Have you experienced it?
Regaining Altitude – taking place right now! Our industry is experiencing the return of confidence in the traveling public. Our meeting during July helped show some of the trends being experienced at different airports. Leisure travel is seeing summer peaks – the latest TSA statistics show that over 2 million passengers were screened this past Sunday.
Optimism for business travel to regain altitude is increasing. Make note of one airline’s positive uptick in confidence. This follows the announcement of a massive fleet order by United Airlines. These outlooks help drive confidence in our industry.
More positive news – Canada announced this week that it will begin to re-open it borders to travel. It is hopeful that bilateral actions by governments get the borders open again, facilitating air travel between Canada and US.
As travelers return to airports, we have a responsibility to do what we can to ease the anxiety of passengers who have been out of sorts for nearly 18 months. Regaining cadence in baggage handling system operations and maintenance is a challenging but necessary activity. With extra attention provided by our industry members, this can be accomplished, thereby providing further assurance to the traveling public. Our August IABSC meeting will give us some insight from these members, focusing on BHS operations and maintenance.
All of this, despite the uptick in reported cases of Covid-19. It seems that vaccinations have helped to turn lives and business back toward what we view as ‘normal’. Yet we must be cautious – the virus variants are raging throughout other nations. As an example, Indonesia has a higher rate of infection than India this month.
International travel continues to wait for an opportunity to rebound. Some European countries are removing restrictions, while others are reversing to more restrictive policies after opening, perhaps, too quickly. While looking forward to the return of less restrictive travel, we must maintain vigilance against further spread of virus.
The impact of vaccinations upon populations has not or will not eliminate Covid. It will be with us for some time, forecast to become an endemic. This will have an impact on how we travel. Yet, the necessity of travel, airlines, airports, and the BHS community remain important to fulfillment in peoples personal and business lives.
While preparing to return to live in person meetings in August 2021, it is important to take all of this into context. The need for personal responsibility continues. Remain safe, be vigilant.
Looking forward to seeing you in Dallas on August 13!
