Governments need to coordinate and simplify air travel for demand to return: Airbus, Boeing

THE Covid-19 pandemic has helped to accelerate sustainability efforts for the aviation industry, but for travel demand to return, governments need to be coordinated and move to a testing regime rather than a quarantine one, major airline players said on Wednesday (Jan 26).

"We believe that if governments can get together and provide a simplified, easy and coordinated way to access borders and communicate that clearly to travellers, you will see travel increase," said Alex Feldman, South-east Asia president at Boeing, during a pre-event media roundtable by the Singapore Airshow 2022.

The virtual roundtable, which features 4 other speakers, involves a discussion on whether Asia can bounce back to pre-pandemic levels of growth.

Another panellist Anand Stanley, Asia-Pacific president at Airbus, noted that recovery in both leisure and business travel has been strong in North America and Europe, where restrictions are relaxed, but Asia has been lagging due to quarantines and border closures compounded by lower vaccination rates.

"We need borders to be completely opened up, quarantine regimes to stop, move to a testing regime when appropriate and bring back freedom of movement," he said.

Still, Stanley remains sanguine about recovery, noting that a third of Airbus' global deliveries last year were from the Asia-Pacific, with this figure set to go up to 50 per cent in 20 years.

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Concurring, Feldman said Boeing is "incredibly bullish" on Asia-Pacific and South-east Asia, one of the youngest regions in the world with 380 million people under the age of 35 and "itching to travel".

"We, through our forecasts, predict that there'll be a need for 4,400 new aircraft in the next 20 years in South-east Asia alone, so that's over US$700 billion worth of new aircraft at today's prices," said Feldman.

He estimated that air travel could return to pre-pandemic levels by 2023 or 2024.

In terms of simplifying the paperwork travellers now have to contend with during the pandemic, Changi Airport Group managing director for air hub development Lim Ching Kiat said the group has been using digital touch points and encouraging passengers to making bookings in advance.

"I'm still confident that we will reach a new normal. It's like after 9/11, people got used to a new process of doing things so the aviation system and the partners working between the airlines and airports and manufacturers, we will get there to the new normal," he said, referring to the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.

The aviation industry was nearly decimated by Covid-19 pandemic for the better part of 2020, which saw most airlines around the world grounding their fleet following a plunge in air travel demand.

But that episode has proved to be beneficial in helping the highly pollutive industry make big strides in its sustainability efforts.

"That's offered an opportunity to retire some of the older planes and some of the less efficient planes, and that, we believe, will really create significant reductions in greenhouse emissions from the aerospace industry," Feldman said.

At the same time, Boeing has been working on getting its staff and customers to understand how to fly efficiently with the most efficient routes.

Noting that the pandemic has accelerated the race for sustainable aviation, Stanley said Airbus has found hydrogen to be the most promising for "pure zero emission", after exploring several options.

"Which is why we committed by 2035 to fly a zero-emission aircraft, and we hope it will be with a hydrogen vector," Stanley said.

Boeing is focused on the development of sustainable aviation fuels (Saf), which Feldman said can reduce emissions by 80 per cent. Saf, which is more expensive than traditional jet fuel, is made from sustainable resources typically of biological origin, such as waste oils and agricultural residues.

"It means getting governments on board to believe in Saf and help provide the impetus to transition to Saf, as well as helping to get the infrastructure of places like Changi Airport in place to accept Saf," he said. He added that Boeing has also been speaking with agricultural producers across South-east Asia to ensure a sufficient feedstock supply.

Meanwhile, the industry has also been grappling labour shortages, from job cuts earlier on and later the lack of labour mobility.

In particular, a lot more women have left the industry, which already hires very few of them in the first place, said panelist Kate Seaton, who is on the board of Women in Aviation International Singapore. At the moment, only about 6 to 9 per cent of the world's pilots are female.

"It's very much hoped that in the next 3 years, we will have increased senior female representation in the industry by 25 per cent," Seaton added.

The Singapore Airshow, a biennial event, has similarly taken a hit from the Covid-19 pandemic and will feature over 400 exhibitors this year, less than half the number seen during the 2020 instalment.

With the number of Omicron cases rising in the Republic, Leck Chet Lam, managing director of organiser Experia, described the next 3 weeks as a "very fluid environment".

"We are taking on the challenge to hold a physical event in Singapore that we need to implement safe management measures. At the same time, we need to balance to give a well-rounded, user-friendly experience for attendees," said Leck.

He added that this is an important platform to get the community together to help the recovery of the aviation industry in the region.