I don’t want to tempt fate, but it is beginning to feel like there is a note of optimism in the aviation industry regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vaccine programmes are rolling out across the world and, providing countries administer them effectively, we should see both an increase in international flights and more confident travellers in time for the summer.

As a result, airlines are planning to resume services in volume and easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren (page 4) is now ready to do so just as soon as possible.

Further afield, Korean Air has retrained staff in the downtime to ensure they are ready to meet new demands and challenges (page 20), while United Airlines’ Scott Kirby is confident that commercial aviation will return to normal quicker than currently predicted (page 24).

Ground handlers are also keen to see flights ramp up and have developed new practices to ensure they can deal with the demands of Covid-19 on a day-to-day basis, as our story shows on page 44.

This is not to say we are out of the woods quite yet.

Our technology feature on page 40 shows how both Boeing and Airbus have been forced to reconfigure operations during the pandemic while Emirates boss Sir Tim Clark has also warned many airlines still face considerable financial difficulties (page 16).

Meanwhile, an analysis of the Asia-Pacific region on page 26 shows that there is still work to be done in recovering traffic numbers. And of course, if the region’s commercial aviation sector is to recover it is likely that it will be driven by China, which is home to 1.4 billion people and offers huge potential both to the area and the rest of the world (page 30).

But with news that Orlando International Airport is once again marketing destinations and the dream of visiting them (page 36) it does feel like there are reasons to be optimistic – something we’ve all been dreaming about recently.