Airline CEOs: Border Openings And Uniformity Crucial To Airline Recovery

Reopening borders is one of the most urgent concerns for airlines as they grapple with the COVID-19 crisis—not just to ensure immediate survival, but also as an essential ingredient for long-term recovery.

The importance of this issue made it a hot topic for airline leaders at the CAPA – Centre for Aviation Australia Pacific Aviation Summit, which was held as a virtual event on Sept. 2. Industry CEOs and senior executives stressed the need for more action and uniformity on relaxing border restrictions, both for international travel and between parts of the same country. Here are some of the things they said.

Scoot CEO Campbell Wilson notes that Singapore has been one of the most proactive in terms of easing entry and quarantine requirements for certain countries identified as low risk.

However, there is a “reluctance” from other Asia-Pacific countries to follow suit, except for the essential travel corridors, Wilson says. So, Singapore does not have reciprocal agreements for its unilateral initiatives to reduce quarantines.

There have also been no multilateral travel arrangements—involving more than two countries—formed in the Asia-Pacific region. Progress in this regard is “frustratingly slow,” Wilson says. “The ingredients are there, [but] we just don’t see a shared appetite yet.”

Japan is another country where the government is taking steps to reopen international travel, says Tadashi Fujita, vice chairman and director for Japan Airlines.

He says the expansion of COVID-19 testing capacity “is one of the essential factors” in the government’s plans to resume international travel. In July, 2,000 tests per day could be carried out on inbound passengers. But this rate is expected to increase to 10,000 tests per day, thanks to new testing centers at Haneda Airport and Narita Airport in Tokyo, and at Osaka’s Kansai Airport.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker says the wide variety of national standards for closing borders or restricting flights due to COVID-19 is one of the airline’s main challenges in operating internationally.

Al Baker urged international organizations to become more involved in establishing global standards on this issue, to allow airports to open safely and efficiently. He notes that differing quarantine standards are confusing passengers and airlines. When COVID-19 vaccines become available, internationally recognized health certificates should be issued, he says.

The immediate concern for Australian airline CEOs is reopening domestic borders between states. A resurgence in coronavirus cases has caused most Australian states to heavily restrict or block domestic travel across state lines.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce contends that state border closures are currently not based on scientific or fact-based criteria. He is urging the development of nationally agreed upon standards to determine when COVID-19 restrictions should be removed from travel between states or applied in more specific localities. “Business doesn’t like uncertainty,” he says.

While Qantas has enough liquidity to survive the state closures for some time if necessary, the same is not true for smaller tourist operators, says Joyce. He notes that it will be a big blow for the economy and leisure travel if the tourist ecosystem disappears.