Britain's busiest airport Heathrow was hit hard by the fallout from the Omicron coronavirus variant in December when 600,000 passengers cancelled their travel plans.
The airport handled 19.4 million passengers in 2021, less than a quarter of pre-pandemic levels of 80.9 million customers and lower than the 22.1 million seen in 2020, with travellers shelving travel plans from late November amid a surge of coronavirus cases.
The airport said the Covid-19 pandemic still poses “significant challenges for the travel industry” with “significant doubt over the speed at which demand will recover”.
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said there are currently travel restrictions, such as testing, on all of the airport's routes.
"The aviation industry will only fully recover when these are all lifted and there is no risk that they will be reimposed at short notice, a situation which is likely to be years away,” he said.
Britain's airports have been hit hard during the pandemic by waves of infections and travel restrictions that were unveiled at very short notice, requiring passengers to take expensive tests or isolate to avoid spreading the virus.
Things were looking up in the Autumn when more than 3 million passengers travelled through Heathrow in October. This was the sixth consecutive month of growth, as the relaxation of travel curbs before the half-term holiday unleashed pent up demand, with close to 100,000 travellers a day.
However, Omicron halted the rebound and passenger numbers are not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels until 2025, according to the International Air Transport Association.
Even this is only possible if travel restrictions are removed at both ends of a route and passengers have confidence they will not return rapidly, Iata said.
As a result, Heathrow is urging the UK government to remove all testing for fully vaccinated passengers and to adopt a playbook for any future "variants of concern" that is more predictable, limits additional measures only to passengers from high-risk destinations and allows quarantine at home instead of in a hotel.
Travel to and from the Asia/Pacific region in 2021 was down 40.3 per cent year-on-year, according to Heathrow, while other markets with double-digit reductions were non-EU Europe – down 13.8 per cent and North America – down 13.6 per cent.
Domestic travel bucked the trend, with a 21.1 per cent boost in passengers compared with 2020.
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the web of rules and regulations clearly led to a drop in confidence in the travelling public.
"Mass vaccination programmes failed to have the desired effect in 2021, in bringing the rebound in travel as there had been such high hopes for this time last year," she said.
"The threat of expensive hotel quarantines following a rapid rule change and the risk of being left stranded overseas if testing positive were hardly a relaxing prospect for holidaymakers wanting to get away from it all. It means there was a lacklustre uplift in customers of 12 per cent, compared to 2020."
Mr Holland-Kaye issued a warning that the current rules create "enormous uncertainty" for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as it prepares to set a five-year limit on Heathrow's passenger charges.
"The regulator must focus on an outcome that improves service, incentivises growth and maintains affordable private financing," he said.
The CAA increased the limit on Heathrow's price per passenger from £19.60 ($26.61) to £30.19 from January 1, with airlines expressing outrage at the decision, claiming the rise was too high.
The CAA is expected to announce a long-term cap running from the summer to 2027 in the coming weeks.
Looking ahead, Ms Streeter said despite hopes for pent up demand to translate into a bounce-back in bookings this year, the industry looks set to face a long-haul recovery ahead.
"Many consumers are faced with an income squeeze, which is likely put to expensive holidays out of reach. Others might have splashed their piles of savings on other luxury treats instead," she said.
"Among some older travellers who may still have the cash to spare, there is still a lingering fear of the new variants and they are likely to keep putting off booking that once coveted overseas trip."
The Kites
Romain Gary
Penguin Modern Classics
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Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Emirates Cricket Board Women’s T10
ECB Hawks v ECB Falcons
Monday, April 6, 7.30pm, Sharjah Cricket Stadium
The match will be broadcast live on the My Sports Eye Facebook page
Hawks
Coach: Chaitrali Kalgutkar
Squad: Chaya Mughal (captain), Archara Supriya, Chamani Senevirathne, Chathurika Anand, Geethika Jyothis, Indhuja Nandakumar, Kashish Loungani, Khushi Sharma, Khushi Tanwar, Rinitha Rajith, Siddhi Pagarani, Siya Gokhale, Subha Srinivasan, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish
Falcons
Coach: Najeeb Amar
Squad: Kavisha Kumari (captain), Almaseera Jahangir, Annika Shivpuri, Archisha Mukherjee, Judit Cleetus, Ishani Senavirathne, Lavanya Keny, Mahika Gaur, Malavika Unnithan, Rishitha Rajith, Rithika Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Shashini Kaluarachchi, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Vaishnave Mahesh
RESULTS
6pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 – Group 1 (PA) $55,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
Winner: Rajeh, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Musabah Al Muhairi (trainer)
6.35pm: Oud Metha Stakes – Rated Conditions (TB) $60,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Get Back Goldie, William Buick, Doug O’Neill
7.10pm: Jumeirah Classic – Listed (TB) $150,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner: Sovereign Prince, James Doyle, Charlie Appleby
7.45pm: Firebreak Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $150,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Hypothetical, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
8.20pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 – Group 2 (TB) $350,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner: Hot Rod Charlie, William Buick, Doug O’Neill
8.55pm: Al Bastakiya Trial – Conditions (TB) $60,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner: Withering, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass
9.30pm: Balanchine – Group 2 (TB) $180,000 (T) 1,800m
Winner: Creative Flair, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
