Where you can fly right now: US grabs lead from China, with EU playing catch-up
- Domestic travel has become an almost routine experience in the US, save for face masks, with the capacity for flights rising to 84pc of 2019 levels
- China’s world-leading aviation rebound has been blunted by a recent Covid-19 outbreak in Guangdong, while Europe is far behind but expecting a summer recovery
The United States has taken the lead in the global aviation recovery from China, where a Covid-19 outbreak in Guangdong province has undone months of steady growth in air traffic.
Airlines in the US are taking advantage of a vaccine rollout that’s reached 52 per cent of the population. Looser restrictions have made domestic air travel an almost-routine experience, save for the face masks, with capacity for flights within the country at about 84 per cent of 2019 levels, based on data from flight-tracking firm OAG.
In the European Union, the reliance on inoculations will be put to the test in coming weeks, as governments begin to ease restrictions on movement within the bloc and individual countries reopen transatlantic links. Government officials in Britain, where the Delta variant has become dominant, have already backtracked on a loosening of border rules, drawing the ire of airline executives.
“There’s going to be a sort of bumpy exit but the direction is undeniable in terms of traffic being restored,” KLM chief executive officer Pieter Elbers said in an online event on Wednesday. He said he expects European traffic to approach the levels of US and Chinese domestic markets within three to four weeks.
Until recently, China set the standard, with domestic travel powering a comeback that’s stood above 2019 levels for most of this year. After bringing the virus under control in the first half of 2020, the world’s most populous country was able to quickly restart its economy and went on to displace the US as the world’s largest air-travel market.