Can summer travel revive aviation's fortunes? 'Business Extra' podcast

This week, the outlook for travel's peak-season with The National's aviation correspondent Deena Kamel

Can a busy summer travel season revive the aviation industry?

Heading into summer, airline bookings in April and May were "pretty positive" for domestic travel while bookings for international journeys remained "exceptionally weak" as travel restrictions continued in many countries due to new cases of the Covid-19 virus, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).

To determine if summer will provide a lift, a patchwork of issues are in play: a global vaccination effort rallying sentiment in some parts of the world to a devastating spike in Covid-19 cases throughout India and parts of southeast Asia. Meanwhile, can pandemic-era pushes for immunity passports, digitalisation and carbon offsets prove to have staying power?

This week, The National's aviation correspondent Deena Kamel joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner to discuss the outlook for travel's peak season.

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In this episode

Can aviation be revived? (2m 26s) Shifting trends and behaviour changes (5m 46s) Emirates capacity increase (13m 14s) Four factors in the future of travel (15m 50s) The enduring changes (18m 30s)