry Antinori discussing innovation in COVID-19 recovery, including adapting to cargo demands and cooperating with international governments. [more - CAPA TV]
CAPA - Centre for Aviation announced (16-Jun-2021) the session 'CEO Interview with Widerøe's Stein Nilsen' from CAPA Live From Seattle June 2021 is now available on demand on CAPA TV, including a full transcript. In the exclusive interview, Mr Nilsen discusses Widerøe's resilience amid the impacts of COVID-19 as well as its cooperation with Rolls-Royce and Tecnam to launch fully electric aircraft from 2025. [more - CAPA TV]
CAPA - Centre for Aviation announced (16-Jun-2021) the session 'Loyalty in the midst of a crisis - Europe' from CAPA Live From Seattle June 2021 is now available on demand on CAPA TV. The interview features Air France-KLM SVP customer loyalty Frederic Kahane and On Point Loyalty managing partner Evert de Boer discussing coronavirus, membership following the merger between the Air France and KLM loyalty programmes and loyalty programmes as an airline asset. [more - CAPA TV]
Air Antwerp, via its official Twitter account, announced (12-Jun-2021) it ceased operations. The regional airline was founded by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and CityJet in 2019, with KLM later taking full control. It served the Antwerp-London City route with a single Fokker 50 turboprop. The carrier suspended services and restarted several times due to border closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company stated it was unable to fund a buyer and required significant investment to resume operations. As a result, the board "decided to completely shut down the operational activities of the regional airline and to dissolve the company" (sudinfo.be, 12-Jun-2021).
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