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EU countries begin selective opening of borders across the Schengen area

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INDUSTRY NEWS: 2nd June 2020

As the number of deaths caused by the Coronavirus pandemic nears 400 thousand, and the number of those known to be infected already exceeds six million, member states of the Schengen Area and the European Union have started opening their borders for certain countries, according to schengenvisainfo.com.

While EU countries as Poland give no signs of a near reopening of the borders for non-essential travel for the rest of the block’s citizens, others as Germany, Spain and Italy, plan to reopen through June. Others as Hungary and Greece, have even added non-EU and non-Schengen countries to their lists of soon-to-be eligible travellers to enter their territory.

The majority of these countries have imposed restrictions for possible travellers to their territory while highlighting that travelling through the EU at the pre-pandemic level is not possible right now. As a result, most of them have imposed either two-week quarantine for arrivals, or COVID-19 test, or both.

In particular, a large share of EU members reopening the borders has noted that quarantine will be obligatory to all, aside from those who present a certificate of negative COVID-19 test results.

Earlier in mid-April, an EU official confirmed to schengenvisainfo.com that those wishing to travel to the Schengen Area after the Member States start to gradually go back to normal might have to present a negative COVID-19 test.

“The traveller may be required to take a new test before travelling to the Schengen area, as to make sure that he/she has not been infected in the meantime,” the source said while explaining that third-country nationals would have to present test results for visa applications and for entering the country.

Contacted again, regarding the recent developments, the same source noted that since the beginning of the pandemic it was clear that third-country nationals would need to present test results to enter the Schengen Area.

“Health experts have advised that we have to learn to live with the virus, in order to beat it. I don’t see how the EU could reopen to third-country nationals without requiring negative test results, for as long as the virus lives among us,” the source said when asked whether there was a possibility of EU reopening the borders without imposing such a requirement.

See the full story and the full list of restrictions across the European Union HERE

 
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Europe: flight searches online go up as governments relax Covid lockdowns

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Industry News 28th May 2020

Flight searches in Europe have plummeted by more than 90 per cent but there are signs that as lockdown restrictions are relaxed, people are preparing to fly again.

And Greece – which escaped the worst of the virus – has becomre a key target for people researching holidays online, according to digital audience analyst Sojern. 

It examines and reports travel intent by internet use, as measured by searches on airline websites, online travel agencies and metasearch.

This week Sojern reported that while bookings in Europe are down by more than 90 per cent in most countries, Greece is a front runner in the recovery forecast.

Sojern has released its latest findings on how travel trends in Europe are being impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. The most recent insights, from data collected on Tuesday (26 May), are based on over 350 million traveller profiles and billions of travel intent signals.

Flight searches and bookings remain down overall, however we are beginning to see positive signals that travel intent is improving in some markets that have announced an easing of travel restrictions. We will look deeper into these countries in the next section.

 

Global flight searches to key European markets

 

Global flight bookings to key European markets

 

European travellers itching to get away to newly-opened markets

In particular, Greece stands out with a major uptick in global flight searches and bookings in the last week, after announcing that Athens will be open to tourists on 15 June, and that the Greek islands will be open as of 1 July.

But there are other countries hoping to attract European travellers for their usually-busy summer season. In addition to the re-opening of Greece, we know that Italy will mostly reopen on 3 June (with some staggered re-openings in places like Sardinia), while Cyprus and Poland will reopen from 15 June. At present, these countries do not appear to have any self-isolation restrictions from arriving travellers.

When looking at future departure months, while we see longer term recovery nearer the end of the year, we are seeing spikes in regional flight searches to these countries in June.

 

European flight searches to reopening markets

And when we look at bookings to these countries made in the last 14 days, we see that many Europeans have booked travel in July, in line with the reopening of borders. While these spikes are still well down when compared year-over-year, it is a positive sign that we see these upticks in travel searches and bookings so quickly after government announcements. Europeans remain eager to enjoy a summer holiday abroad.

 

European flight bookings to reopening markets

 

Government policies impact European travel intent to the UK, but domestic intent is strong

Last week, the UK announced that starting 8 June, arrivals into the UK will need to go into a 14-day self-isolation, which could be a deterrent to those looking to travel to the UK in the coming months. As a result, with the exception of a small spike in June, European travel intent to the UK remains well below that of the European countries who are opening their borders without any self-isolation rules. For example, the small spike in June is still 86% down YOY, whereas for Greece in the same month, travel intent is only down 31% YOY.

 

European flight searches to UK, future departure months

On a positive note, it does appear that domestic travel within the UK is really starting to improve. We’ve indexed to the first week in April, when Europe was perhaps in the worst phase of the virus, lockdowns were strictest, and travel intent was at its lowest. We now see that searches for travel within the UK are up over 70% from the first week in April. While the government has not lifted restrictions on non-essential travel, it appears that staycations and ‘near-cations’ will be the name of the game once travel is allowed in the UK.

 

Travel intent to the UK, indexed to 5 April

 

 

We will continue to share more insights as we monitor the situation. At the moment, we see that European countries that are starting to reopen their borders without any restrictions are reaping the benefits of growing travel intent, opposed to those countries who are implementing self-isolation restrictions on arrivals. These forward-looking insights will hopefully help travel marketers shape their strategies when the industry starts to recover from this outbreak.

 

 
 
 
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Why Germans are optimistic about foreign holidays this year

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Industry News: 27th May 2020

Germany is planning to lift a travel warning for its 26 fellow EU countries plus Britain, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein from June 15 providing infection rates remain under control, according to a government source in Berlin speaking to Reuters 

Under the new proposal, the general travel warning that has been in place since March 17 would be replaced by individual advice tailored to the spread of the pandemic in each country, potentially allowing Germans to holiday abroad this summer.

In another positive move, people living in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Germany can now visit partners in Denmark by signing a simple declaration rather than having to provide photos, phone records and other proof of a relationship, the Danish justice minister, Nick Hækkerup, said.

The premiers of Germany’s 16 states are due to discuss with the chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Wednesday how to further relax restrictions aimed at containing Covid-19 after its initial relaxation, two weeks ago, showed no significant impact on infections.

More German federal states have announced unilateral steps to loosen restrictions, creating a patchwork of wildly varying rules on physical distancing within Germany and moving control away from Chancellor Merkel.

Winfried Kretschmann, the premier of Baden-Württemberg, said on Tuesday his state would allow seated public events with up to 100 people from 1 June. Other states
made similar announcements, with the mayor of Hamburg saying the the city state would soon reopen cinemas, open-air swimming pools and gyms.

According to The Guardian in the UK, there was no official confirmation of a report, citing a draft document, in the Bild tabloid that Merkel, under pressure from state premiers, had already agreed to ease some remaining rules – including on the numbers of visitors allowed in people’s homes – by June 29 instead of July 5, as originally planned.

 
 

 

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Air France dumps the A380 superjumbo and Emirates wants out of new orders

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French flag carrier Air France has announced on Wednesday afternoon that it will retire its nine strong Airbus A380 fleet with immediate effect.

The airline’s fleet of superjumbos was initially set to be retired in 2022, but in light of the Coronavirus, the Air France-KLM Group has decided that it will bring this forward.

The company owns five of its A380s and another four on lease. Most of the fleet has been grounded since March, as the worldwide pandemic brought air travel to a dramatic stop.

Air France said in a statement: “The phase-out of Airbus A380 fleet fits in the Air France-KLM Group fleet simplification strategy of making the fleet more competitive, by continuing its transformation with more modern, high-performance aircraft with a significantly reduced environmental footprint.”

The airline received its first A380 in October 2009 and it’s most recent delivery was in June 2014, making the youngest aircraft in the fleet a mere six years old. Air France’s Airbus A380 fleet will be replaced by smaller long-haul aircraft, including Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the carrier says.

The £164million superjumbo is close to the end of its production run after demand switched to smaller jets, and airlines including Air France have been idling the double-decker temporarily because of the coronavirus crisis. 

Air France announced a fresh 500million euro ($548.50million, £449million) writedown as it permanently retires its nine jets, just over a decade after becoming the first European airline to operate them.

The French announcement came hours after aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce announced 9,000 redundancies across its UK operations.

Emirates – which operates more than 100 A380s and has been one of the few airlines to adopt it – no longer wants to take all eight A380s due to the pandemic and is in talks with Airbus, industry sources said.

Bloomberg earlier reported that Emirates hoped to cancel five.

Both Emirates and Airbus said they were in regular dialogue with each other, declining further comment.

Halting Emirates deliveries could be painful for both sides, with the airline foregoing deposits and Airbus left with parts already ordered and no significant market to dispose of them.

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