What will air travel look like in 2022

In any other year, a vision of what the future holds for aviation would almost certainly focus on interesting topics like new planes, airlines and airports.

But it would be impossible to discuss any industry developments for 2022 without making reference to the Covid-19 and its variants, restrictions and challenges imposed on airlines.

We detail some of the most notable changes for airlines, passengers, airports and the rest of aviation over the next 12 months, as well as the myriad problems the global pandemic continues to cause.

More challenges from Covid

How Covid-19 progresses, especially any new variants of the virus, is the main question for aviation.

As of this writing, the Ômicron variant is still being examined to determine how it compares to earlier variants such as Delta and Alpha.

But its emergence has already had a huge impact on travel, with flight bans, not to mention the number of travelers testing positive on arrival, passengers fleeing quarantine and so on. Flight cancellations due to pilot shortages were also an issue during the busy holiday period.

One of the main challenges that both airlines and passengers will face in 2022 is managing vaccination certification.

This is especially true when it comes to defining what “vaccinated” means, particularly in relation to booster shots or third shots.

For example, will travelers who have received a single-dose vaccine continue to be counted as fully vaccinated in the coming months? What about those who got the two-dose vaccines but didn’t get a booster?

Will the rules be different for tourists who have recovered from the coronavirus and received a standard dose of vaccine, as is usual in countries like Germany, or children from countries where some young people only receive a dose of the mRNA vaccine? And how will Omicron affect vaccination status?

There is some push for a QR-based digital standard (possibly the EU Covid Digital Certificate), but this will take a lot of work and negotiation.

Launch of new airlines

Starting a new airline during a pandemic is a wild card to say the least, but Norse Atlantic Airways is rising to the challenge by launching low-cost, long-haul flights between Europe and North America.

Of course, your founders would probably prefer you not to say “like Norwegian used to do?”

But since they’re the same team that ran Norwegian and they plan to use the same Boeing 787 Dreamliners the airline used, it’s not too hard to compare.

In the US, another low-cost venture, Northern Pacific Airways, plans to launch in 2022, with the ambition to turn Anchorage, Alaska’s Ted Stevens Airport into a hub connecting the US and Asia through its fleet of narrow-body passenger jets, the Boeing 757-200.

In India, low-cost startup Akasa Air wants to enter the fray by the summer, while then-defunct Jet Airways is ready for a new lease of life this early 2022.

And the new airlines launched in 2021 will be in expansion mode in the coming months.

After starting flights from its Burbank, California base in April 2021 to destinations in the West and Northwest of the US, Avelo Airlines is expanding, most recently to New Haven, Connecticut, with winter flights to six Florida destinations.

Meanwhile, Breeze Airways continues to expand its business across the eastern, midwestern and southern United States, with an extensive point-to-point network spanning San Antonio and Oklahoma City to Providence, and a wide swath of the country from Covers Akron/Canton, Ohio, and Tulsa.

Breeze is expected to put into service its new Airbus A220 planes, which are one of the most comfortable, quiet and spacious jets, during the second quarter of 2022.

Also keep an eye out for new services from popular airlines.

Read too: Survey brings the world’s safest airlines to 2022

United Airlines, for example, is increasing its transatlantic network in summer 2022, adding new flights to Bergen, Norway, the Spanish Mediterranean island of Mallorca and the Canary Islands of Tenerife, Ponta Delgada, Azores, and Amman, Jordan. .

The airline is also expanding services in London – with extra flights from Boston, Newark, Denver and San Francisco – as well as adding service from its hubs to Munich, Milan, Berlin, Dublin and Rome.

If international travel remains complicated this year, airlines will want to keep their planes flying.

This means that they are likely to place their aircraft on the routes that will make the most money – in this case, domestic routes (such as within the US, India or China, or within the Schengen area of ​​Europe).

It is worth looking for rate offers, but make sure they are refundable.

renovated airports

After a flurry of international airport openings in recent years, 2022 should be relatively quiet at this point.

However, some very welcome new terminals will open in New York.

First: Terminal C, at LaGuardia Airport, headquarters of Delta Air Lines, which should open in the spring in the United States. This new terminal will definitely be a huge improvement in the passenger experience.

The new Terminal A (previously called Terminal One, a bit confusingly) will open in Newark, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, later in the year.

Across the Pacific, Bangkok’s main Suvarnabhumi Airport is due to open its new Satellite Terminal 1 in October, following multiple delivery schedule delays that are related to the slowdown in tourism during the pandemic.

Additionally, India’s Chennai International Airport is due to open its new terminal, which will replace the now demolished Terminals 2 and 3, while the expansion of the three-level terminal at Australia’s Gold Coast Airport is also due to be completed.

South of the Indian Ocean, Maldives Velana International Airport is adding a new seaplane terminal and a new runway to accommodate larger aircraft.

And it’s not just big airports that are opening new terminals.

Read too: Remember the facts that marked aviation in 2021

New facilities are due to open in Pune, Andaman/Port Blair and Leh, India, Provo, Utah, Columbia, Missouri and Tacloban, Philippines.

In Brazil, as CNN reported, airports were the sector with the most concessions during 2021. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, R$ 6.6 billion is planned for investments in 22 auctioned airports – in addition to the creation of 94,037 jobs .

Aena Brasil, which manages airports in the Northeast, including the cities of Recife, Maceió and João Pessoa, announced that it will deliver by mid-2023 the expansion of new runways, aircraft aprons, taxis and passenger terminals.

Aircraft deliveries

The aviation industry tends to oscillate between two points: “selling new planes” and “building those planes”. At the moment we are in the last one, with more planes arriving from the factories.

These include the Airbus A320neo, A350 and A330neo family and the Boeing 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner.

Airbus is pushing ahead with deliveries (460 at the end of October, according to the latest data the company has released) despite the pandemic, and the planemaker intends to build even more of its popular A320neo family – especially the longer, longer A321neos. can accommodate up to 244 passengers in a fully economical layout.

Boeing, of course, had a huge delay with the Max, due to ground safety, while deliveries of the Dreamliner were stalled for over a year due to production quality issues.

But they will eventually resume, and airlines will likely put the aircraft directly into service.

This was the case with Singapore Airlines, which is putting its newly-built, stored 737 Max 8 planes into direct service with an all-new cabin.

The same thing is happening with the 737s on flydubai, which is an Emirates airline partner.

However, don’t expect to see Boeing’s massive 777X in 2022. While it was scheduled to launch sometime this year, first deliveries aren’t expected until 2023 or even 2024.

But passengers are likely to see more aircraft like the Airbus A321LR (Long Range – LR) in 2022. An increasing number of these planes are being produced, which means more direct flights to a central destination rather than connecting flights. through a hub.

In 2023, keep an eye out for the A321XLR – you guessed it, it’s extra Long Range.

Modern cabins and seats

While this particular “build” mode is less fun for plane fans at fairs and aerial displays, it’s great news for passengers.

Newer planes with modern seats, latest entertainment systems, in-seat power point and faster Wi-Fi are currently in full “build” mode and quickly arriving on airlines.

For those flying business class in particular, that will mean more mini suites with privacy doors and all the doorbells they could want.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of planes are being equipped with premium economy spaces. Emirates is the latest airline to add the mid-cabin, announcing an 18-month program to install premium economy seats on 105 Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft.

Economy cabins will also receive some tech upgrades, such as fast-charging USB-C sockets, in-flight entertainment systems that integrate with cellphone apps, allowing passengers to use Bluetooth headphones.

Other notable renovations include space-saving seats that move these support structures out of the leg area, so passengers feel like they have a little more space on board, even though the seats are the same distance apart.

Interestingly, with many older planes being retired during the pandemic, passengers are more likely than ever to fly a newer plane with better entertainment and more modern comforts in 2022.