WASHINGTON: Boeing’s CEO reckons it is ‘most likely’ a major US airline will go out of business due to the Covid-19 pandemic impact on the aviation industry. That will likely happen from September when government payroll protection runs out, David Calhoun says. “You know something will happen in September. Traffic levels will not be back to a 100%, they won’t even be back to 25.” Calhoun was responding to a question in an interview with NBC, and says airline struggles will continue until at least the end of 2020. “Maybe by the end of the year we approach 50%, so…
Author: holidayweekly
REYKJAVIK: Iceland will be the first European country to try and relaunch its tourism industry following the coronavirus pandemic but visitors will have to prove they don’t have Covid-19. The news has been welcomed by the tourism industry in Iceland. Visitors are to be allowed into Iceland again from June 15 as long as they test negative for coronavirus upon arrival. It will be the first European country to try and relaunch its tourism industry following the coronavirus pandemic. Passengers will be tested at Keflavík International Airport and presented with the result the very same day. Tourists will also be…
COLOGNE: “In these times of uncertainty, it is important for us to inform you in a timely and transparent manner about current developments. Today we would like to communicate that the GDS Sabre (1S) has terminated the distribution agreement with the airlines of the Lufthansa Group (Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, SWISS and Brussels Airlines) effective June 30, 2020. This termination also affects the GDS Abacus (1B).” announced Lufthansa Group on Tuesday, May 12. “The Lufthansa Group is open to constructive, solution-oriented discussions and is engaged in amicable talks with Sabre in the interest of Sabre and Abacus users, Beyond that, however,…
PARIS: France on Thursday announced measures worth 18 billion euros ($19 billion) to support its tourism sector, which has been hammered by the coronavirus crisis and resulting shutdown of beaches, leisure attractions and hotels. Nearly 90 million foreign tourists visited France in 2019, making it the world’s most visited country, government data shows. Tourism accounts for almost 8% of the country’s 2.3 trillion-euro economy. “Tourism is facing what is probably its worst challenge in modern history,” Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told a news conference. “Because this is one of the crown jewels of the French economy, rescuing it is a…
ABU DHABI: Etihad Airways will operate a regular scheduled service from Melbourne to London Heathrow via Abu Dhabi from Friday. A week later, on May 21st, the UAE flag-carrier will also introduce services from London Heathrow to Melbourne via Abu Dhabi. The airline plans to maintain this link until it fully resumes its previous double daily connection between the two cities. These services complement Etihad’s existing schedule of special flights to and from Abu Dhabi to several destinations on its global network. Etihad advises all customers wishing to travel on these services to check current entry regulations for both the…
GENEVA: The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has released a Tourism Recovery Technical Assistance Package to offer guidance to member states in response to Covid-19. The package is structured around three main pillars: economic recovery, marketing and promotion and institutional strengthening and resilience building. With tourism among the hardest-hit of all sectors, UNWTO has identified three possible scenarios for the months ahead. Depending on when restrictions on travel are lifted, international tourist arrivals could decline by 60-80 per cent in 2020. This could translate into a decline in export revenues from tourism of between $910 billion to $1.2 trillion and place…
MUNICH: Starting in June, Lufthansa, Eurowings and SWISS will deploy a total of 80 aircraft offering monthly restart schedules to 106 destinations in Germany and Europe, as the repatriation schedules end May 31. The Lufthansa Group’s airlines are thus responding to the growing interest of customers in air travel, following the gradual easing of restrictions and limitations in the German federal states and entry regulations of other countries in Europe. “We sense a great desire and longing among people to travel again. Hotels and restaurants are slowly opening, and visits to friends and family are in some cases being allowed…
DOHA: Hamad International Airport (HIA) in Qatar has been ranked the “Third Best Airport in the World”, among 550 airports worldwide, by the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2020. [huge_it_slider id=”543″] Climbing up from fourth position in 2019 to third in 2020, HIA has been steadily rising in the ‘World’s Best Airports’ rankings since the start of its operations in 2014. Engineer Badr Mohammed Al Meer, Chief Operating Officer at Hamad International Airport, said: “Every year that we move up the ranks is particularly rewarding as this honour comes directly from our passengers who have shared their experiences travelling through our…
BOGOTA: Colombian airline Avianca (AVH) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US Southern District of New York on Sunday, May 10, blaming its collapse on the “unforeseeable impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” according to a company statement. Avianca, which was founded in 1919, claims to be the world’s second-oldest continuously running airline. As of the end of last year, it was the third-largest airline in Latin America based on market share, after Chile’s LATAM Airlines (LTM) and Brazil’s GOL Linhas Aéreas (GOL), according to Euromonitor. The carrier is also part of the Star Alliance, the industry group that includes…
NEW DELHI: Following nearly a two-month lockdown due to Covid-19, Indian Railways plans to gradually restart passenger train operations from today, May 12, said a report. Initially, 15 pairs of trains will run. These special trains will run from New Delhi Station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi, said a report in Times of India. Thereafter, Indian Railways shall start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for Covid-19 care centres and adequate number of coaches being reserved to…