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A UN agency agreed on Tuesday to change a landmark aviation emissions scheme, in a boost for airlines that said they could face billions of dollars in costs under the current deal when air travel recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. The ICAO governing council agreed to change the baseline year used for calculating emissions under the global CORSIA deal to 2019, the agency said. Airlines, hit with a European-led backlash over pollution from flights, have pledged to spend billions of dollars under CORSIA to cap their emissions at 2020 levels through the purchase of carbon offsets. Under CORSIA, which starts in 2021, airlines would buy carbon offset credits to cover any emissions from international flights above the current baseline of average emissions in 2019 and 2020. But because emissions from international flights this year are set to drop significantly due to the sharp reduction in air travel as a result of pandemic, IATA asked that the baseline be changed exclusively to 2019, before the pandemic hit aviation. ICAO said it would have created an "inappropriate economic burden to aeroplane operators, due to the need to offset more emissions although they are flying less and generating less emissions." Environmentalists opposed efforts to change the baseline to 2019, arguing it would allow airlines to pollute freely for years.<br/>

Airlines this week added the most seats since the coronavirus outbreak began, spurred by expectations that demand will increase during the Northern Hemisphere summer and after the safe travel corridors are created, according to OAG Aviation Worldwide. Carriers globally added 8.2m seats to schedules for this week, a 21% jump from the previous week, analyst John Grant said. India and Europe saw strong growth as many major airlines -- including IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., and Ryanair Holdings Plc -- raised capacity. “The arrival of July and the summer season has a feeling of optimism at last for the aviation industry,” Grant wrote in his weekly blog. “Talk of travel corridors from the UK over the weekend resulted in a surge of booking activity.” Grant cautioned that there could be a high rate of cancellations, however, as airlines wait for demand to respond to the increased seat numbers. Some regional markets have capacity back to at least 25% of their levels in January, and the overall number of scheduled seats is 41% of the same week last year, Grant said.<br/>

Despite an ongoing collapse in demand for air cargo, the loss of bellyhold space in passenger aircraft means that global freight capacity is still struggling to cope with the volume of goods that needs transporting, IATA data shows. The airline association says that while global demand as measured by cargo tonne-kilometres fell 20.3% in May compared with the same period last year, global capacity slumped 34.7%. For both demand and capacity, the reductions represent an improvement on April’s figures, down 25.6% and 41.6% respectively, but IATA notes that “capacity remains unable to meet demand as a result of the loss of belly cargo operations on passenger aircraft that have been parked”. DG Alexandre de Juniac states: “The gap between demand and capacity shows the challenge in finding the space on the aircraft still flying to get goods to market… The prospects for air cargo remain stronger than for the passenger business, but the future is very uncertain. Economic activity is picking up from April lows as some economies unlock. But predicting the length and depth of the recession remains difficult.” Belly capacity for international cargo declined by two-thirds for May against the same month last year. Dedicated air cargo capacity increased by 25% as the industry made heavier use of freighters, but this was not enough to offset the lost volumes from passenger-aircraft groundings.<br/>

Boeing failed to submit certification documents to the US FAA detailing changes to a key flight control system faulted in two fatal crashes, a long-awaited government report has found. The flight control system, known as MCAS, was “not an area of emphasis” because Boeing presented it to the FAA as a modification of the jet’s existing speed trim system, with limited range and use, according to the report. The 52-page report by the US DoT’s Office of Inspector General (IG), dated June 29 and set to be made public Wednesday, laid bare mistakes made by both the planemaker and FAA in the development and certification of Boeing’s top-selling aircraft. A Boeing spokesman said the company had taken steps to enhance safety and was committed to transparency. “When the MAX returns to service, it will be one of the most thoroughly scrutinized aircraft in history, and we have full confidence in its safety,” he said. The IG’s report is the latest of reports faulting the plane’s approval, while the Justice Department has an ongoing criminal investigation.<br/>

Airlines are ramping up their flight schedules ahead of an expected announcement on so-called ‘air bridges’ to allow people flying from certain countries to avoid quarantine. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps confirmed on Tuesday that air bridges will soon be created to allow people arriving in the UK from certain countries to avoid the 14-day quarantine policy. A list of exempt destinations will be published later this week. Shapps also revealed that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is reviewing its position of advising against all non-essential overseas travel. More than 1,000 flights per day will be operated from Wednesday by Ryanair, which has run a skeleton schedule since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is restoring almost 90% of its route network but frequencies will be lower than normal, with just 40% of its normal July capacity. EasyJet will run around 500 flights each day across Europe, including more than 900 a week to and from the UK.<br/>

Americans will remain barred from entering the EU for nonessential travel even as the bloc starts to open up to as many as 15 countries from Wednesday, the EU said. Tuesday’s decision comes after days of wrangling between the bloc’s member states, which were divided over the economic benefits of opening up ahead of the summer tourist season amid concerns about a second wave of the coronavirus. With most European citizens banned from the US and the health situation there deteriorating, it had not appeared likely US citizens would be among the first group of people cleared to come to the bloc. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that officials on both sides of the Atlantic are discussing the situation and acknowledged that decisions about re-establishing international travel posed difficult challenges for all governments. Diplomats involved in the EU discussions said there was no real push within the bloc in recent days to make an exception for the US. The EU in mid-March imposed a travel ban on nonessential travel from outside the bloc as the region emerged as a center of the pandemic and many member states closed their borders. Most internal borders were lifted on June 15 and the bloc said it would start opening up to non-EU countries from Wednesday.<br/>

US airlines will require passengers to answer a series of health questions before boarding, including whether they have experienced covid-19 symptoms or have been exposed to someone that tested positive for the virus, the industry’s leading trade group said Monday. Major US carriers, including American, Delta and United are implementing the new health acknowledgment policy as an “additional level of protection during the pandemic,” Airlines for America said. Travellers should expect to be asked to fill out the new health questionnaire when they check-in, the airline trade group said. Besides questions about their health, passengers are asked to commit to wearing a face covering at the airport and on their flight. “Passengers who fail or refuse to complete the health acknowledgment may be deemed unfit to travel and each carrier will resolve the matter in accordance with its own policies,” A4A said. The new measure is expected to remain in place through the public health crisis. With few rules in place, airlines, airports adopt their own strategies for combating the coronavirus A4A President and chief executive Nicholas E. Calio said that the health assessments are one more measure in a “multilayered approach to help mitigate risk and prioritize the well-being of passengers and employees.”<br/>

Checking temperatures at airports might not be the best way to weed out travellers with Covid-19, the head of the TSA said Tuesday. TSA and other industry officials urged all travellers to wear masks throughout the airport and onboard, but the federal government hasn’t determined if it will perform temperature checks on passengers. “No decision has been made,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said. “I know in talking to our medical professionals and talking to the Centers for Disease Control is that temperature checks are not a guarantee that passengers who don’t have an elevated temperature also don’t have Covid-19,” Pekoske said. The reverse may also be true, where travellers could have temperatures but not coronavirus. Other issues are what to do with travellers who have elevated temperatures and which government agency would oversee the screenings, he said. Regulators would also have to figure out where to have such screening, ideally at entrances to large public spaces, like departure halls. “But as we all know, there are other opportunities for people to come in closer contact with other passengers,” Pekoske said, using a airport’s rental car site as an example.<br/>

With two-cent airfares, high fuel costs and taxes, India’s aviation market already was one of the toughest around. The coronavirus pandemic could be the final straw for some of the country’s airlines. Indian carriers need as much as $2.5b to keep flying, CAPA Centre for Aviation in Sydney says, and that may only last to the end of this year if they’re lucky. Airlines suffered a total collapse in demand from March 25 to late May as India banned commercial passenger flights as part of its virus lockdown. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration, facing a widening fiscal deficit, hasn’t doled out funds to individual industries or airlines backed by private businesses and, in some cases, billionaires. The country’s airlines need significant investment or one or more will fail, said Satyendra Pandey, an independent consultant and former head of strategy at Go Airlines India. “Airlines with weak balance sheets and inadequate collateral have survived by withholding payments to suppliers for two months and counting,” Pandey said. The Indian aviation market was challenging enough before the pandemic as crushing fare wars and high costs took their toll. In addition to Indian states imposing levies of as much as 30% on jet fuel, a weakening rupee adds to the pain. The currency has fallen nearly 10% against the dollar over the past year, the weakest in Asia, which hurts Indian airlines as their costs are mostly dollar-denominated. Story has more.<br/>

Aircraft leasing company BOC Aviation said on Tuesday it had cancelled an order for 30 Boeing 737 MAX planes although its CE remained confident in the jet which has been grounded for more than a year. The lessor, which is based in Singapore and listed in Hong Kong, will also defer the delivery of some other Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, it said. BOC is the latest lessor to strike deals with Boeing to cancel 737 MAX orders as the jet remains grounded pending regulatory approval following two crashes. "We discussed with Boeing what is the best way to deploy our capital in a time like this because everyone realises this is not a short term downturn, it is a long one," BOC Aviation CEe Robert Martin said. BOC also recently carried out billions of dollars of purchases of new jetliners, including 737 MAXs, in the purchase-and-leaseback market, agreeing to rent them back to airlines. "It became clear to us that the best way for us to support the MAX and other Boeing products is by us doing purchase-and-leasebacks during this period and these replaced a number of direct (Boeing) orders we had," Martin said. "This is not in any way a loss of confidence in the MAX. We are absolutely confident, otherwise we would never have done ... purchase-and-leasebacks."<br/>

Thailand will ease a ban on international passenger flights into the country from 1 July, nearly three months after first imposing it on 4 April. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand will permit international passenger flights to operate into Thailand carrying 11 permitted categories of passenger. These include returning Thai nationals; foreign nationals with a valid Thai work permit, or those studying in the country; and any passenger covered by a “special arrangement” with a foreign country. The authority did not specify if transit passengers are allowed, or when scheduled international passenger flights will resume. Thailand will continue to allow emergency landings, technical stops, cargo flights, repatriation flights, as well as humanitarian, medical and relief missions into the country. Also allowed with be state and military flights. The easing comes as Thailand extends its national state of emergency by an additional month to 31 July.<br/>