general

IATA and Airports Council International have jointly called for governments to pay for public health measures relating to the spread of communicable diseases. Citing “multi-billion losses in revenue and traffic” experienced by airlines and airport operators as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the two bodies suggest government funding of the measures would allow the commercial aviation industry to focus “scarce resources” on reintroducing connectivity and “boosting economic recovery”. Indeed, they claim that the WHO’s International Health Regulations “require governments to pay the costs of health measures”. “As the industry navigates the complexities of restarting operations, ACI believes the cost of any health measures that are required should be borne by governments,” states ACI World DG Luis Felipe de Oliveira. “ACI and IATA are aligned on this issue… public funding of health measures should be ensured, including but not limited to infrastructure or operational changes needed for their implementation.” IATA and ACI note their backing for ICAO’s TakeOff guidance, which was adopted by the UN body in early June in response to the coronavirus outbreak. <br/>

The US Treasury Department has agreed to terms for loans to American Airlines Group Inc. and four smaller airlines as part of an aid program to help the industry weather the coronavirus pandemic. The Treasury said that in addition to American, Frontier, Hawaiian, SkyWest and Spirit had agreed to loan terms and signed letters of intent. These are the first airlines to accept government loans from a $25b pool Congress earmarked under the Cares Act, the $2.2t economic stimulus package passed in March. Major carriers have also received another $25b in federal aid to pay workers through the end of September to avoid mass layoffs they said would have been inevitable otherwise. The payroll funds are largely made up of grants that don’t need to be paid back. American expects to complete the $4.75b loan in Q3, CE Doug Parker and President Robert Isom wrote in a letter to employees Thursday. The airline has previously said it was seeking to pledge its frequent-flier program as collateral. Even with the infusion of government funds, airlines face a dire outlook. American is burning through $35m in cash per day, Parker andIsom wrote, and likely has more than 20,000 more employees than it needs to operate the shrunken schedule it anticipates this fall. “To be clear, this doesn’t mean 20,000 of our team members will be furloughed in October, it simply means we still have work to do to right-size our team for the airline we will operate,” the executives wrote.<br/>

Federal officials said Thursday that airlines should consider limiting capacity on planes to promote social distancing, but stopped short of requiring them to do so. The officials also recommended — but did not move to require — travellers wear face coverings in airports and on planes. All leading US airlines now require passengers to wear masks, but regulators have refused a request by the airlines to make it a federal rule. The Transportation, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services departments made those and other recommendations in a report containing guidelines for reducing the risk of spreading the new coronavirus by air travel. The agencies said airlines and airports should take steps to increase social distancing, clean surfaces touched by passengers, give specialized training to airline crews, and provide more information to help with contact tracing if passengers test positive for the virus.<br/>

Malaysia’s aviation regulator has temporarily suspended pilots employed by domestic airlines who hold Pakistani licences, after the government of the South Asian nation revealed that many pilots had dubious qualifications. The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) said Thursday that the decision came after an evaluation of all foreign pilots in Malaysia. The regulator told Reuters that there are less than 20 Pakistani pilots in the country. Malaysia Airlines said it does not have any Pakistani pilot, Malindo Air, the Malaysian arm of Indonesia’s Lion Air, said it does not have any foreign pilots, and AirAsia said it does not have any Pakistani pilot. CAAM said the pilots were employed with “local operators”, such as flying schools, flying clubs and training organisations. <br/>

The Ministry of Transport will consider the reopening of international flight routes to countries and territories which have no new cases of Covid-19 in the community for 30 consecutive days, according to a ministry official.<br/>The official, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Vietnam News Agency that priority will be given to Japan, South Korea, China (mainland) and Taiwan (China) and some Southeast Asian countries which have controlled the disease. “The Covid-19 pandemic is taking place in many countries around the world. Under the Government’s direction, the reopening of international flights needs to be considered carefully." The resumption of international flights is scheduled to begin at the end of July, according to a proposal from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) sent to the ministry recently. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc has recently directed that the reopening of international flights will have to ensure safety for people because just a small mistake will mean social distancing measures have to be implemented again. “The reopening aims to serve investors, technical staff and skilled workers in Vietnam. It creates conditions for Vietnamese people living abroad to return home. However, all still have to follow strict control procedures to prevent the spread of the pandemic to the community, ” the ministry official said. “Vietnam Airlines has conducted one-way flights transporting Vietnamese people to South Korea for work and study, but it is difficult to restore all international routes.”<br/>

Africa's travel and tourism industry has lost $55b due to the closure of borders to limit the spread of coronavirus, the African Union said Thursday. On a continent where safaris are a powerful tourist magnet, the sector has been badly hit by lockdowns that shuttered air, land and sea borders. "The impact is really severe," African Union commissioner Amani Abou-Zeid said at a virtual briefing organised by the World Economic Forum and the WHO. "We are talking here about $55b lost within three months in a year when we were supposed to see an increase in travel and air transport," she warned. "There are airlines that may not survive COVID-19." "In Africa tourism is not luxury," she said. "This is our livelihood." Despite a steady rise in coronavirus cases, countries across Africa are forging ahead with plans to resume air traffic. A handful of states reopened their borders last week, including Zambia and Sierra Leone. Senegal has announced the resumption of international air travel from July 15. "As we are going to open... we are also now pushing for intra-African tourism," Abou-Zeid said, calling for lower taxes, reduced ticket fees and visa facilitation to encourage "Africans to see Africa". She hoped the reopening of the skies would "cushion some of the serious impacts on ...air transport and tourism".<br/>

This week, Boeing completed test flights of its troubled 737 Max airplane to demonstrate that it can fly safely with new flight control software. Even as the company began testing the planes for recertification, a federal inspector general’s report said that Boeing had kept information from federal regulators about the flawed computer system that brought down two jets during the plane’s initial approval process. The Max is the most recent model of Boeing’s 737, a type of aircraft with many variants over the decades. More than 10,000 737s have been built. The Max was released in 2017 in four lengths to accommodate up to 230 seats. The Max has larger, more fuel-efficient engines than the older models. If the FAA is convinced that Boeing has corrected the problems that led to the crashes, the planes will return to service, but no timeline has been announced. The agency said that it “will lift the grounding order only after we are satisfied that the aircraft meets certification standards.” Boeing’s CE, David Calhoun, flew on the plane in February. The head of the FAA and longtime Delta pilot, Stephen M. Dickson, told a Senate committee that he would fly the Max himself and must be satisfied that he would put his family aboard before he would lift the grounding order. Story has what travellers who might be contemplating flying again around that time need to know.<br/>

Boeing hasn't told employees, but the company is pulling the plug on its hulking 747 jumbo jet, ending a half-century run for the twin-aisle pioneer. The last 747-8 will roll out of a Seattle-area factory in about two years, a decision that hasn't been reported but can be teased out from subtle wording changes in financial statements, people familiar with the matter said. It's a moment that aviation enthusiasts long have dreaded, signaling the end of the double-decker, four-engine leviathans that shrank the world. Airbus is already preparing to build the last A380 jumbo, after the final convoy of fuselage segments rumbled to its Toulouse, France, plant last month. Yet for all their popularity with travellers, the final version of the 747 and Europe's superjumbo never caught on commercially as airlines turned to twin-engine aircraft for long-range flights. While Boeing's hump-nosed freighters will live on, the fast-disappearing A380 risks going down as an epic dud. The grand jetliners also face another indignity: The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to leave their manufacturers scrounging to find buyers for the last jumbos built. "As it turned out, the number of routes for which you need an ultralarge aircraft are incredibly few," said Sash Tusa, an analyst with Agency Partners. Boeing’s “Queen of the Skies” debuted in 1970, an audacious bet that transformed travel but almost bankrupted the company. Passenger versions boasted a spiral staircase to a luxurious upstairs lounge. Freighter models featured a hinged nose that flipped open to load everything from cars to oil-drilling gear. The 747 went on to rack up 1,571 orders over the decades -- second among wide-body jets only to Boeing’s 777.<br/>

French unions and regional leaders urged Airbus on Thursday to step back from a Big Bang restructuring as workers across Europe waited for a factory-by-factory breakdown of 15,000 job cuts brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The battle over the scale and timing of cuts heated up as Air France staff also waited for confirmation of 7,500 expected cuts in French aviation's worst week for decades. Airbus unveiled the cuts on Tuesday, with France and Germany bearing the brunt of the restructuring with around 5,000 cuts each, while Britain is set to lose 1,700 jobs and Spain 900. It has said it has no plans to close its dozen or so manufacturing sites spread across its four core nations but began detailing reductions at each plant in talks on Thursday. "Nobody has been spared," said CFE-CGC union official Francoise Vallin outside Airbus headquarters in Toulouse. Airbus unions and leaders are at odds over whether the health crisis that restricted air travel and crippled airlines is a temporary one or the sign of more structural problems.<br/>

Britain’s government said it will lift its COVID-19 quarantine requirement for people arriving in England from countries including Germany, France, Spain and Italy from July 10. A full list of countries covered by the relaxation would be announced on Friday, the country’s transport ministry said. Under the existing rules, travellers must self-isolate for 14 days on entering the country, something airlines and the travel industry have said will cost thousands of jobs and inflict further damage on the economy. The government said it expected countries included on the quarantine-free list for England would reciprocate by relaxing their own travel restrictions. Britain’s foreign ministry would set out exemptions from its global advisory against “all but essential” international travel from July 4. “Today marks the next step in carefully reopening our great nation,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said. The devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own powers over public health issues.<br/>

Luton Airport is to make up to 250 staff redundant in the latest jobs cull in the aviation sector. The airport, London’s fourth largest, has started consultations with unions to sack almost 30% of its workforce, forecasting a 70% drop in passenger numbers this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Alberto Martin, Luton’ CE, said the airport had to consider its future and did not expect traffic to return to pre-Covid-19 levels until 2023 or 2024. Its biggest airline, Wizz, is laying off 1,000 staff, while easyJet, whose HQ is at Luton, has announced 1,900 job cuts in the UK alone. Martin said: “Though we remain confident the airport will recover it is difficult to predict the full effect of this pandemic. In the short-term passenger numbers will be much lower than pre-pandemic levels.”<br/>

Iceland reopened its borders recently in a move welcomed by the battered tourism sector, but Covid-19 tests are required for all travellers. Recently, eight passenger planes landed at the country’s only international airport, Keflavik. Iceland closed its borders to non-EU travellers on March 20, followed a month later by the reintroduction of internal border controls, in a bid to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. Today, it has only four active cases. The country of 360,000 people and breathtaking landscapes has gradually eased its restrictions since early May. But the resumption of tourism is a big one: the industry accounts for more than half of the 8% contraction Iceland’s central bank has forecast for the economy this year. While the tourists’ return will be welcomed by the sector, the central bank said it expected fewer than 400,000 tourists in 2020, the lowest number in 15 years. Iceland will require that travellers arriving by plane or ferry either take a Covid-19 test for ongoing infection or spend 14 days in quarantine. If the test is positive, travellers will have to self-isolate for 14 days at a designated isolation centre at no cost, Icelandic authorities said. The state will pay the cost of the tests until the end of June. As of July 1, travellers will have to pay 15,000 kronur themselves to take the test. The testing is expected to continue for at least six months.<br/>

Air traffic at the Chiang Mai international airport is picking up with more flights and passengers expected this month, said Amornrat Chumsai Na Ayutthaya, the airport director. The North's main gateway airport is recovering some of its flight and passenger traffic. On average, the airport received 40 flights carrying about 4,000-5,000 passengers a day last month. The number of flights is expected to rise to 68 a day on average while passenger figures are predicted to jump 50% this month, according to Mr Amornrak. However, scheduled flights operate only on domestic routes including those connecting Chiang Mai to other hub airports at U-Tapao, Hat Yai, Ubon Ratchathani and Udon Thani. International flights are likely to return slowly after the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand announced the lifting of the ban on international flights under some conditions with immediate effect on Monday. Analysts agreed inbound flights will not quickly return to the pre-Covid 19 level as air travel to and from the main markets still battered by the pandemic will remain suspended, and people are delaying their overseas travel plans. The CAAT announcement coincided with the IATA release of figures for passenger demand in May which dropped 91.3% compared to May 2019. This was a mild uptick from the 94% annual decline recorded in April 2020. The improvement was driven by a recovery in some domestic markets, most notably China. "May was not quite as terrible as April. That's about the best thing that can be said," said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA's DG and CEO, adding there is tremendous uncertainty about what impact a resurgence of new Covid-19 cases in key markets could have.<br/>

Passengers from Melbourne will face a security blitz at Sydney Airport after at least five travellers from Victoria's coronavirus hotspots were detected after flying in Thursday. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard also revealed a woman caught the train from Melbourne to Sydney after she was swabbed for COVID-19 but had not yet received her results. Hazzard said he had asked the Victorian government to start screening people at Melbourne airports and train stations to ensure people from outbreak areas weren't attempting to travel to NSW. "It would help greatly," he said. Victoria recorded 77 new cases as well as its biggest single-day increase in community transmissions since the start of the outbreak. Lockdowns came into effect in 10 Melbourne postcodes where there has been a disproportionate increase in recent coronavirus cases. NSW Health said there were eight new cases in the state, all returned travellers in hotel quarantine, taking the total to 3211.<br/>

Starved of the travel experience during the coronavirus lockdown? One Taiwanese airport has the solution – a fake itinerary where you check in, go through passport control and security and even board the aircraft. You just never leave. Taipei’s downtown Songshan airport on Thursday began offering travellers the chance to do just that, with some 60 people eager to get going, albeit to nowhere. Around 7,000 people applied to take part, with the winners chosen by random. More fake flight experiences will take place in coming weeks. The passengers were given boarding passes, and proceeded through security and immigration before boarding an Airbus A330 of Taiwan’s largest carrier, China Airlines, where flight attendants chatted to them. The airport is using the event to show off renovations completed while passengers have stayed away and show people what coronavirus prevention steps they are taking.<br/>