APA Issue 1, 2022
VIEW FROM THE TOP ACI Asia-Pacific director general, Stefano Baronci, reflects on a new joint initiative with the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association, a successful trip to the Middle East and changes to the Regional Board.
I
t is fair to say that the first quarter of 2022 didn’t quite turn out the way we had hoped or expected, with the Omicron variant having a particularly adverse impact on the aviation industry in Asia.
Indeed, the daily, record-breaking number of infections observed in many parts of Asia during the early weeks of the year also translated to travel restrictions backtracking and some borders closing again. The news cycle was further distracted by the war in Ukraine and the unfortunate plane crash in China. At the time of writing, we are finally seeing glimmers of hope again with more countries in Asia announcing the progressive reopening of borders and relaxation of travel requirements to reconnect with other parts of the world. However, we recognise much still needs to be done in order to truly reinvigorate travel across the region, and ACI Asia-Pacific continues to advocate and push forward our message on behalf of members. JOINING INITIATIVE WITH APTRA To this end, ACI Asia-Pacific recently joined forces with Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) to launch a campaign urging for greater government support for the air travel industry.
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The campaign included letters to the region’s governments’ health, tourism and trade and industry departments or authorities, followed by a press release, primarily with a message urging governments to support air travel recovery and recommending a series of measures to address the issues preventing the recovery of the sector and regional economies as a whole. This followed recent evidence from both APTRA and ACI Asia-Pacific indicating that Asia-Pacific’s air travel industry is losing its competitiveness and significantly lagging behind other regions. Data from ACI’s latest economic impact assessment shows that, compared to the projected baseline, passenger traffic in Asia-Pacific reduced -63% in 2021, and is estimated to decrease -49% in 2022. Similar performance is expected to be reported regarding airport revenues, with a loss of $27 billion forecast in the region in 2022. Furthermore, a recent survey of the region’s airport operators indicated that significant operational challenges still need to be addressed to improve the passenger experience at airports.
