Doha, June 19 (QNA) - The Regional Vice President Africa & Middle East at International Air Transport Association (IATA) Kamil Al-Awadhi, praised the readiness and arrangement of the State of Qatar and Qatar Airways to host the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which he described as a major global event.
He said in an exclusive statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA) on the sidelines of the launch of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) conference, today, that Qatar Airways has a far-sightedness from other companies, because the company coordinated early with companies, distributed flights, arranged the airport and the atmosphere for hosting the World Cup in an excellent way, this indicates a great achievement and confirms the ability of the State of Qatar to host major international events, stressing that this readiness shows that Qatar Airways can coordinate with various companies during any crisis or any major event with ease and in an unprecedented manner.
He added that the recovery of the aviation sector has already begun, but there are still some influential crises such as oil prices, the Ukrainian crisis, and others, but there are flights between Gulf countries and Arab countries in general, which exceeded 2019 flights, which indicates that Arab airlines have recovered quickly.
He explained that the International Air Transport Association for Africa and the Middle East provides support to these countries to increase flight numbers from before 2019, through international cooperation and facilitating procedures between governments, praising in this regard the cooperation between the Arab Gulf states.
He stated during the "media briefing for Africa and the Middle East" session, that the recovery in air traffic was slower in Africa than in some other regions, where the Middle East is witnessing an accelerating pace of growth, after the opening of international markets, noting that the first quarter of 2022 showed some fluctuations in ticket bookings in the Middle East, which was hovering between 73 percent and 80 percent of 2019 levels, while Africa recorded a delay in bookings, reaching only about 57 percent of pre-Coronavirus (Covid-19) levels, which shows that the recovery within Africa is still slow.
He spoke about the performance of air freight in Africa, which rose by 9 percent, while it rose by 18 percent in the Middle East before the pandemic, which contributed to achieving significant revenues for many airlines, indicating that Qatar Airways and airlines in the region played an important role in this giant mission by continuing to fly during the pandemic period.
To conclude his statement to QNA, he called on countries to remove travel restrictions as an urgent necessity and that in line with the policies of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) governments should ensure that the Coronavirus vaccine is provided to all, and that testing is a means of travel for those who do not have access to vaccines. When needed, tests that are considered cost-effective should be used, and governments should bear the costs of the tests if they are required to enter their territory. (QNA)