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Travellers are suffering an emotional and financial ordeal chasing refunds from airlines, the consumer group Which? has said. Under European air passengers’s rights rules, carriers that cancel flights are required to return the fare within a week of the cancellation. But millions of travellers have been waiting for months to get their money back. Which? has compiled a dossier of more than 14,000 refund complaints. The consumer group says passengers denied a refund are out of pocket by an average of GBP446, and have collectively spent a total of 52,000 hours – almost six years – chasing their airline for the money due. Nearly half the complaints were from Ryanair passengers whose flights were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Of the 44% who complained about the Irish airline, half said they had spent at least five hours trying to contact the airline for a refund. In second place was easyJet, with one in seven of respondents deploring tardy refunds from Britain’s biggest budget airline. Virgin Atlantic, which has just secured funding to keep it afloat, was third-most complained about. Its package holiday sister firm, Virgin Holidays, has been highlighted in surveys about slow refunds.<br/>

Ryanair says it is “a beacon” for the aviation industry in the way it is handling passenger refunds. Ryanair has been the subject of widespread criticism for delays in returning money for flights cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. But Eddie Wilson, CE of the airline’s main brand Ryanair DAC, has said: “We have given out close to E750m in vouchers and in cash refunds. I would say actually we’re a beacon, we’re doing it right. We are making our way through this, we are giving regular updates. There’s up to 30m journeys that were cancelled. It is truly extraordinary.” Under European air passengers’ rights rules, airlines that cancel flights are supposed to refund the fare within a week. But Wilson said that deadline is unachievable. “Nobody can do this within seven days. It just can’t be done. We are really, really doing our best. We’re only back to full-time resourcing and customer services from 1 June. It’s hard to imagine the volume of this, and what people are actually working on here to get it through. Of course the people who aren’t shouting about it any more are the people that have got their money or changed their vouchers or changed their flight and have got on with it.” Wilson said that many of the continuing problems were related to bookings made through online travel agents (OTAs), with Ryanair unable to contact the customer direct.<br/>

With face coverings now compulsory on most flights, one Canadian tech firm has taken things to the next level by developing a ‘haute hazmat’ suit to be worn in public and on planes. However, it may not be allowed on board at all. A Toronto-based company specialising in personal protective gear launched the BioVYZR via the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. Costing $249, the protective suit resembles the top half of an astronaut suit, fitted with hospital-grade air-purifying technology and anti-fogging windows. Some 50,000 suits have been pre-ordered to date; the first batch will be delivered by the end of July. However, one obstacle for in-flight users is that the BioVYZR dampens outside sound; the user can be heard, but they cannot clearly hear. This means anyone wearing one on a plane would be required to remove the protective suit during the safety instructions, and when communicating with flight attendants and fellow passengers. Another, fairly significant obstacle is that some airlines are saying they would not be allowed on board at all. A spokesperson for easyJet said “you wouldn’t be allowed them on any aircraft currently. You need to be able to fit an aircraft oxygen face mask in case of decompression and that would be impossible in this suit.”<br/>

Heathrow Airport is introducing cleaning robots and other measures to try to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission at the UK aviation hub as the country eases travel restrictions. The robots use ultraviolet rays to kill viruses and bacteria at night, according to a statement from the airport, which didn't say how many of the machines were being deployed. The airport is also installing UV technology to disinfect escalator handrails, and self-cleaning anti-viral wraps are being fitted to often-touched surfaces such as security trays and elevator buttons. One hundred workers are being retrained as "hygiene technicians" to monitor the effectiveness of the new technologies and answer passenger queries, Heathrow said. The UK, with nearly 300,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 45,000 deaths, lifted quarantine-on-arrival rules last week for people landing from 74 countries and territories. Heathrow said Monday that the number of people passing through the airport was down 95% in June from a year earlier. "We have reviewed the entire Heathrow airport experience to ensure that our passengers and colleagues are kept safe as travel resumes to 'Green' and 'Amber' countries," Heathrow CEO John Holland Kaye said. "Now we need the government to safely restore Britain's long-haul connections as the country prepares for life outside the EU."<br/>

The US downgraded the safety rating of Pakistan's aviation system and will block Pakistan's airlines from launching service to the US. The move announced Wednesday follows revelations that nearly one-third of Pakistan’s pilots cheated on exams but still received licenses from the country's civil-aviation authority. The US FAA said that it put Pakistan in a so-called category 2 rating, which means airlines from Pakistan can't start new flights to the US. Also, US airlines can't sell seats on Pakistani flights, a practice called code-sharing that is common among other international airlines. There currently aren't any regularly scheduled flights between the US and Pakistan. The FAA said Pakistan's aviation system doesn't comply with safety standards set by the UN aviation authority, the ICAO. The FAA did not detail the shortcomings.<br/>

Peru reopened domestic air travel on Wednesday in a bid to reignite the economy as it announced a drop of 33% in GDP for May year-on-year. Long queues of passengers formed from dawn at the Jorge Chavez airport in the capital Lima with 17 domestic flights operating during the day. "We're opening together the Peruvian sky with our first flight from Lima to Cusco," Latin America's biggest airline LATAM said on Twitter. Air travel had been suspended for four months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire, is the nearest airport to Machu Picchu, the ruins of an Inca citadel that is Peru's most visited tourist site. Authorities are hoping to re-open Machu Picchu, with a restricted number of visitors, on July 24. The first flight of the day, from Lima to the Amazonian city of Iquitos, left with an hour's delay. All airplane and bus passengers must wear face masks and facial protectors, according to the government's biosecurity regulations. Passengers must present an affidavit assuring that they are free of COVID-19 and have their temperature taken before boarding a flight. They will not be able to fly if showing any COVID-19 symptoms. Air passengers must also arrive three hours before their flights rather than the usual one hour for domestic travel.<br/>

The organization that runs Canada’s busiest airport will slash 27% of jobs after the Covid-19 pandemic decimated air travel, with no end in sight for Canada-US border restrictions. The Greater Toronto Airports Authority, which manages the Lester B. Pearson International Airport, announced the cutbacks Tuesday and said it will let go of 300 staff and eliminate 200 unfilled positions. GTAA said passenger numbers at Pearson airport are now at 1996 levels. More than 50 million people passed through the Canadian hub in 2019. The restructuring “was a difficult decision but necessary decision, made with great care and deliberation by our leadership team and Board of Directors,” GTAA President and Chief Executive Officer Deborah Flint said The Canadian government is set to announce that the border will remain closed to most non-essential travel until at least Aug. 21. The official order is expected to come later this week.<br/>

The first half of the year was not kind to the 737 Max. Boeing froze production of its beleaguered plane from January through much of May as customers cancelled hundreds of orders, and deals for hundreds more were put at risk by delays in the plane’s return to the skies and the coronavirus pandemic. But Boeing is back to work on the Max, and if it passes regulatory scrutiny, the plane could fly again as soon as the end of the year. When it does, it will return to an industry that was hammered by the coronavirus and faces a yearslong recovery. The Max crisis has already wrecked Boeing’s bottom line. In January, the company said it expected the grounding to cost more than $18b, which didn’t account for the ruinous effect the pandemic would have on airlines. In April, it announced plans to cut about 16,000 jobs, or a tenth of its work force, because of the pandemic’s impact. The aerospace manufacturer said this week that its customers had canceled 373 Max orders in the first six months of the year. Another 439 are considered at risk, including nearly 100 that Norwegian Air, a struggling low-cost carrier, recently said it no longer planned to buy. Boeing still has several thousand pending orders for the Max, but analysts expect that to shrink somewhat as more customers back out of deals. And even though the company plans to increase production of the jet and other 737 variants to 31 planes per month sometime next year, that is about half the rate Boeing had targeted before the Max was grounded. Story has more.<br/>