Asian governments need to remove travel restrictions such as pre-flight Covid tests and quarantine to help the aviation industry get back on its feet, said Subhas Menon, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines.

This year “should mark the start of the end of many of the closed borders in Asia Pacific,” Menon said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on the first day of the Singapore Airshow.

While domestic travel in the region is probably already back to pre-pandemic levels, it could take until around 2024 for international travel to recover, he said.

The air show is being held against the backdrop of a region still reeling from pandemic travel restrictions, while Europe and the U.S. ditch curbs including quarantine, isolation, and mandatory testing.

Hong Kong and Singapore are being shunned as travelers seek to avoid weeks in hotel isolation or a raft of testing. Airlines, which before the pandemic operated about 30,000 flights a month to the two Asian hubs, have slashed that number to just 4,514 in February, according to aviation data company Cirium.

Held every two years, the Singapore event is billed as Asia’s most influential air show. More than 13,000 delegates are expected to attend this year, with almost 600 companies participating, including Boeing Co., Airbus SE, and Rolls-Royce Plc. That’s down from the 930 companies and almost 30,000 delegates at the 2020 show, before the pandemic decimated global aviation.

“We’re disappointed that the Aerojet deal fell through, we thought there were some great synergies there and benefits for the U.S. government and our international partners,” Lockheed Martin Corp. Senior Vice President Tim Cahill said, referring to the end of a US$4.4 billion bid for Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc.

There are still many other opportunities around, not necessarily through mergers and acquisitions, Cahill said, citing partnerships with companies in Japan, South Korea as well as the Australian government and India.

“We don’t necessarily have to rely on these big mergers,” Cahill said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

He also said the time is right for an aerial tanker for the U.S. Air Force made in America in partnership with Airbus, calling it a “tremendous opportunity.”

Subhas Menon, the director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, urged Asian governments to start lifting travel restrictions, which he said have been some of “the most stringent” in the world.

“If you don’t have any restrictions in the domestic economy, why do we have restrictions for international travel,” Menon asked in an interview with Bloomberg Television on the first day of the Singapore Airshow.

“You don’t have to do a test before you step into a shopping center, so why do we need to have Covid tests before we travel? Quarantine should definitely not be there, so these restrictions have to be removed.”

With China and India -- two of Asia’s biggest sources of tourists -- not yet having announced plans to open their borders, it will probably take until around 2024 for international travel in the region to return to pre-pandemic levels, Menon said.

Boeing Won’t Rush to Resume 787 Deliveries (8 a.m. SP)

Boeing said it’s not racing to resume deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner as the company played down the risk that customers waiting for the jet might switch to rival plane maker Airbus.

Stan Deal, president, and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes said the company is in talks with all the affected airlines and indicated he doesn’t expect to lose their orders.

“We hope the power of the product is going to get us through,” he said Monday in Singapore ahead of the air show. “But we don’t take that for granted.” Deal declined to specify when deliveries might restart, adding “we’re not going to rush the process.”

(Bloomberg)

The interior the Boeing 777X test aircraft. (Bloomberg)

Asian states must lift restrictions to help the aviation industry recover – Airlines Association