Three House Democrats on Wednesday slammed airline contractors that laid off more than 9,000 employees despite accepting millions in federal coronavirus aid. The lawmakers asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to stop aid to the companies or ask for some of the funds back. Congress set aside $32b in payroll support to the ailing airline industry in the $2.2t CARES Act in March. Of that sum, $3b was set aside for contractors like caterers. The terms of the aid, which was mostly grants, prohibited recipients from laying workers off through Sept. 30. “We urge Treasury to stop providing taxpayer-funded payroll support for workers that have been laid off and to recover any funds that were inappropriately awarded,” wrote Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., chairman of a subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis, Rep. Peter DeFazio, chair of the House of Representative’s transportation and infrastructure committee and Rep. Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the financial services committee, in a letter to Mnuchin. The lawmakers said they have started an investigation into the aid to contractors and said they found at least 12 that accepted more than $720m in government support after laying off about 9,300 people.<br/>
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European airline and airport executives this week urged the Canadian government to allow a safe “restoration of travel” between Canada and Europe, increasing industry pressure on Ottawa to remove coronavirus-related restrictions that have discouraged international air travel. In a letter dated July 27, top executives of nearly a dozen European airlines and airports, warned that “since many EU (European Union) countries and Switzerland require reciprocity to re-establish access, Canada’s continued entry restriction and quarantine requirements are becoming problematic.” The content of the letter, which was sent to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other government ministers, was seen by Reuters. The EU has taken steps in recent weeks to relax travel requirements both internally and towards citizens of select other countries, including Canada, although Britain reintroduced a 14-day quarantine this week for arrivals from Spain. Canada has largely kept its borders closed for non-essential travel with the United States, its key trading partner, amid a rise in US coronavirus cases. The restrictions also have been maintained for citizens from other countries with lower infection rates. Trudeau has dismissed repeated calls from Air Canada to relax air travel restrictions to select countries. The July 27 letter was signed by executives from Air France-KLM and Germany’s Lufthansa Group, among others.<br/>
The CE of Heathrow airport said the UK government must urgently introduce a passenger testing regime or face playing a game of “quarantine roulette”. The renewed call for testing came as Heathrow reported a £1bn loss in the first half of the year after passenger numbers plummeted because of coronavirus. “Today’s results should serve as a clarion call for the government,” John Holland-Kaye said. “The UK needs a passenger testing regime and fast. Without it, Britain is just playing a game of quarantine roulette.” He added that other European countries were much further ahead in developing passenger testing regimes while the government’s inaction threatened the UK’s global economic position. “As many of our customers have experienced, it’s difficult to plan a holiday that way, let alone run a business,” he said. “Testing offers a way to safely open up travel and trade to some of the UK’s biggest markets which currently remain closed. Our European competitors are racing ahead with passenger testing; if the UK doesn’t act soon, global Britain will be nothing more than a campaign slogan.” Responding to the criticism, the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, said he understood Heathrow’s frustration. He said: “There’s not a silver bullet of just testing immediately at the border” because the virus can incubate over a period of time. <br/>
Boeing has announced it will end production of its 747 airliner in 2022, signalling the end of the superjumbo era, as the US plane-maker braced for steeper job losses. The 747, nicknamed the Queen of the Skies by fans, was first introduced 52 years ago, with a distinctive bulge to accommodate an upper deck. However, its popularity declined as airlines moved to smaller planes that offer more flexibility. The end of the 747 programme comes with Boeing enduring one of the most difficult periods in its history, as it contends with the coronvirus pandemic’s dramatic effect on airline traffic, and the subsequent slump in demand for new planes. It is also continuing efforts to return its bestselling 737 Max model back to service, after it was grounded in March 2019 following two fatal crashes. Boeing CE, Dave Calhoun, warned on Wednesday that further job losses were needed beyond the plans to cut 10% of its 160,000 workers. It announced 12,000 of the cuts in May. “Regretfully, the prolonged impact of Covid-19 causing further reductions in our production rates and lower demand for commercial services means we’ll have to further assess the size of our workforce,” Calhoun said in a memo to all Boeing staff. Boeing lost $2.4b in the three months to the end of June, as revenues slumped to $11.8b compared with $15.8b in the same period in 2019. Calhoun said it would take at least three years for airline passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels.<br/>