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Air transport has been identified as one of the primary means whereby COVID-19 spread throughout Europe during the early stages of the pandemic. In this paper we analyse two categories of methods – dynamic network markers (DNMs) and network analysis-based methods – as potential early warning signals for detecting and anticipating COVID-19 outbreaks in Europe on the basis of accuracy regarding the daily confirmed cases. The analysis was carried out from 15 February 2020, around two weeks before the first COVID-19 cases appeared in Europe, and 1 May 2020, approximately two weeks after all the air traffic in Europe had been shut down. Daily European COVID-19 information sourced from the World Health Organization was used, whereas air traffic data from Flightradar24 has been incorporated into the analyses by means of four alternative adjacency matrices. Some DNMs have been discarded since they output multiple time series, which makes it very difficult to interpret their results. The only DNM outputting a single time series does not emulate the COVID-19 trend: it does not detect all the main peaks, which means that peak heights do not match up with the increase in the number of infected people. However, many combinations of network analysis based methods and adjacency matrices output good results (with high accuracy and 20-day advance forecasts), with only minor differences from one to another. The number of edges and the network density methods are slightly better when dynamic flight frequency information is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper provides for a systematic overview of the EU scheme for the State aid rules applicable to the air transport sector during Covid-19 crisis. The COVID-19 outbreak is having a major impact on European air transport sector. In order to help air transport undertakings in Europe to overcome the financial troubles, to preserve jobs, to secure supply of essential food, medicals or other items, etc., the EU Commission adopted set of legislative measures enabling the EU Commission and Member States to authorise hundreds of State aid measures, not only to air transport sector, but also to other economic sectors, which were mostly affected by the pandemic. Since in normal circumstances member states State aid to national undertakings are subject to extremely stringent EU competition law regime, the intention of this paper is, firstly, to analyse to what extent and under what conditions that has changed during pandemic. Secondly, the intention of the paper is to explore to what extent and for what purposes different Member States granted State aid to their airline industries with special respect to the French, Austrian, Swedish and Croatian State aid policy. Lastly, the authors will raise question whether massive capital injection to air transport companies being made only by certain, wealthier, member states are going, in long term, to cause negative impacts on the competition in the air transport sector in the internal market 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between mood and air travel choices, considering the role of travel significance and the influence that COVID-19 may have on younger generations' choices. Using a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design, a sample of 1,111 Italian respondents, belonging to younger generations is investigated. The data are analysed using a quantile regression with group effects considering attitudes towards COVID-19. The study demonstrates that there is a positive and significant relationship between mood and the number of journeys by air to destinations outside Europe, highlighting the positive moderating effect of the air travel experience and the negative moderating effect of COVID-19. This may have important implications for air transport managers interested in luring younger people to fly in the post-COVID19 era. • Younger generations regard travelling an important aspect of their life. • The mood of travelling varies across young people. • Mood is influenced by the number of undertaken long-haul trips. • The reaction to COVID-19 influences the relationship between mood and air transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]