The aviation industry fears chaos at airports with extremely long waiting times. The reason are the corona rules. What that means for the autumn vacation.
Boston / Frankfurt – With these prospects, many passengers will soon lose their desire for autumn vacation in the distance. Now the aviation industry is sounding the alarm: If traffic gets going again without digital procedures for corona tests and other documents, chaos is inevitable.
The deputy head of the IATA industry association, Conrad Clifford, drew an impressive comparison at the annual conference in Boston: Before Corona *, travelers would have had to wait an average of one and a half hours at the airports before departure and after arrival. That is long gone: in the first half of this year, the handling of passengers would have taken three hours. “And the travel volume was just 30 percent of the dimensions before Covid *.” The aviation experts fear that waiting times could become longer if more and more people come to the airport.
Corona and travel: Experts warn against waiting times of up to eight hours
In their calculations, the experts assume that traveling in the next few months will become a much greater test of patience for passengers: “Our models predict that you could spend five and a half hours per trip at airports without improving the processes” – at 75 percent of the travel volume before the pandemic.
If as many passengers should fly as before, up to eight hours are possible. The problem, according to Clifford: the additional effort for checking corona tests and longer queues at passport controls after arrival. In many countries there are also different quarantine and corona rules for vacationers *.
Corona and vacation: Digital “Travel Pass” could be the solution to the time problem
How can the impending chaos be averted with extremely long waiting times? IATA insists on a digital solution and has developed a “Travel Pass” app. The association writes in a press release. Passengers should be able to do their Corona formalities and controls online via app – even before they are at the airport. So far, 76 companies have tested the procedure on 286 routes. However, it is said that each company must decide individually for the introduction.
The CEOs met in Boston for their first annual meeting since the outbreak of the crisis to discuss the future of the aviation industry. Air traffic is recovering from the deepest slump in its history. According to an IATA press release, all airlines lost a total of 200 billion dollars (around 172 billion euros) due to Corona. International air travel is a good fifth of the pre-Corona level. Many long-distance travel destinations opened in autumn despite Corona.
Climate change: the aviation industry wants to be climate neutral by 2050 – many hurdles on the way to achieving this goal
But not only Corona was an issue in Boston. It was also about readjusting the industry with regard to climate change. The IATA pursues the ambitious goal that aviation is climate neutral by 2050. That shouldn’t be easy. At the same time, the industry assumes that the number of passengers will continue to rise dramatically: from currently around two billion to a good ten billion by 2050. With today’s values, aviation companies would be faced with the Herculean task of offsetting 1.8 gigatons of CO2 for a neutral carbon footprint , predicts the IATA in its annual report.
Can sustainably produced fuel help? Because of the low capacities, the aviation experts are rather skeptical. “All of the sustainably produced fuel in the world would now be enough for us for five days,” said Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr in Boston. And Emirates boss Tim Clark pointed out that the costs are currently two to three times higher than that of classic kerosene. In addition, even with sustainable fuel, CO2 is still emitted.
Aircraft and climate change: is hydrogen the solution for climate-neutral aviation?
Another possibility would be the development of new drive technologies. Airbus hopes for hydrogen, as CEO Guillaume Faury emphasized at the annual conference. His optimistic forecast: by 2035, the group wants to have a hydrogen-powered aircraft in the air. But hydrogen is probably not the ultimate solution either. The problem: The airlines would have to take 18 percent more fuel volume with them and also cool hydrogen to minus 250 degrees Celsius.
So there was no real agreement in Boston about the climate-neutral future of the airlines. Only one thing is certain: the road to climate neutrality will be stony for aviation – and very expensive. (Julian Dorn) * fnp.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
