In an interview with Yahoo Finance Live, Nick Calio, CEO of Airlines For America, was more pessimistic about a full recovery in the travel industry.
The patient is still in intensive care, to be fair, Calio says. You’ve seen many anecdotal accounts of many rides. Last weekend was our best weekend of the year. This is good news. Despite this, we still transport 50% fewer people than a year ago at the same time.
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Mr. Calio was asked if he was confident that this recovery had a future or if we would experience a downturn after spring break.
One thing we learned during the pandemic: You can plan, but you can’t predict. We hope the numbers will continue to grow, Calio said. We see very strong latent demand for travel. People want out. They feel safer now that they know you’re safe on the plane because more people are getting vaccinated. That’s why we think it’s sustainable. But it’s also hard to predict. This virus was very delicate. And we hope to make real progress in the fight against this scourge. When that happens, the numbers stop.
Calio said when the airlines are back at the 2019 numbers, he hopes there will be enough employees, including pilots.
Aviation employees are different from many others. That is not to say they are better, but they need to be continuously trained, retrained, certified and recertified, he added. So you can’t put off the pilot for two or three months, give him the keys to the plane and say you’re flying on Friday. All of this needs to be retrained and scrutinized to make sure we are as safe as possible.
One thing the industry can count on, Calio said, is maintaining the safety and health of passengers.
Going forward, we have not reported any cases of super-shipping by airlines, he added. So when the CDC recently advised against travel, but said small gatherings of vaccinated people could be held, did they miss something? The CDC is doing everything in its power to get the job done. We have a difference of opinion on air travel safety. People have to be smart about this. And what we tell people is that we try to give our potential passengers as much information as possible so that they can make an informed decision about whether they want to get on the plane.
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