The US will impose a cap on charter flights to Cuba at 3,600 per year, the US DoT said Thursday, as President Donald Trump's administration moves to curb the Cuban government's access to revenue. The action - enacted in response to a January request by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo - caps such flights at about 2019 levels, preventing any increase. The US last October banned regularly scheduled flights to all Cuban cities except Havana. In January, the Transportation Department barred charter to flights to any Cuban airports except Havana. Trump has clamped down on Cuba following the historic move by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama to reopen US-Cuba ties. The department said on Thursday it will award about 3,250 of the flights for the 12 months ending May 31, 2021, to Swift Air and World Atlantic Airlines. "Maintaining and capping public charter flights to José Martí International Airport preserves the main gateway for travel from the United States to Cuba for family visitation or other lawful purposes, while preventing public charter operators from increasing service to Havana in response," the department said in announcing the move. Pompeo in January said the curbs on charter flights "will further restrict the Cuban regime's ability to obtain revenue, which it uses to finance its ongoing repression of the Cuban people and its unconscionable support for dictator Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela."<br/>
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Urgent government action is needed to safeguard jobs in the aviation industry and ensure its survival, a cross-party group of MPs has said. The newly formed Future of Aviation Group issued the call in a letter to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. The group of 40 MPs complained of "the lack of progress" in providing wider support for the industry. And they asked how often the government would review its planned quarantine for new arrivals. From 8 June, people entering the UK from abroad will be told to isolate for 14 days or face a GBP1,000 fine. The quarantine plan has already attracted fierce criticism from the travel industry, with more than 70 travel bosses denouncing it in a separate letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel. "The wider aviation family makes a significant economic and social contribution to the UK and will be central to our long-term economic recovery," the MPs wrote to Shapps. "We are therefore concerned at the lack of progress being made in providing wider support for the industry and in the development of a long-term roadmap that will enable the sector to recover as quickly as possible and play its vital role in our national overall economic recovery."<br/>
Britain’s biggest tour operator, Tui, has cancelled all its foreign holidays until 1 July, and some that were not due to depart until November. The company, which had previously hoped to resume package holiday excursions on 12 June, said it had extended the suspension of trips because of ongoing travel restrictions. Tui holidays that were due to depart next month will not now be happening, it said. The company has also cancelled its lakes and mountain holidays up until 30 September, and its river cruises until 25 November. A statement on the Tui website says: “Due to the ongoing situation regarding Covid-19, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have advised against all but essential travel. If your holiday falls into one of the below categories, we’re really sorry to say that it has been cancelled.” The company has offered affected customers a 20% incentive in the hope of persuading them to rebook another trip rather than to take a full refund as required by law.<br/>
Israel wants to introduce direct flights to Australia and waive quarantine requirements for travellers by December, as countries that have so far successfully contained Covid-19 jostle to be the next destination added to the Australia-New Zealand tourism bubble. Israel, seeking to make permanent the roughly 17-hour direct flight from Tel Aviv to Melbourne or Sydney, is also working with other nations to position itself as a gateway hub for Australian travellers to transit quarantine-free on their way to European countries considered safe, such as Greece, Norway, Denmark and the Czech Republic. Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Mark Sofer, said the plan would be “a win-win-win” for Australians and Israelis, noting both countries were working on plans to rescue their tourism-reliant economies and provide their airlines with commercially viable routes that would not require quarantine. The feasibility of such a bubble would depend on the containment and avoidance of any second wave in either country, and would hinge on the successful removal of the 14-day quarantine period between Australia and New Zealand, Sofer said. Costa Rica’s government is also exploring direct flights to Australia’s east coast and inclusion in a bubble agreement with New Zealand, with officials in the central American country – where 12% of GDP comes from tourism – working to have arrangements in place to welcome Australians quarantine-free by the beginning of 2021 “at the latest”. <br/>
Travellers at Zurich’s airport will encounter robot cleaners, facemask vending machines and extra room to queue for boarding when flight operations resume in earnest as cornavirus curbs ease, officials said Thursday. Airlines such as Lufthansa units Swiss International and Edelweiss Air plan to ramp up service in the weeks ahead as borders start reopening next month. They have been liaising with Flughafen Zuerich, ground services outfit Swissport and airport police on safety measures to comply with federal health authorities' guidelines, the airport operator said. The steps include more frequent cleaning of handrails and baggage carts, hundreds of hand sanitizers, and Plexiglas panels at all desks. Vending machines run by Selecta will dispense facemasks and sanitizer. To help avoid crowds forming, overflow levels at security checkpoints will open, passport control will operate as many booths as possible, and queuing areas will be made more spacious to help ensure physical distancing. Swiss International urges passengers to cover their noses and mouths on board flights. In addition to stepping up cabin cleaning, it will give passengers disinfectant wipes and suspend inflight services such as hot towels and duty-free sales. But it does not plan to leave middle seats open.<br/>
Rolls-Royce has lost its investment-grade rating — held for the past 20 years — after Standard & Poor’s on Thursday downgraded the company to junk status because of “prolonged weak profitability” and expectations of materially lower cash flow from its engine service contracts. The downgrade is a severe blow to the aero-engine company, which only last week announced plans to cut 9,000 jobs, mainly from its civil aerospace division. Like many of its aerospace peers, it has had to adjust its cost base to a market which could be up to 50% smaller in the next four years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Many large investors will have to sell their debt holdings in the FTSE 100 company, as they are restricted to investing in investment-grade bonds. It could also hit profitability of future long-term service contracts, as the perceived risk for customers of striking multiyear deals would increase. Rolls-Royce is doubly exposed to the current downturn, as it makes its profits on the number of hours its engines fly and is focused on the wide-body market where demand is expected to take significantly longer to return to 2019 levels. S&P said that despite the crisis Rolls-Royce had established a “strong liquidity position”. It said “sources of liquidity will exceed uses by more than two times over the next 12 months”. However, it expected Rolls-Royce’s civil aerospace division to be “materially affected by lower wide-body and business jet engine sales and lower engine flying hour-related receipts from airlines in 2020 and 2021”. Moreover, there was a risk that Rolls-Royce could post new one-off charges in the next 12 months.<br/>
With flights all set to resume in coming days, it’s for airports, airlines and aircraft manufacturers to ensure that only those passengers who are not infected get on board. “This is a global responsibility,” said Mikail Houari, President for Airbus’ Africa and Middle East operations. “If the passenger wants to be guaranteed he won’t get infected on a plane, the airport and airline should ensure no one infected steps into the cabin. Whether it’s passengers flying onboard our aircraft, or those taking control of an A380, or those providing maintenance and repair services to our fleet on the ground, we are always applying end-to-end layers of safety at every step.” The need of the moment is to focus on an “end-to-end passenger experience”, not only during the flights but also by practising social distancing at airports, screening and managing travellers before they board, and disinfecting cabins. However, the key is to ensure consistency and strict enforcement of these precautionary measures. Airlines have provided schedules for the relaunch of services, with many focused on domestic flights and then widening that to international networks. Many of these carries are in the midst of negotiations with national governments for aid that could keep them afloat until normal traffic levels return to the skies. Houari reckons that air traffic demand will return to 2019 levels only by 2023-24. Story has more.<br/>
The EC pledged Thursday to stay away from fossil-fueled projects in its coronavirus recovery strategy, and to stick to its target of making Europe the first climate neutral continent by the mid-century, but environmental groups said they were unimpressed. To weather the deep recession triggered by the pandemic, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has proposed a E1.85t package consisting of a revised long-term budget and a recovery fund, with 25% of the funding set aside for climate action. To help economies from the 27-nation bloc bounce back as quick as possible, the EU's executive arm wants to massively increase a E7.5b fund presented earlier this year that was part of an investment plan aiming at making the continent more environmentally friendly. Under the commission's new plan, which requires the approval of member states, the mechanism will be expanded to E40b and is expected to generate another E150b in public and private investment. The money is designed to help coal-dependent countries weather the costs of moving away from fossil fuels. Reacting to the executive arm's recovery plans, Greenpeace lashed out at a project it described as “contradictory at best and damaging at worst," accusing the commission of sticking to a growth-driven mentality detrimental to the environment. “The plan also fails to set strict social or green conditions on access to funding for polluters like airlines or carmakers."<br/>