Tag: end2021

Categories
Business

Indian airline IndiGo expects to achieve pre-Covid capability by end-2021

Indian airline IndiGo expects to reach pre-Covid capacity by end-2021

SINGAPORE – India’s low-cost airline IndiGo may struggle with its international operations, but the division could fully recover by the end of the year, the airline’s chief executive told CNBC this week.

Ronojoy Dutta of IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation, said the division between domestic and international segments for the airline was a “story of two cities”.

The domestic recovery has been strong, while the overseas recovery has brought “all the challenges of Covid and testing and quarantine,” he told CNBC’s Street Signs Asia on Monday.

The country last week extended a ban on international commercial passenger flights to the end of February. Local trips were allowed to resume in May.

IndiGo is a low cost airline that mainly operates domestic flights and is India’s largest passenger airline.

Aircraft operated by Go Airlines Ltd. and IndiGo, a unit operated by InterGlobe Aviation, will be on display at Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India on Sunday, June 28, 2020.

T. Narayan | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“We’re only struggling with 28% of our capacity from Covid,” he said of international flights. However, domestic activities have reached 80% of the prepandemic level.

“I think we should reach 100% inland capacity by April at the latest,” Dutta predicted. “Internationally will open more slowly, but by the end of the calendar year 2021 we should also be at the level before Covid internationally.”

This forecast is more optimistic than other airline executives. AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes told CNBC that passenger capacity is unlikely to hit pre-coronavirus levels by 2023.

Emirates President Tim Clark said in November the airline is aiming for a return to profitability in 2022.

“Growth opportunities”

IndiGos Dutta also sees the airline’s prospects as positive after the end of the coronavirus situation.

“Once the pandemic crisis is behind us, we see many growth opportunities,” he said.

He said India has very little air traffic penetration and there will be “a large amount of pent-up demand” when the economy recovers.

“Is international [an] even brighter picture, “he said, adding that profit margins are higher for international flights.

Dutta said he sees “plenty of room for growth” in traveling to and from countries within a six- to seven-hour flight from India such as Russia, Egypt, Malaysia and China.

“We are very excited about these growth prospects and, as you know, there is a major fleet expansion coming up,” he said. “I just itches to come and see until 2022 [to] continues to grow rapidly. “

– CNBC’s Saheli Roy Choudhury, Dan Murphy and Emma Graham contributed to this report.

Categories
Health

Some degree of herd immunity could also be reached by end-2021

Some level of herd immunity may be reached by end-2021

SINGAPORE – The world must remain vigilant for the next six months while the coronavirus vaccine is rolled out as it will take time for most of the population to get their vaccinations, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist told CNBC.

“We’re approaching the beginning of the end, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan on Wednesday. “There is still one tunnel we have to go through, however, and the next few months will be very critical.”

Confirmed cases of Covid-19 have continued to increase at an alarming pace, according to Johns Hopkins University. Infections worldwide exceed 78 million.

Pfizer-BioNTech’s emergency vaccine has been approved in countries like the UK, the US and Canada, while the US has also approved Moderna’s.

While we can look forward to a much better picture – certainly until the end of next year – I think the next few months will be difficult.

Soumya Swaminathan

Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization

Swaminathan said the vaccines will initially protect a very small group of people, who are the most vulnerable and at risk, and that months will pass before the rest of the population can be covered.

“It will take until the end of 2021 to see some level of population immunity in some countries,” she told CNBC’s Street Signs Asia on Wednesday.

“We have to keep our vigil, we have to do everything we know to reduce the transmission and the likelihood of people getting it,” she said. These include public health measures and individual behavior changes.

“While we can look forward to a much better picture – certainly by the end of next year – I think the next few months will be difficult,” she added.

New variety in the UK

Separately, Swaminathan discussed a new variant of the virus that recently emerged in the UK and has been identified in countries like Australia, Denmark, and Italy.

She said it was unusual because it had a large number of mutations and had separated from the average strain.

“What’s even more worrying is that there are about eight mutations in the region of the spike protein,” she added. The virus’ spike protein binds to receptors located on the surface of human cells in the airways, or to the ACE2 receptor in the case of Covid-19. Mutations have been found in the part of the protein that binds to receptors in the airways.

“That’s probably why this virus seems to have an advantage in infecting people, it seems to transmit more efficiently, it seems to infect children who have fewer of these receptors,” she said.

People wear protective face masks while shopping in Union Square Greenmarket on December 4, 2020 in New York City.

Noam Galai | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

However, she noted that the new variant “does not appear to increase clinical severity or make the situation worse” for those infected with it.

The WHO said in a note that the strain “can spread more easily” but that “there is not enough information currently” to determine whether mutations are changing the severity of the disease, the antibody response, or the effectiveness of the vaccine.

Swaminathan said there was “no reason” to believe that current vaccines won’t cover this right now. This is because the vaccines produce a “broad immune response” that is likely to be effective against the new strain.

However, when the vaccines need to be tweaked, this can “simply” be done. “If necessary, it could be done,” she said. “But right now, I think most people believe that the current generation of vaccines should work fine.”