News
Association of Asia Pacific Airlines director general says vaccination in the region remains low
August 27th 2021
Asia-Pacific carriers flew 1.5 million passengers on scheduled international services in July, figures from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) show. Read More » The numbers were up 139.6%, from 853,000 passengers in the same month a year ago and were higher than the 1.4 million passengers flown in June. Compared with pre-COVID-19 levels, the July figures were 95.2% below the region's 32.5 million international air travellers transported in July 2019. AAPA director general, Subhas Menon, said strict border restrictions and quarantine measures continued to have a devastating impact on international air travel. “Progress in vaccination rollouts across the region remains slow as many countries still face challenges in procuring supplies and suffer from resource constraints," Menon said. "Some governments have announced phased reopening plans. They include setting pathways to resuming international travel based on risk-based assessments and traveller vaccination status. For air travel to restart meaningfully in the region, more governments must take similar steps towards relaxing border restrictions, preferably in coordination with counterparts.” AAPA figures are aggregated from the traffic data of 40 Asia-Pacific airlines.
