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The airline industry is ready to take off Israel today

2021-02-17T09:25:24.469Z


| Tourism The aspiration that the vaccines will "awaken" the industry as early as next month • The desire to make green passports an international way of working • The transition from heavy aircraft - to light and economical • And the attempts already being made to open up the world sky • The aviation industry hopes to soon spread wings • Special project The airport is closed, and it is not yet clear until


The aspiration that the vaccines will "awaken" the industry as early as next month • The desire to make green passports an international way of working • The transition from heavy aircraft - to light and economical • And the attempts already being made to open up the world sky • The aviation industry hopes to soon spread wings • Special project

The airport is closed, and it is not yet clear until when.

The future of aviation is already here, and in the past year we have seen quite a few changes, upgrades and surprises from airlines and aircraft manufacturers.

The industry's great hope is the vaccination campaign in Israel, which is being carried out at a rapid pace.

Facing the future and hoping that it will soon be better, we spoke with senior aviation experts in Israel, who explain what our flights will look like in the coming year.

Empty and sad: This is what Ben Gurion Airport looks like in the closing days // Photo: Gil Kramer

The Vaccines - Game Changer

Kobi Sussman, CEO of IATA (International Airlines) in Israel, explains what the flights, green passports and information that will be transferred to the airlines and the countries where we will land will look like. 2% a day, "he explains," the world of aviation is a global world and there is no uniformity when it comes to vaccines between Israel and different countries.

I want to assume that anyone who holds a green passport will be able to fly without restrictions. "

He said, "In March we will feel a certain shift in passenger numbers, but this will not be a return to routine; we see that in the US the rate of vaccines is rising significantly, and that has many implications." 

Sussman adds that "in many countries, along with the vaccination process, mechanisms are already being worked on to revive the aviation and tourism industries. The aviation world has adapted procedures we are all already familiar with. The aviation world that existed before the epidemic and the one that exists today is completely different. "Aviation with tests and approvals, and it will probably only expand. In the end, countries will have to recognize each other in terms of vaccines and the state of morbidity and testing." 

IATA is working on the Travel Pass as a solution to this issue, and successful pilots have already been conducted with British Airways, Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines.

"Sources in the State of Israel and in Israeli airlines are already very interested in this," Sussman notes.

However, he clarifies that "until we fly as it was before the corona period it will take between two and three years, but until then we can do it with the adoption of new behaviors and procedures." 

At the same time, the world's largest airlines are already experimenting with the IATA green passport app.

The purpose of the widget is to manage the issue of international tests and vaccines.

"This is a very important component in the travel process around the world for a visible period and probably also the more distant one," emphasizes the CEO of IATA Israel.

The green widget 

The widget will allow the passenger to save the test and vaccination data, the tests will go through a verification process and make sure everything is verified and official.

The passenger will decide what information he transmits to the airlines and countries to which he is traveling.

Eventually, the widget will be able to tell the passenger whether he can board the plane or not, all according to the requirements of the country he wants to reach. 

At check-in, done before the flight, the systems will be synchronized with the widget and thus basically all the medical certificates will be presented, in accordance with the certificate, to the airport staff.

This way they will know to say whether we can fly to a particular country or not and whether we can board the plane or not.

"These pilots, which have been going on for several weeks, have proved a great success, and we believe that during the month of February the widget will be available in Apple and Android app stores, and that a lot of airlines around the world will already be working with it."

"Personal capsule" on the plane

"We are working to develop the creation of a 'personal capsule' for each of the passengers on the plane," he says, "said Yossi Melamed, IAI's vice president and director of the aviation division," which reveals some interesting technologies that are under Israeli development. There is no doubt that creating a personal space for everyone is an important and desirable thing that is in development.

"Another thing we are working on is collecting data using methods that did not exist until today, in order to deal with certain situations, including those we are experiencing now - a kind of database that will allow orderly and safe tracking of passenger traffic."

Melamed also refers to forecasts, according to which the aviation industry is expected to recover already in the coming months.

He said, "We anticipate that around May-July there will be a significant improvement in the industry thanks to vaccines, but the big improvement is expected to come towards the end of 2021, and everyone with their eyes on the US.

The sooner they recovered and the morbidity there decreased, the better the situation. " 

Today, civil aviation accounts for about 40% of activity.

In China, for example, domestic civil aviation has returned to almost full activity, standing at about 60%.

"The Chinese market is giving us jobs when it comes to aircraft maintenance," says Melamed. "In 2020, we dropped to only 30%, and we expect that in 2021 we will see a 20% -10% improvement in everything related to maintenance, following the expected increase in aircraft traffic worldwide." . 

Separate from the big planes

At the same time, an interesting figure comes from Boeing, which has reduced and reduced the number of aircraft it will deliver by 15% -10%.

"In the near future we will see a farewell to the large planes that many of us flew on," Melamed emphasizes. "Although the Airbus 380 never arrived in Israel, the Boeing 747 was very common in Israel. These are large two-story planes that many companies around the world operated mainly for long flights. "Aviation thinks economically, and these planes are not economical because they consume quite a bit of fuel and their operating costs are high." 

Melamed concludes: "We are seeing more dreamliners, Airbus 350s and more affordable operating models that will be operated on a very large scale, and they will be the most common aircraft in the sky for long-haul flights."

Miraculously, or not, many in the aviation industry see the Corona virus as a great opportunity for the Israeli aviation industry.

The corona as an opportunity

Meidan Bar, chairman of the Israeli Pilots' Association, explains why this is the time when Israeli airlines need to take the initiative to take advantage of the situation that has arisen. "There is no doubt that aviation in the world has suffered a fatal blow, both because it was very sudden and because it is an industry He was injured, "said Bar.

The significant turnaround in the industry in Israel in the past year has been in the normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. 

"The airport is affected by size and alliances. We can not change the size of the country, but we have the agreements and here comes the big opportunity," explains the chairman of the Israeli Pilots Association. "The tourism industry in Israel is an industry of a quarter of a million households. Stunning.

One winter day you can ski on Mount Hermon and bathe in the sea in Eilat.

What I see is an opportunity to bring to Israel about 10 million tourists a year and not 5 million as they have wanted so far. "

At the same time, the chairman of the Israeli Pilots' Association calls for the creation of a long-term plan and the definition of the industry as a strategic asset. "For example, Israeli students who fly on tours in Poland will have to fly in an Israeli company.

I also want Histadrut workers who fly for annual vacations to fly with an Israeli company, for aviation to be included in the Capital Investment Encouragement Law, and a long list of steps to rehabilitate the industry in Israel, "says Bar, adding:" It is impossible to ignore the fact It's scratching the bottom of the table, so we should, and can, turn Israel into the largest flight school in the world. " 

Companies will sell at a loss

Bar estimates that the potential for transportation will be in the smaller companies in Israel, partly due to changes in ownership, operational flexibility and the nature of the activity.

"There is no doubt that spring and summer will be turning points," he concludes. "Large, wealthy companies will face very aggressive competition in the market. Turkish Airlines and Emirates will fly people here at a loss. This is something we will experience this summer, and ticket prices will certainly be very low. "It is precisely the markets outside Europe that are not being vaccinated. Far destinations in the East, Africa, North America and more will surpass Europe's next destinations. There will be no change in the coming months, and renewal will be exponential because of the great competition."

Source: israelhayom

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