The immediate challenge for airlines as the world starts to move again is to get aircraft fixed and services running at pace, according to a presenter at the recent CAPA Live virtual event.

Javid Malik, chief operating officer at Air Asia Berhad says ‘everyone is trying to get their aircraft, that have been mothballed, back into the air.’

Confidence levels amongst senior aviation managers and travel experts is edging slightly up, but there is still plenty of pessimism and uncertainty around – particularly in Asia-Pacific, according to research released at the CAPA Centre for Aviation Live sessions in November.

The Industry Pulse Survey undertaken in September by Collinson Group, in partnership with CAPA, revealed that 37% of respondents now expected a full recovery to 2019 levels in 2023. This was up from 31% in April.

Access to information will be more important than ever for travellers when they start moving again and the industry as a whole needs to work to ensure the consumer can move with confidence, says James Marshall, vice-president global air account management with Expedia.

Speaking at CAPA Live, Marshall was responding to a question put by moderator Trent Banfield, international operations and aviation manager at Tourism Australia. Banfield noted that travellers might be more confident being able to call someone to help them get through any difficult situation.

The key to Australia’s newest airline will be where it flies to – concentrating on domestic routes that are not currently operated.

Founder and CEO of Bonza, Tim Jordan, told CAPA Live this week that where there is a double up Bonza will be there to stimulate the low cost model without interfering with an existing carrier’s offering.

The jury is out on whether limited models of opening up travel and tourism are going to work.

In the recent CAPA-Live sessions, director general of Asia-Pacific Airlines Association, Subhas Menon, said that where countries are thinking of opening up with models like the Sandbox in Phuket, Thailand and a four-category reopening strategy in Singapore, travel is not really picking up.

A lack of coordination between governments when it comes to vaccine acceptance, testing regimes and other health and safety factors could slow international travel recovery even further, speakers at this week’s CAPA – Centre for Aviation Live event said this week.

Subhas Menon, director general of Asia-Pacific Airlines Association, says many places only recognise the vaccine they use. Menon sees the acceptance of rapid-antigen testing as possibly providing a boost for travel, but again not all governments are ready to adopt this.

Seven features of the ‘unrecognisable’ airline industry structure that will appear in the post-Covid world have been identified by CAPA – Centre for Aviation founder and chairman emeritus Peter Harbison.

1. Airline revenue streams, already rapidly evolving, will change greatly;

It is surprising how few airlines went out of business in an ‘unimaginably dreadful year, where international capacity fell to around one tenth of its previous level and many domestic operations fared only slightly better,’ according to CAPA – Centre for Aviation founder and chairman emeritus, Peter Harbison.

However Harbison warns that despite the story of survival we could be fast approaching the ‘tipping point.’

For most of the year vaccines will ‘really just be a sideshow’ for international aviation, according to CAPA – Centre for Aviation chairman emeritus Peter Harbison.

Giving his chairman’s lounge outlook 2021 address at CAPA Live this week, Harbison asserted that the real key to reopening remains effective and improved testing and tracing methods that are

Airlines will need to focus on attracting new and return clients as the world emerges from the Covid crisis, with loyalty initiatives likely to take a back seat initially, according to a speaker at the virtual CAPA Live event this week.

Brent Coker, consumer psychologist at the University of Melbourne, is also predicting ‘a scramble to grab consumers’ through price competition as the world moves back towards international travel.