[News] TRANSPORTAirlines expect to recover 58% of flights this summer if safe mobility is favored

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The ALA association demands the acceptance of the vaccination certificate, the antigen tests and the extension of the ERTEs until the end of the year

J.F. Magariño

J.F. MAGARIÑO

The president of the Air Lines Association (ALA), Javier Gándara.

The president of the Air Lines Association (ALA), Javier Gándara. Pablo Monge

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Madrid 26 APR 2021 - 14:08 CEST

The airlines with activity in Spain, represented in their vast majority by the Airline Association (ALA), estimate that this year they could recover 58% of the flights that operated in the summer season prior to the pandemic, which was from March 31 to October 31, 2019. With this, the high season of this 2021 could yield an improvement in the volume of operations of 114% compared to the summer season of 2020, now reaching slightly more than 780,000 flights with departure or arrival in Spain.

 

 

What ALA does not offer, at the moment, is an estimate of travelers in view of the fact that operations are being carried out with load factors below 60% and it is still too early to know how they will go in the coming months: "The pattern The purchase of the ticket has changed and travelers make their reservations very close to the departure date of the flights ", commented this morning the president of ALA, Javier Gándara, at a press conference held at the CEOE headquarters.

 

Uncertainty plays against the commercial strategy of any airline and doubts about the maintenance, or not, of the restrictions to fly are the main barrier to the return of customers. That, according to Gándara, and the price of the PCR tests. Against these obstacles, ALA demands the acceptance of cheaper alternatives to the aforementioned Covid-19 test, such as the antigen test, and the opening to mobility with health security guarantees.

ALA supports the joint action of the EU Member States to coordinate de-escalation policies in the restrictions. However, the meeting with the media has been used to demand that the Spanish Government pay maximum attention to the movements of countries that compete for tourism, such as Greece. From the point of view of the president of ALA, Spain must make a move before the introduction of the digital green certificate and create safe tourist corridors, while travelers with a vaccination certificate have to be accepted, without imposing the mandatory negative PCR on them. Another of the measures that is strongly demanded is the recognition of the referred antigen test to allow the mobility of people. Greece, for example, will accept vaccines without CRP as of May 14, which has triggered the interest of US tourists in this alternative market to the Spanish. Exceptional measure for employment The airline sector will continue to need public support to put the return to higher levels on track of activity. In this sense, ALA demands the maintenance of the ERTEs system until December 31, compared to the current expiration date at the end of May. "81% of the workers in the airline sector who were in ERTE during the first state They continue to be alarmed. No matter how well things are going this summer, there will still not be a great recovery, "said the president of ALA. The association points out that there are 14,134 professionals in the sector affected by temporary employment adjustments. According to the association that encompasses airports, ACI, the pandemic has left 8,500 routes inactive throughout Europe, of which 2,000 have disappeared in the first quarter of this anus. Summer will be key for a certain recovery of the same, so ALA urges the aforementioned measures to support safe mobilityPresident Gándara has expressed the expectation of the sector that 2021 will be the year of reactivation and that in 2022 we can speak of high levels of recovery. Despite this, this spokesman for the airline sector has been cautious in any of the estimates in view of the fact that the behavior of supply and demand during the winter season disappointed the forecasts. Where a 75% recovery was expected, only 35% was achieved, amid new waves of the pandemic and restrictions on mobility. Passenger traffic figures in the last six months, from October 2020 to March 2021 included, have fallen by 83% compared to the equivalent period prior to the pandemic. Now, Javier Gándara affirms, variables such as vaccination and the digital green certificate have been introduced, which strengthens the hope about the return of trafficlagging behind, and if Spain does not want to miss the boat with respect to its main competing destinations such as Greece, it should not waste time and open its borders to vaccinated international tourists without asking them for PCR tests. "To save the summer campaign and promote the recovery of the sector we must use the vaccination certificate in Spain to gradually lift the restrictions," he said.