Pakistani aviation authorities have told Pakistan International Airlines that the pilot of a passenger plane that crashed into a residential district of Karachi last month had ignored air traffic control's instructions for landing, a PIA spokesman said on Wednesday. The PIA Airbus A320 crashed on May 22 while trying to land after the pilots reported the loss of both engines. Ninety seven people on board were killed and two survived. At least one person was reported to have died on the ground. Initial reports suggested the plane scraped its engines along the runway on a first attempt to land following what appeared to be an unstable approach, arriving steep and fast. In a letter sent to PIA, the Civil Aviation Authority said an approach controller twice told the pilot to discontinue its approach as he came into land but he did not comply. As it neared landing, the plane's ground speed was above the runway threshold, the letter quoted the controller as saying. It lifted up from the runway surface and crashed over Model Colony while attempting a second approach, the letter said. "Yes, we have received the letter, they are documenting it," Abdullah Hafeez Khan, PIA's general manager for corporate communications said.<br/>
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Britain’s determination to press ahead with a quarantine for airline passengers is pointless and unnecessarily “harsh”, given that the country remains one of the worst hit in Europe by coronavirus, according to József Váradi, CE of one of Europe’s fastest growing airlines, Wizz Air. “It is an extreme measure and I am not sure how much it serves a purpose as . . . other countries are better than the UK. There are other ways,” said Váradi, as he announced a sharp jump in annual profits, struck largely before the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. For example, many countries were demanding health certificates to prove the traveller had been virus free for 72 or more hours, he said. Britain’s approach was “very harsh”. UK home secretary Priti Patel confirmed in the House of Commons on Wednesday that quarantine measures would be in place from next Monday (June 8) and require arrivals to self-isolate for 14 days. Váradi said air bridges were “certainly better than nothing” but Britain’s decision to impose a quarantine ran directly counter to the behaviour of most European countries. “All other countries are now easing in continental Europe,” he said. “If you want to travel you can and it will get easier and easier going forward.”<br/>
The holiday operator Tui has agreed a deal with Boeing over compensation for the grounding of its 737 Max planes and to delay deliveries of new planes. Deliveries of 61 new planes to the Anglo-German group will be delayed by two years on average, and Boeing will pay most of the compensation within the next two years. Further details of the compensation have not been disclosed. All Boeing 737 Max planes have been grounded since March 2019 after design flaws contributed to two fatal crashes. Shares in Tui rose by 10% on Wednesday as investors welcomed the deal, which the company said would ease financial pressures. Tui has cancelled all holidays until at least 1 July and plans to make 8,000 people redundant. Fritz Joussen, the CE of Tui Group, said: “The new delivery schedule gives us considerable flexibility because we will have fewer new aircraft delivered in the next years. This enables Tui to rapidly adapt its fleet growth to the currently challenging market environment.” <br/>
Indonesia’s Lion Air said it is halting all flights indefinitely because of the impact coronavirus-related measures such as compulsory tests for passengers have had on travel. The carrier, whose slogan is “we make people fly,” is grounding its fleet from Friday, according to a statement. It had suspended scheduled domestic flights late last month. Lion Air has 138 aircraft, a spokesperson said, and a route network throughout Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam and Malaysia. Its units Batik Air and Wings Air, which have a combined fleet of 140 planes, also won’t fly. Indonesia banned air travel from April 24 to try to limit the spread of coronavirus through the archipelago, where confirmed infections are now approaching 28,000 cases. Lion Air passengers had to arrive at the airport four hours before flights and produce documents including health declaration forms and business assignment letters from companies. The Indonesian government has also limited load factors on planes, making it hard for airlines to turn any profit. “Lion Air Group’s decision was made after evaluating previous flight operations in which many customers were unable to carry out air travel because they couldn’t fulfill the documents and requirements needed,” spokesman Danang Prihantoro said.<br/>
Air Arabia, the only listed carrier in the United Arab Emirates, has made further job cuts due to the business impact of COVID-19, a spokesman said on Wednesday. The Sharjah-based airline, which has about 2,000 employees, did not say how many employees had been affected. It laid off 57 employees in May. The latest job cuts were a "last alternative" after the airline took a series of steps in past months to protect jobs, the spokesman said, without elaborating. Air Arabia, like other airlines in the UAE, has operated few, limited services since grounding passenger flights in March.<br/>
Aer Lingus CE Sean Doyle has called on the Government to remove the quarantine restrictions on people travelling into the country by the end of June so that the airline can restore some of its short-haul services in July and August to help “reboot” Irish tourism. “There is a decent degree of demand that we would see coming through if there was clarity around quarantine and travel policies,” Doyle said. “We need to reboot the economy, tourism is very important, connectivity is very important . . . we see other countries doing it effectively like Spain and Portugal and we see no reason why Ireland shouldn’t become part of that framework and process.” Doyle said Aer Lingus would initially look to provide services to cities in Germany and the Netherlands and to sun spots in Portugal and Spain, if Irish quarantine rules are removed and if the advisory on non-essential travel was lifted. “We have a number of European services that we would look to operate in July and August,” he said. “The policies around travel advisories and quarantine are pretty important to us finalising what the travel programme might look like. It won’t be as big obviously as in previous seasons but there is a pathway to having a summer season for economies where tourism is critical, and I would argue that Ireland is one of those economies.”<br/>