News

Qantas Airways stated (20-Mar-2022) Jetstar Airways and Jetstar Asia will move to Terminal 4 from Terminal 1 at Singapore Changi Airport from 22-Mar-2023. This will increase the minimum connecting time from 60 to 90 minutes. Qantas Airways amended its commercial policy following the terminal change. Passengers may rebook onto another Jetstar Airways or Jetstar Asia service. Or for connections Singapore-Kuala Lumpur and vv sector, rebook on a connecting Malaysia Airlines operated flight. Passengers may also retain the value of the ticket in credit or receive a refund. [more - original PR]

Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport reported (20-Mar-2023) the following traffic highlights for Feb-2023:

• Passengers: 2.7 million, -19.6% compared to Feb-2019;
  • Domestic: 1.7 million, -17.1%;
  • International: 1.0 million, -23.7%;
• Top 10 nationalities travelling through Sydney Airport for Feb-2023:
  
  • Australia: -11.6% compared to Feb-2019;
  • New Zealand: -23.2%;
  • US: -19.1%;
  • UK: -21.6%;
  • China: -75.1%;
  • South Korea: -12.6%;
  • India: -1.6%;
  • Japan: -31.2%;
  • Canada: -23.2%;
  • Philippines: -0.1%. [more - original PR]

UK's Department of Health and Social Care, Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Department for Transport (DfT) announced (17-Mar-2023) UKHSA's voluntary on-arrival testing programme of travellers arriving from China to London Heathrow Airport will end on 17-Mar-2023. Additionally, travellers flying from mainland China to England will no longer be required to provide proof of a negative pre-departure test, effective 05-Apr-2023. The UK Government stated the removal of measures comes as China has "increased information sharing regarding testing, vaccination and genomic sequencing results, providing greater transparency on their domestic disease levels". [more - original PR]

Air Mauritius announced (17-Mar-2023) plans to relocate from London Heathrow Airport to London Gatwick Airport, effective 29-Oct-2023. The airline will also increase Mauritius-London frequency from five times weekly to daily from the same date. The carrier will operate the service with A330-900 and A350-900 aircraft. [more - original PR]

Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) reported (16-Mar-2023) the following highlights from a report based on survey responses from 151 US corporate travel buyers:

• Most respondents expect their company's business travel to increase and return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2023. 77% expect external meetings to reach pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2023, followed by 76% for conference and group travel, 74% for domestic business travel and 69% for internal meetings;
• One in 10 do not expect business travel volumes to return until 2025 or later, citing inflation, rising prices, travel disruptions and a potential recession as their top concerns;
• 64% stated their companies are unlikely to limit business travel. 36% are not seriously considering limiting business travel. 19% reported their companies are already implementing a plan to limit business travel;
• Cost savings are a priority for 65% of senior leadership and 54% of travel managers. Traveller experience is a priority for 51% of travel managers and 42% of executives;
• 72% of travel managers are dedicating more time to traveller communications and answering questions than they did pre-pandemic. 59% are spending more time on overseeing their travel management company (TMC) relationship, 52% are spending more time on data analysis and 42% are spending more time on risk management and traveller tracking;
• The top stakeholder collaborations for travel managers are finance and accounting (69%), senior leadership (49%) and risk management and security (44%). 59% regularly share travel related performance metrics with senior leadership;
• 62% stated cost metrics will be the most important measures to evaluate their programme's success in 2023, followed by 32% for travel experience metrics;
• The top TMC pain points are agents and assistance (48%), data analysis, reporting and dash boarding (37%) and the ability of the TMC to deliver a customised travel programme (33%);
• The top online booking tool pain points are the end user and traveller experience (49%), the ability to manage changes or cancellations (47%) and innovation (41%).

The report was conducted by GBTA and Spotnana. Data collection for the online survey took place from 12-Dec-2022 to 03-Jan-2023. [more - original PR]

London Gatwick Airport announced (16-Mar-2023) Delta Air Lines plans to launch daily New York JFK-London Gatwick service from 10-Apr-2023. According to OAG, the service will be operated using Boeing 767-300 equipment. British Airways, JetBlue Airways, Norse Atlantic Airways and Norse Atlantic UK are also scheduled to operate the route. [more - original PR]

Public Health Agency of Canada announced (16-Mar-2023) Canada's Government plans to ease COVID-19 testing requirements and arrival screening for inbound travellers arriving from China, Hong Kong and Macau, effective 17-Mar-2023. The Government noted data from China, the international community, and wastewater sampling conducted in Canada have not detected any new variants of concerns since the border measures were introduced in Jan-2023. This represents the removal of all federal COVID-19 border restrictions in Canada. [more - original PR]

Air Premia announced (17-Mar-2023) plans to commence four times weekly Seoul Incheon-New York Newark service on 22-May-2023, operating with Boeing 787-9 equipment. The airline will be the sole scheduled operator on the route, according to OAG. [more - original PR - Korean]

Qantas Group announced (16-Mar-2023) Qantas Airways and Jetstar Airways are providing customers an additional 12 months to use their COVID credits, which are a carry over from the restrictions on borders and travel during the coronavirus pandemic. Before 16-Mar-2023, customers had to book and complete their travel by 31-Dec-2023. Following this change, they will still have to book by 31-Dec-2023 but have until Dec-2024 to complete their travel. The change also adds to offers introduced to encourage customers to book travel before their credits are due to expire, including a double points offer for Frequent Flyers in Dec-2022 and a Qantas "Find My Credit" tool, which will launch in Apr-2023 to help those who have lost track of their original booking details. [more - original PR]

Qantas Group stated (16-Mar-2023) an analysis of the AUD800 million (USD532.5 million) in COVID credits still held by Qantas Airways and Jetstar Airways customers shows:

• 76% of COVID credits are worth less than AUD500 (USD332.8);
• 24% of COVID credits are worth between AUD500 and AUD5000 (USD3328);
• Less than 1% of COVID credits are worth over AUD5000. 

There are two main types of Qantas COVID credits in the system – those that were triggered when the airline cancelled a flight (which are the most flexible for that reason) and those triggered when a customer elected not to travel. All Qantas customers in the first category remain eligible for a cash refund of their credit should they prefer. [more - original PR]