Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

A slowing recovery of passenger demand resulting from surging Covid cases and related travel restrictions since the Northern Hemisphere’s summer travel season reached a full stop in November as airlines saw almost identical revenue passenger kilometer declines from a month earlier, reported the International Air Transport Association Thursday. Falling 70.3 percent from the same month a year earlier, November 2020 RPKs went virtually unchanged from the 70.6 percent year-over-year decline recorded in October. November capacity fell 58.6 percent below the previous year’s levels and load factor fell 23 points to 58 percent—a record low for the month.

 


International passenger demand in November finished 88.3 percent below November 2019 levels, slightly worse than the 87.6 percent year-over-year decline recorded in October. Capacity fell 77.4 percent below the previous year’s levels and load factor dropped 38.7 points, to 41.5 percent. IATA identified Europe as the main driver of the weakness due largely to new Covid lockdowns.&nbsp;

 


Recovery in domestic demand, which had until last month stood as a relative bright spot, also stalled, as November domestic traffic fell 41 percent from the prior year’s level, compared with a 41.1 percent decline the previous year’s level in October. Capacity fell 27.1 percent from 2019 levels and the load factor dropped 15.7 points, to 66.6 percent.

 


“The already tepid recovery in air travel demand came to a full stop in November,” said IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac. “That’s because governments responded to new outbreaks with even more severe travel restrictions and quarantine measures. This is clearly inefficient. Such measures increase hardship for millions. Vaccines offer the long-term solution. In the meantime, testing is the best way that we see to stop the spread of the virus and start the economic recovery. How much more anguish do people need to go through—job losses, mental stress—before governments will understand that?”

News about commercial airlines, including regulations, aircraft orders, safety, acquisitions, and mergers.

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News and issues relating to international air transport and cargo carriers, national airlines and regional airlines, including aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

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News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

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News and developments about everything that goes into the cabin of an aircraft, from floor coverings to headliners, with a special emphasis on in-flight entertainment, communications and other electronics for passengers. If it is in the cabin of an aircraft, it’s covered here.

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