Trend: COVID-19 Impact

Airline CEOs See Digital Health Passports, Vaccines as Key to Restoring Business and International Flying

The month of March saw a rebound in domestic and leisure U.S. air travel, but airline executives are hopeful that the ongoing rollout of vaccines and a more standardized process for digital COVID-19 test verification methods will restore the two segments that remain historically low due to pandemic related factors beyond their control: business and […]

Pandemic Relief Plan Includes Billions for US Airlines and Aviation OEMs

On March 6, the U.S. Senate passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a $1.9 trillion bill that includes a combined $17 billion in coronavirus-related relief funding for U.S.-based airlines and aviation original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), if it becomes law. Lawmakers appropriated funds for aviation manufacturers and airlines in the bill that have employees […]

Biometric Privacy in the Era of COVID-19: Facial Recognition Compliance for Airports and Airlines

The commercial use of facial recognition technology has advanced at an explosive rate, expanding into numerous industries. This technology has had an especially transformative impact on the commercial aviation industry, where facial biometrics is being globally adopted by airlines and airports. As the COVID-19 pandemic has placed a premium on avoiding personal contact and made […]

The Runway to Recovery: Future Proofing Will be Key for Commercial Aviation Progress in 2021

  Commercial aviation has faced major challenges in 2020 due to the near shut-down of international travel in March 2020. Commercial operators and MROs have had to park almost entire fleets of aircraft and maintain them over a 9-month period to ensure they are flight-ready—when the time comes. But as vaccines are rolled out, the […]

COVID-19’s Impact on Commercial Aircraft Values

The year 2020 was the most tumultuous on record for the value of most aircraft types, much worse than the First Gulf War of the early 1990s, the Asian Crisis of the late 1990s, the events of 2001 and the Great Recession of 2008. The very nature of the COVID-19 pandemic inevitably meant that aviation […]

Free Internet is a Must: El Al Airlines Tal Kalderon Talks IFC and Airline COVID-19 Recovery

El Al Airlines is the national airline of Israel, and has been running strong since 1948. But with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting every corner of the world, the airline — like many others — has had to ground flights and change its way of operating. Many airlines have considered moving to a free In-Flight Connectivity […]

Travel Medicine Researchers Urge COVID Testing of Airport Personnel

  While airline travel has dropped sharply this year as compared to last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, travel medicine researchers have plumbed evidence that points to ways to spur safer travel and public confidence in such travel, including testing of all airport personnel, the institution of homogenous safety measures by the airlines, sniffer […]

KLM CEO’s Outlook Still Optimistic as Second COVID-19 Wave Hits European Air Travel

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines CEO Pieter Elbers believes most airlines globally as operating in unpredictable survival modes right now under the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus, while he still sees opportunities to adopt new technologies and policies that will make Europe’s commercial air transportation industry leaner and more efficient. Elbers discussed a range of different […]

Is Your Face the New Airline Boarding Pass?

Biometric technologies, which can use anything from fingerprints to facial scans for identification, are being floated as a solution for airports adjusting to life under COVID-19. While some biometric technologies such as fingerprinting still require passengers to touch possibly contaminated surfaces, many like facial or retina scans can enable a contactless journey through the airport […]