During this year one of the most disrupted sector is certainly the air travel. When in April all the world was locked down and the borders were closed all the airlines around the world founded themselves without passengers, and so, without a revenue. Most airlines decided to ground all of their fleets or use a small percentage of it to fly cargo planes or repatriation flights, like Alitalia which flew during all the first lockdown non-stop from Rome to Hong Kong, Beijing, New Delhi and so forth.

As of December 2020 the first vaccine is going to be given to the population and is expected that in a few months we will achieve herd immunity. The states administrations all around the world want an answer by the IATA (International Air Transport Association) on how air travel will be in 2021. IATA still does not know the answer yet, but two major airlines have already independently exposed themselves; Qantas and Delta Airlines.

“Our position on this is clear. We have a duty of care to our people and our passengers, and once a safe and effective vaccine becomes readily available, it will be a requirement for travel on our international services,” said Mr Joyce, Qantas CEO, in comments to the media on Thursday.

In Europe, the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) still follow the special guidelines for air travel: wash your hands, keep a seat empty, use of a safe mask for all the duration of the flight and so on…

On the other hand in the US the FAA (Feder Aviation Administration) has authorized pilots and air traffic controllers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, subject to certain conditions.

The authorization comes as the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared a vaccine. It is important to clarify that in the US the Covid’s guidelines are still not followed due to the position of their President: Donald Trump, a convinced negationist.

We hope that the travel will begin again and there will be a full recovery after this pandemic. From almost a year we are waiving our youth away to reach the safeguard of elder and fragile people, we are blocked from seeing the world and explore, but, we know that these special measures are going to end and we personally hope that with this vaccine we are a step closer to win this tremendous virus.

 

Giulia Franchini, Davide Palumbo IV B s.a.