The Irish budget airline said its traffic plunged 81 per cent in the year to March as a result of the pandemic, from 149 million passengers in the previous year, to just 27.5 million.Tim Wyatt (The Independent)
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I’m very optimistic about what’s likely to happen during the course of the back three calendar months of this year.Tim Clark (Emirates)
We have every confidence that the aircraft is safe, which is the precondition for giving our approval. But we will continue to monitor 737 Max operations closely as the aircraft resumes service.Patrick Ky (EASA)
This winter’s a write-off. Our booking profile, which would normally be run over a 12- to 15-week period is now down to basically four or five weeks. November’s normally a bad time of the year anyway. The real issue for us as an industry is: can we rescue some level of recovery for Christmas, and after that, nothing I think will happen until we get to probably Easter.Michael O’Leary (The Independent)
Skytrax praised Rome’s Fiumicino Airport for its effective signage and information systems, as well as its in-house Bio-Safety Team of 40 staff who facilitate social distancing and ensure compliance with face covering usage in high movement areas. In the wake of coronavirus, Rome Airport has reorganised operations so that check-in and arrivals are assigned to Terminal 3, while Concourse Gates E is dedicated to departure and transfer flights. The airport is also testing several UV sanitisation methods aimed at further enhancing hygiene levels at high-contact points, such as escalators and lifts. Joanna Whitehead (The Independent)
Sandra Carvao, the UN World Tourism Organisation’s chief of market intelligence and competitiveness, said the $320bn (£244.5bn) in lost exports from January through May is three times what was lost during the year 2009 at the height of the last global financial crisis.AP (The Independent)
During the current financial year, Ryanair expects passenger numbers to fall by almost 60 per cent from 149 million to just 60 million.Simon Calder (The Independent)
Fifteen months after the Boeing 737 Max was grounded worldwide, the planemaker is starting test flights that it hopes will lead to the aircraft returning to commercial service.Simon Calder (The Independent)
Having downsized our operation a little bit about a week ago, we’re now upscaling again: adding additional flights to some destinations, putting on bigger aircraft – for example our A380s are back in the sky now.Simon Talling-Smith (Qatar Airways)
As a global network airline, we find ourselves in a situation where we cannot viably operate passenger services until countries re-open their borders, and travel confidence returns.Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum (Emirates)