Emirates has carried out blood tests on passengers to assess whether they are affected by coronavirus, ahead of a service to Tunisia. The airline is claiming that it is the first operator to perform rapid tests for the disease on passengers prior to departure. Emirates has not specified the flight involved in the April 15 process but a Boeing 777-300ER operated on the Dubai-Tunis route on this date. The airline says the “quick” blood test – carried out at the check-in zone of Terminal 3 in co-operation with Dubai Health Authority – returns results inside 10min. Emirates COO Adel Al Redha says the “innovative” testing programme went “smoothly”. The airline has not indicated whether any passengers tested positive for coronavirus. “We are working on plans to scale up testing capabilities in the future and extend it to other flights,” says Al Redha.<br/>
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Pilots and cabin crew employed in the UK by the struggling Norwegian Air Shuttle have been told they will not receive their April salary because the airline does not have the money to pay them. The airline asked its 1,000 UK air crew to accept significant pay cuts or redundancy at the end of March but workers have been informed that the airline has “no readily available funds to pay any employees on this coming payday” April 25. The company intends to apply for the UK govt’s furlough scheme to cover 80% of staff wages up to GBP2,500 when it opens April 20 but does not have the funds to pay workers in the interim. Pilots and cabin crew are warned “an optimistic pay date would be May 1”, if the UK govt furlough funds arrive, but they could receive their April salary as late as mid-May.<br/>
Ryanair is steeling for an airline price war that it expects to win once coronavirus restrictions are lifted and passengers flock back to tourist destinations, CE Michael O'Leary said Wednesday. Brushing off forecasts of a sluggish recovery, O'Leary predicted a swift traffic rebound, with the pain coming instead from "massive price-dumping" that traditional airlines now seeking bailouts would struggle to keep up with. His bullish outlook puts the Ryanair boss at odds with peers such as Lufthansa and analysts who see a return to 2019 traffic only around 2023-4. IATA have also warned of a slow recovery from the pandemic. Ryanair assumes European flights will stay grounded until a "limited" resumption in June, O'Leary said. After that, a resurgence of intra-European travel will be driven by steep discounts on last-minute holidays in July-August.<br/>
Vistara has negotiated a reduction and deferment of payments to some suppliers to conserve cash, the airline's CE said in an internal memo, after the govt extended India's lockdown to contain the coronavirus. In an email to employees, Vistara CE Leslie Thng said it was of "paramount importance" to do everything possible to conserve cash. "We have made some progress with a few of our key partners and suppliers in reducing and/or deferring some of our immediate operating expenditures and are continuing to pursue these measures aggressively with others," Thng said in the email seen by Reuters. The airline said that the extended lockdown and suspension of its services will have a further significant impact on the company's cash flow and it is taking a number of steps to save costs.<br/>
Some Indian LCCs have outlined post-lockdown operation plans after the country’s civil aviation authority extended a ban on flights in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The country’s civil aviation authority said Tuesday that all domestic and international scheduled airline operations will remain suspended until May 3. It added that the restriction does not apply to international all-cargo operations and “flights specifically approved” by the authority. IndiGo, which has a fleet of 262 aircraft, says it will resume operations from May 4 “in a phased manner”. “Initially starting with a slightly curtailed capacity, the airline will increase the operating capacity over the subsequent months, also re-opening selected international flights, depending on the existing international travel guidelines,” says the carrier.<br/>
China Southern Airlines aims to move its entire Beijing operations to the capital city’s new Daxing International by March 2021. In an update, China Southern states that from April 12 to May 2, it will move an additional 50% of its flights from Beijing Capital to Beijing Daxing. No details were given on which routes will be moved during the period. The carrier will now have 60% of its Beijing operations out of Daxing, including the initial 10% capacity transfer it undertook when Daxing first opened in October. China Southern adds that its operations at Daxing will make up 40% of total traffic from the airport by May. The carrier was one of the first to operate out of Daxing before the airport was officially opened in October, operating flights Guangzhou in late-September. <br/>