Bureaucracy and high dollar prevent international travel sales from taking off

In the post-Covid world, a passport is not enough to guarantee entry for the foreign traveler. It is also necessary to certify that you received the two doses of vaccine against the new coronavirus.

But if you go to Europe and have been immunized with Coronavac, be prepared not to be accepted indoors in places like Paris — in the opinion of European authorities, Sinovac’s vaccine is not safe enough.

In addition to being fully immunized, countries can also require the visitor to take an anti-Covid test before traveling or upon landing, such as the Netherlands. Or at least fill out a health control form, in the case of Spain. There are still those who haven’t even opened borders to Brazilians, like Italy.

To travel to the United States, where we will be welcome again this Monday (8), the biggest difficulty is in updating the visa. There is a long waiting line for those who have an expired document. Apart from the “detail” of paying for accommodation, food and tours in dollars:

With the US currency approaching R$ 5.70, the individual passport for three days at Disney theme parks, for example, the Brazilian’s favorite tour, costs R$ 2,500.

Despite the advance of vaccination in Brazil, and the end of barriers in several countries, airlines and travel agencies are not excited about the next vacation in terms of international travel. The expensive dollar makes tours prohibitive, fares have gone up because of rising fuel costs, while different sanitary restrictions from country to country leave many travelers confused and unsafe.

“We’re only going to have the same flow of international travel again in 2023,” says Diogo Elias, sales and marketing director at Latam Brasil, the leading Brazilian airline in offering international flights.

Before the pandemic, in 2019, there were 309 weekly departures to 26 destinations abroad. Today, there are 104 departures to 16 destinations. International flights, which previously accounted for 33% of revenue, now represent 12%.

“We have good expectations regarding the resumption of flights to the United States, to New York, Miami and, especially to Orlando, the most sought after destination by Brazilians”, says Elias, who has noticed the increase in demand after the world’s largest economy announced the end of the barrier to Brazilians.

The company returns to Miami and New York this month and to Orlando in December, when it also resumes the route to London.

“But despite the advance of vaccination, the passenger is afraid of being contaminated during the flight, because he spends too long on a plane. There is also confusion about the type of anti-Covid test that needs to be done and the restrictions to circulate in the different countries,” says Elias.

He reminds us that the cost of the trip is only part of the tour – which includes accommodation and food at a time when the real is undervalued. “All of this limits sales of international flights.”

From an economic point of view, inflation and currency devaluation have not been just a national problem; it also affects the hermanos. With the Argentine peso worth around R$0.57, it might be worth it for Brazilians to visit Buenos Aires. But the opposite is not true for any Brazilian destination, which means that the offer of flights to Argentina is also restricted.

“Before the pandemic, we made 55 weekly flights to Argentina. Today we do 16”, says the executive at Latam Brasil.

Azul did not even resume flights to the neighboring country. “The economic situation in Argentina is worse than that of Brazil and we are not going back now”, says Vitor Silva, manager of network planning at Azul “There, there are agencies that divide tickets in up to 36 installments”.

For the company, the smallest of the Brazilian companies operating in Argentina, it is more interesting to focus international efforts on the US. “In December, the frequency to Florida will be daily, we have many passengers residing in the region,” says Silva.

Next month, Azul flights to Orlando will also return, but the executive believes that demand for the city will be more contained, due to the prices to visit the Disney parks.

“Today I have ten daily flights to Porto Seguro. If the dollar were at R$ 1, I would have ten flights a day to Florida”, says the executive, also highlighting the interest of passengers in Lisbon, a destination to which Azul returned to fly in October.

“In the United States, even when contracting travel insurance, there is still the fear of the traveler in relation to contamination, since health in the country is not public”.

In the opinion of Bruno Balan, Gol’s air network strategic planning manager, the series of restrictions imposed by the USA and Europe should contribute to the search for destinations in the Caribbean, especially Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, and Cancun, in the Mexico, to which the company is flying again this month.

“The trip to an all-inclusive resort [refeições e serviços incluídos] in these destinations it can be better planned by the consumer, in addition to not requiring quarantine”, says Balan, stating that the price of international tickets is between 20% and 30% more expensive compared to 2019, due to the dollar and fuel (kerosene of aviation).

This month, the airline offers flights to the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, and next month to Buenos Aires. Each stretch of Gol’s international destinations currently costs between US$ 400 and US$ 500 (between R$ 2,200 and R$ 2,800).

To the United States, the company has just decided that it will only return in the second quarter of 2022, with trips to Miami and Orlando. “It was no use going back sooner, because of the difficulty in obtaining visas and also because of the high exchange rate,” says Balan.

“If a single person in a family does not have a visa, it prevents everyone from traveling.”

According to the commercial director of the Air France-KLM group for South America, Steven van Wijk, every time a European market reopens its borders, there is an immediate positive impact on reservations made in Brazil and, consequently, on the occupancy rate of flights.

“Occupation has improved significantly since June 2021 and is currently at its highest level since the beginning of the crisis, but not yet at 2019 levels”, says the executive, noting that Europe’s reserves for Brazil are also growing.

By the end of the month, the group will have 27 weekly calls in operation from Brazil to Paris and Amsterdam. Before the pandemic, the group had 44 weekly operations.