The war in Ukraine will not significantly affect air traffic, the chiefs of Airbus and Prague Airport agree. The industry is set to grow as planned
-
Despite the war in Ukraine, it seems that air transport will grow according to plan after a difficult period of pandemic. At least that’s what Airbus boss Guillaume Faury thinks
-
According to him, the situation in Eastern Europe will not endanger the operation and ability to produce new aircraft. Jiří Pos., Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prague Airport, also agrees
-
Over the next three years, Airbus plans to increase production of the A320 and A220 by 20 percent per year. In the long term, however, it will focus on developments in the field of hydrogen propulsion
When better times seemed to come after the past two years, when the aviation industry was suffering from a coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine began. Airlines will have to overcome another unpleasant obstacle. The closure of airspace for Russian aircraft in a number of countries and the overall nervous situation not only in areas close to the war, but also in Europe as a whole, certainly does not benefit carriers. Does the current situation have the potential to halt this year’s highly anticipated tourism growth?
Not according to the CEO of the French company Airbus. “I don’t think it would affect Europe’s internal markets,” Guillaume Faury said in an interview with television CNBC. While acknowledging that travel in Eastern Europe, and especially near Ukraine, may be under great pressure, he is generally optimistic about further developments. According to him, air transport will increase in the coming months.
The sanction hammer hit the Russian oligarchy hard. During the first day of the invasion, $ 71 billion was lost, nothing compared to today
“I would like to be very pleased that most of the world’s travel will resume, as I expect with the end of the pandemic,” the Frenchman added. His view is shared by almost all airline CEOs. They mark 2022 as a period of recovery for what the industry has lost in the last two years.
Jíří Pos, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Václav Havel Airport Prague, has a similar opinion. “In connection with the ongoing war, there is a drop in flights from Ukraine and Russia, both outwards and inwards from both countries,” he said.
He adds that a long-term reduction or non-resumption of traffic for the Prague air port by the end of 2022 would mean a decrease of about half a million of the planned number of passengers handled. “Given that the main renewal of years after the release of covid restrictions, the increase in the number of flights and the opening of new routes is expected mainly in other markets in Europe, and because the current trend and updated outlook in these markets is very favorable, Prague Airport so far assumes the total number of passengers in 2022 at the level of over 8.5 million does not change, “concludes Pos.
There is no risk of outages of manufacturers’ parts yet
As for the transatlantic years, the number fell by more than 75 percent during the most difficult phase of the pandemic. Improvements came in January, but there were still about 36 percent fewer than usual. As for air traffic during the war caused by Vladimir Putin, analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu mentions in her research report, according to CNBC, that the effects will not be special. “The vast majority of European air traffic is controlled by the western western country, which should remain relatively untouched in Europe if Russia leads another offensive against NATO.”
A small patch for as yet unhealed scars. Boeing continued to beat Airbus in the number of vans, as did the Dreamliners
However, armed conflict alone cannot be taken into account, as the invasion also brings with it an economic war between the West and Russia through sanctions. For Airbus, as well as its competitor Boeing, another question is therefore what impact these strict measures may have on their plans to increase aircraft production this year.
However, Faury himself claims that if the situation in Eastern Europe puts further pressure on an already broken supply chain, his company’s production is currently not particularly affected. On the volume of aluminum, steel or titanium from which key components of transport aircraft are made, which they have not yet shown. “Security of supply is guaranteed regardless of sources that could be called into question from Russia,” he explained.
The future belongs to hydrogen propulsion
In the next three years, Airbus intends to increase the production of A320 and A220 machines by at least a fifth in response to increased demand from Europe and the USA. However, the future of his company or the air transport industry as such should belong to other types of aircraft. Namely, hydrogen-powered aircraft, from which engineers promise greater respect for the environment.
Airbus is going to invest considerable funds in this project in the long term. Last week, he announced plans to work with CFM International, a company owned by the US company GE and France’s Safran. “I think we can put the first hydrogen plane into service by 2035,” Faury concluded.