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The coronavirus-hit US travel industry on Friday asked Congress for $10b in federal grants to promote safe practices, new liability protections and tax credits for travellers and the industry. The US Travel Association, which represents hotels, car rental companies, American Express, airports and tourism agencies, also wants $13b for US airports and a refundable tax credit of up to 50% of travel expenses through the end of 2022 of up to $3,000 per family. “As the virus continues to wreak havoc on society, the situation in the travel industry is only getting worse. The industry is now on track to shrink by $1.2 trillion by the end of the year,” the group’s policy chief, Tori Emerson Barnes, told Congress. “The travel industry is facing an economic environment that is 10 times worse than the aftermath of 9/11.” The Labor Department has said that the travel industry has lost more than 4m jobs since March. The group also called for additional payroll assistance, and asked to restore the food and entertainment business expense deduction to encourage business spending, for boosting an employee retention tax credit. Airline unions have sought $32b in funds for carriers and contractors for payroll costs.<br/>

Flying with empty middle seats means airlines will struggle to turn a profit, creating a dilemma for an industry desperate to revive itself while also reassuring passengers they are safe. US airlines saw some demand for travel return this summer, though it has stalled as new Covid-19 cases continue to rise in southern and western states. American Airlines told passengers to expect fully booked planes on July 1, including middle seats. The company had previously attempted to leave some seats empty for social distancing. Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, panned the decision. Oregon senator Jeff Merkley said he would introduce a bill to block the practice. Selling more seats would help airlines stem their losses, which ranged from $94m to $2.2b among major US carriers in Q1. Delta, the only US airline so far to report Q2 results, posted a $7b pre-tax loss. To break even on a flight, airlines need to sell about 75% of a plane’s seating capacity. That is 8 percentage points higher than an aeroplane where every third seat is empty. “If you leave the middle seat empty . . . you’re not going to make money,” said Kevin Michaels, MD of AeroDynamic Advisory. United is also allowing middle seats to be booked. Delta and Southwest airlines both plan to wait until autumn before they begin fully booking planes, while low-cost US carriers are split evenly between the two stances.<br/>

Ministers have been urged to slash the price of holidaymakers’ plane tickets to save dozens of popular air routes and up to 8,000 jobs. A study, backed by senior Tory MPs, has revealed that by waiving air passenger duty for a year, the Government could save nearly half of the 130 air routes that would otherwise be lost due to the post-Covid collapse in air travel. The research by York Aviation, a research consultancy used by the Government for analysis, found that axing the duty would generate GBP8b for the economy by enabling crisis-hit airlines to put on more routes and flights for holidaymakers and business travellers. This is three times the amount the duty would raise in revenue for the Government and would protect 8,000 aviation jobs threatened in the downturn. UK air taxes, which add between GBP13 and GBP528 to the price of a ticket, are the highest in the world. Sir Graham Brady, chair of the influential Tory backbench 1922 committee, said: “We are in grave danger of causing real and lasting damage to UK aviation if measures are not taken to protect routes out of our airports and support the sector through what will be an extremely challenging 12 months. Almost alone within Europe we have been slow to appreciate the importance of aviation – not only as an industry that supports a million jobs – but as an enabler of the outward facing trading nation we wish to be.” <br/>

Air travel looks likely to struggle to get off the ground in coming weeks as the Government persists with travel restrictions. Rules requiring incoming passengers to self-isolate for two weeks and tell the State where they will be staying for the period will remain in force until next month at least. The Government is also imposing extra limits on its own workers’ liberty, requiring 300,000 public servants to apply for leave, including unpaid leave, after their holidays if they want to escape Ireland’s rain-sodden summer by going abroad. All this continues to draw fire from the aviation industry, which is trying to emerge from prolonged grounding here while watching the rest of the EU take off. Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus plan to cancel some flights to and from the Republic in coming weeks. Now the Government has confirmed that its “green list” of countries to which it is considered safe to travel will most likely not include the UK or the US. Excluding the US seems understandable, as Covid-19 infection rates continue to surge there. The logic behind leaving out the UK list is that the country still has serious incidences of the disease in different centres, notably that magnet for Irish people Leicester. The Government is continuing with the restrictions against the advice of its own task force on aviation recovery, which pointed out last week that these policies threaten the 150,000 jobs tied to that industry and the 280,000 or so in the hospitality business.<br/>

All Pakistani pilots working for Vietnamese airlines have valid and legitimate licences and none have been involved in a flight incident or safety threat, the government said on Saturday. Vietnam last month grounded all Pakistani pilots working for local airline amid concern from global regulators that some pilots may have been using dubious licences. "All licenses administered by the Pakistani aviation regulator are legitimate and valid. There are no fake licenses, as mentioned by the media," a government statement said, citing a note from the Pakistani Embassy to the Vietnamese government. Vietnam had licensed 27 Pakistani pilots and 12 of them were still active. The other 15 pilots' contracts had expired or were inactive due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Vietnam's Civil Aviation Authority.<br/>

Boeing is running out of space to stash newly-built 787 Dreamliners, with jetliners seemingly tucked onto every available patch of pavement on airfields near its factories in Washington and South Carolina. Dozens of the planes are sitting on the company’s premises, according to people familiar with the situation. Uresh Sheth, a much-followed blogger who meticulously tracks the Dreamliners rolling through Boeing’s factories, puts the total somewhere above 50. That’s more than double the number of jets typically awaiting customers along Boeing’s flight lines. Brand-new widebodies are lined up on a closed off runway at the airport that abuts Boeing’s hulking plant north of Seattle. In North Charleston, 787s are tucked around the delivery center and a paint hangar. The US planemaker has even started sending aircraft to be stored in a desert lot in Victorville, California, according to Sheth. After last year’s global grounding of 737 Max jets, the company had so many of them on hand it commandeered an employee parking lot to store surplus aircraft. Now, as it finally starts to emerge from that crisis, another critical source of cash - the marquee 787 - is under pressure. “The next couple of years are just going to be very hard for this airplane,” George Ferguson, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, said of the 787 Dreamliner.<br/>