The Asia-Pacific region is beginning to open up for air travel, but there are still travel restrictions in place in important markets, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine only adds to the obstacles.
Following Australia, the Philippines, and Singapore, India and Malaysia have announced that they will open their borders to vaccinated travelers this week.
Vietnam has already begun to loosen its border controls, while Indonesia, which has always been closed to international visitors, is planning a broad opening in April.
On the other hand, North Asia continues to lag. While South Korea permits some leisure travel, Japan remains closed. China and Hong Kong, which have redoubled their efforts to implement Beijing’s “zero COVID” policy, are still months away from reopening.
Cathay Pacific Airways in Hong Kong and Singapore Airlines in Singapore provide a perfect contrast to study the impact of travel limitations on airline revenues.
Cathay’s chairman, Patrick Healy, felt forced last week to underscore that he has “utmost confidence” in Cathay’s survival, despite how terrible things have become at the airline, which is being strangled by Hong Kong’s unyielding travel restrictions.
In contrast, SIA is rich with cash and is reaping the benefits of Singapore’s increasing Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme. On March 9, there was speculation that the city-state would soften its boundaries even more.
However, even as the region opens up further, Thailand’s airlines serve as a cautionary story about how far most airlines still have to go. Thai airlines had high hopes for the country’s Phuket “Sandbox” scheme and other initiatives for vaccinated travelers in mid-2021, but losses continued to climb – and the arrival of Omicron was a significant setback.
“For Thailand’s tourism, foreign tourist figures increased after the opening of tourism sandbox scheme in July 2021 and re-opening of the country on 1 November 2021, but overall tourism growth remained low as the outbreak situation both in Thailand and aboard remained uncertain,” In a recent earnings update, Bangkok Airways expressed dissatisfaction with the company’s performance.
