China, virus and finance

10-14-20  NEW DELHI -- At a time when the global aviation industry has been drastically hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, India's airlines appear to be turning the crisis into an opportunity by expanding their international operations under the ongoing "travel bubble" arrangements.

The latest company to join the bandwagon is low-budget carrier SpiceJet, which earlier this month announced that on Dec. 4 it will launch non-stop services connecting Delhi and Mumbai with London's Heathrow Airport.  https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Transportation/Indian-airlines-tap-international-routes-under-travel-bubbles

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5-22-20  India will reopen air travel on 383 routes across the country after a two-month gap, the government announced on Thursday.  https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-unlocks-air-travel-on-383-routes-with-new-rules/story-qz9OO2O37L6U76KSSUhrOP.html

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7-30-20  Brazil on Wednesday reopened international air travel to foreign tourists, which had been banned since March, even as the country's coronavirus outbreak ranks as the world's second worst.

Tourists from all countries may travel to Brazil as long as they have health insurance for the duration of their trip, the government said in a decree which did not explain the rationale for the decision.  https://www.thejakartapost.com/travel/2020/07/30/brazil-reopens-international-flights-to-tourists-even-as-coronavirus-deaths-spike.html

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5-26-20  Italy has said it will start allowing unrestricted travel to and from European countries, with no quarantine requirement, from June 3.  No official word yet on when restrictions will be lifted on flights to and from countries outside of Europe – but the external borders of the EU remain closed to non-essential travel until June 15 at the earliest.

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7-13-29    On June 15, the European Union said countries within the Schengen area — a collection of 26 countries that don’t typically have border controls between them — should start lifting border restrictions. On June 30, that expanded to more than a dozen non-EU countries starting July 1, including Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand but did not include the United States as the country's battle with COVID-19 continues.  https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/europe-coronavirus-reopen-border

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5-14-20  The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the largest global airline organization, does not believe traffic numbers to return to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels until around 2023, according to its latest forecast. Domestic flyers in markets like China and the U.S. will return first in about two years and international flyers a year or two later by 2024.  https://thepointsguy.com/news/air-travel-rebound-2023-iata/

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4-23-20  Moscow is worried that this will allow Beijing to redirect rail traffic around Russia, and the Kremlin apparently plans to play up the threat of an expanded Iranian role as a means of generating US opposition to investments in such projects (Chinalogist.ru, November 25, 2019). Indeed, some Russians are already speaking about railways leading to “a Pax Sinica” in Central Asia, something Moscow opposes but may find difficult to stop (4pera.com, March 25, 2020).

Just how much pent-up pressure there is for the expansion of rail ties between China and Europe was underscored earlier this month. Namely, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a train from Tashkent headed west and crossed the Caspian in only a few days, thus allowing it to link up with the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars (BTK) Railroad and pass into Turkey, where it is now possible for rail traffic to move unimpeded into Europe (Railway.uz, April 6; Caspian Herald, April 23). While Uzbekistani officials did not stress China’s involvement, it was certainly there given that this inter-modal train was followed only a few weeks later by a train with Chinese cargo from Kyrgyzstan. That latter train passed through Uzbekistan and then on to Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Back in January, Tashkent celebrated the speed record another trans-Eurasian train set while passing through Uzbekistan (Railway.uz, January 27).  https://jamestown.org/program/central-asian-rail-deal-allowing-china-to-bypass-russia-expand-trade-with-europe/