I did a remarkable thing the other day – I searched for flights on an airline website. It was fun, thinking about itineraries, transfers, taxis, hotels, meetings, etc, all the paraphernalia of travel.

Puzzlingly I am also looking forward to the airport security rigmarole. That’s weird isn’t it.

Some of you will already be travelling. A handful of us never stopped. Many are scanning the event diaries pondering whether a trip to World Routes in Milan in October is possible; should they factor in IATA’s Ground Handling Conference in Prague in November; is the Dubai Airshow, also in November, going to be a must-attend?

Is our confidence in travel high enough to get flying again? Will your business policies allow you to travel? Will your country or the country you want to visit let you in?

There are still many questions to be answered before our business rituals return to 2019 norms. And it’s likely our new normal will be different. We will question the need for a trip much more deeply than before. We will be more budget conscious. We will demonstrate ROI (return on investment) and ROT (return on time). We will think about the environmental impact of our travel and pay for the carbon we use.

This is all wonderful and rational. But, speaking for myself, and I suspect plenty of us, I am ready to work beyond the digital straitjacket again. In fact, I’m desperate to break free.

So, from myself and my colleagues at EVA International, the publisher of Airline Routes & Ground Services, in addition to Airside International, Executive & VIP Aviation International and Cargo Airports & Airline Services, we look forward to meeting you again. Face to face. We look forward to working with you as aviation rebuilds.

At this point I would like to thank the publisher of EVA International Parveen Raja, for the opportunity to edit ARGS. I have known Parveen for many years, and her entrepreneurial and dynamic spirit made it an easy decision for me to work with her and her team based in the south London suburb of Croydon.

My background is aviation reporting. Parveen and I were there at the launch of Ground Handling International magazine back in the late 1990s. We both worked on airport titles such as Airports International, Airport World and Airport Support. And then I went to FlightGlobal, Airline Business and Flight International.

I have already been talking to many industry contacts in airports, airlines, and handlers for this issue. The results are in the following pages. I’ve also asked my good friends and industry experts Mike Miller and Shakeel Adam to contribute to this issue. Their thoughts on the US and Gulf markets are right on the money.

I trust you will enjoy their writing and find the thoughts of the industry leaders in this issue stimulating and insightful. I welcome your feedback, input, criticism and/or praise.

Most of all, I look forward to meeting you again.

See you soon.