general

Flights out of the Libyan capital's only working airport have resumed, after a four-month suspension due to fighting and a shutdown to curb the coronavirus pandemic. The first flights took off Sunday from Mitiga airport in Tripoli's eastern suburbs, but services have so far been limited to outbound flights by Libyan airlines. On Tuesday, two flights were scheduled for Turkey, operated by Buraq Air and Afriqiyah Airways. Before the closure, Mitiga was repeatedly attacked since forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar launched a failed offensive last year to seize Tripoli. Health measures to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus were in place for passengers leaving Libya. Nearly 6,000 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Libya, including 125 deaths. Passengers were instructed to turn up five hours before departure and to wait outside the terminal until check-in desks opened. Wearing a mask and medical certificates have been made compulsory.<br/>

Boeing customers canceled plans to buy 43 of the manufacturer’s troubled 737 Max planes in July as scrapped orders outpaced sales for a sixth consecutive month, the company said Tuesday. Shares of the manufacturer eased from the day’s highs but were still up nearly 4% after Boeing released the monthly data. Boeing last month said it would cut production targets for some of its aircraft including the 737 Max and the 787 Dreamliner as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hurt demand for new planes. This year through July, Boeing has net negative orders of 836 planes, including aircraft the company took out of its backlog of orders awaiting fulfillment. Boeing routinely removes orders from its running tally when customers are financially strained, among other reasons. The July adjustments trimmed the Chicago-based plane maker’s backlog to 4,496 orders. Most of the 737 Max cancellations were from aircraft leasing companies. The company delivered four airplanes in July, including a 767 freighter and a 777 freighter as well as two 787 Dreamliners. The pandemic adds to Boeing’s troubles since the March 2019 grounding of the 737 Max in the wake of two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. <br/>

European and Canadian regulators are still wrangling with Boeing over the last remaining technical details of its 737 Max revamp, leaving some customers to worry that certification in critical markets outside the US could slip to next year. In a rare bit of good news for Boeing and its beleaguered jet line, the FAA on Aug. 3 triggered a process that could lead to reissuance of a US airworthiness certificate for the Max as soon as October. Yet international regulators say they aren’t ready to follow suit. The EASA is still waiting for more clarity from Boeing on a key update to be carried out after the plane is back in the air, according to people familiar with the matter. And Transport Canada, it its most detailed comments to date, said Monday that its concerns haven’t been fully addressed about how to quiet erroneous activation of the Max’s “stick shaker,” which can distract pilots and add to their workload in an emergency. China, the world’s second-biggest aviation market, has meanwhile said very little about its plan to evaluate the Max. Winning US approval by October might make it possible for commercial flights to occur before year-end. <br/>

British aerospace giant Rolls-Royce on Tuesday said it had discovered "wear" on some of its Trent engines used in Airbus A350 jets, triggering inspections of similar-aged motors as a precaution. Having recently suffered from expensive repairs to its Trent 1000 engines servicing Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, Rolls said it "identified indications of wear in the intermediate pressure compressor (IPC) of a small number of engines that have been in service for four to five years and are approaching their first overhaul". It added in a statement: "None of these engines have experienced any abnormal in-flight operation, however we are inspecting all other Trent XWB-84 engines of a similar service life as a precaution". Rolls identified "just over 100 Trent XWB-84s" that had been in service over the four-five year period. "We have inspected the majority of them and found signs of wear on an average of only one or two IPC blades in a minority of those inspected. We have also taken the precaution of sampling a number of younger Trent XWB-84 engines and have found no unexpected wear." <br/>

London's Heathrow blamed the UK government for July traffic figures that show scant evidence of a recovery in demand at what's normally Europe's busiest travel hub. The imposition of a 14-day quarantine for people arriving from countries with high COVID-19 infection rates means Britain is effectively cut off from markets including the US, Canada and Singapore, Heathrow said in a release. CEO John Holland-Kaye said the quarantine policy "continues to strangle the UK economy", with tens of thousands of jobs being lost. He repeated calls for the government to adopt coronavirus testing at the airport to free up travel while guarding against a new wave of the pandemic. Heathrow's passenger tally was down almost 89% last month compared with July 2019, the airport said, while three-fifths of the usual route network remained grounded. More than half those who did travel ventured to quarantine-free European destinations, it said. June traffic had dropped 95%.<br/>

Airlines are still taking too long to refund passengers whose holidays have been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, consumer group Which? has said. Last month, the airline regulator said it was "not satisfied" that Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair or Tui were processing refunds quickly enough. And now Which? claims that, despite the intervention from the Civil Aviation Authority, refunds are still too slow. It says the airlines are "falling short" of promises made to the CAA. In a report, the regulator said Ryanair was taking 10 weeks or even longer to process refunds and asked the airline to reduce that time. But Which? says that, despite promises, the airline is still taking months to process some refunds. Ryanair said it had issued more than GBP670m in refunds and had cleared over 90% of its claims backlog. Virgin Atlantic, meanwhile, made customers wait up to 120 days for a refund, the CAA said in its July report. It was the only airline threatened with action by the regulator, which reviewed the refund waiting times of 18 major airlines. But Which? said it had heard from two passengers who had been waiting for 130 days for a refund for flights cancelled in March. It said it had also heard from a Tui customer who had still not received a refund for travel cancelled in April.<br/>

Local airlines are gearing up for fierce competition to capture limited domestic demand, with Thai AirAsia officially making a U-turn to Suvarnabhumi airport and an existing tenant, Thai Vietjet, digging in with plans for more routes. CE Santisuk Klongchaiya said TAA will continue to seek new opportunities to maintain leadership in the market and help stimulate the economy. He said Suvarnabhumi airport provides easy access to the city centre and high potential for international connecting flights in the future. From Sept 25, TAA will commence operations at Thailand's biggest airport with four new routes: Chiang Mai (five daily flights), Phuket (three daily flights), Krabi and Surat Thani (two daily flights each). TAA will become the first airline to operate a twin hub in Bangkok as it expands domestic flights from Don Mueang airport. Moreover, the new aviation hub will help pave the way for the airline to serve potential tourists and enable TAA to take full advantage of its aircraft fleet. TAA is not a first-timer at Suvarnabhumi. It moved operations to the airport once before, in 2006, together with all airlines under the direction of a government pushing a single-airport policy for Thailand. Those attempts were unsuccessful, as high operating costs and congestion at the airport in Samut Prakan chased most low-cost carriers back to Don Mueang, including TAA in 2012. But during the pandemic when borders remain closed to international flights, Suvarnabhumi can provide more slots and space for domestic carriers.<br/>

Finnish airport operator Finavia has announced that its network airports, Ivalo, Kittilä, and Kuusamo have resumed commercial flight operations after they were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Next month, Tampere Airport plans to reopen for commercial flights. The terminals of the airports are open to passengers as per their flight schedules, which means they are open for arrival and departure. Currently, international flights are served from Helsinki, Turku and Mariehamn airports. In addition, domestic flights are run from Oulu, Vaasa, Kuopio and Rovaniemi airports. The Tampere and Jyväskylä airports are currently operating for deliveries, ambulance flights and the activities of the Finnish Defence Forces. The services and restaurants at the airports are dependent on the flights and will be open when the aircraft departs or arrives at the airport. Some services have more frequent opening hours. Passengers can check the opening hours on the website of each airport.<br/>