President Donald Trump on Tuesday said his administration would help US airlines facing sharp downturns in passenger traffic as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, but gave no details. "We'll be helping the airlines. You have to help the airlines," Trump told reporters before departing on a visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin. "Airlines are a tough business in good times." Airline shares jumped briefly on Trump's comments but later gave up the gains and were trading in negative territory. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows last week said Trump was weighing executive action to avoid massive layoffs at airlines if Congress fails to agree on a fresh economic stimulus package to counter the fallout from the pandemic. Helping the airline industry is a "significant concern" for the Trump administration given its strategic importance for national security and supply chains, in addition to the large number of jobs at stake, a senior administration official said. The official said there was significant bipartisan support in Congress for measures to help airlines and ensure they survived the prolonged collapse in demand. "We're ready to negotiate," the official said.<br/>
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Airlines seeking to build up flights after idling their fleets at the height of the coronavirus outbreak are bleeding more cash as jets fly half empty and the most lucrative inter-continental services remain grounded. Passenger traffic was down almost 80% in July compared with a year earlier, the IATA reported Tuesday, saying the slump is steeper than expected at a time when carriers are rushing back flights. Cross-border traffic reached only 8% of 2019 levels as travel curbs strangled off demand, the trade body said, while an analysis of capacity plans and booking data shows that the gap between supply and demand is widening, draining reserves and dashing hopes for an extended peak season. The figures suggest that airlines face a grim future in the absence of a Covid-19 vaccine that might spur more people to take a flight and remove the need for restrictions that IATA says are holding back a recovery. The aviation industry has cut 350,000 jobs in the past six months, mostly at airlines, with the total likely to climb toward 500,000 as government furlough support ends, consultants Five Aero said earlier. While IATA blamed border restrictions for the stuttering recovery, outside of China domestic travel is also foundering, the July figures show, with traffic down 90% on flights within Australia and 73% on intra-US services, largely because of major flareups in infection levels.<br/>
The global aviation industry has racked up more than 350,000 job losses in the past six months, with more pain on the way, according to new research delving into the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the once-buoyant sector. The total could approach half a million positions after including some 25,000 cuts that don’t fit into the main categories of airlines, aerospace manufacturers and airports, and another 95,000 that are threatened but not formally announced, according to Rowland Hayler, a co-founder of consulting group Five Aero, which compiled the study. Meanwhile, Asian firms and airports worldwide appear to be depressing the total by holding back on payroll reductions, or at least not publicizing them, Hayler said. Airlines are offloading more than 200,000 workers after months of groundings wiped out earnings, threatening the survival of many players. With Covid-19 cases surging in hotspots and restrictions returning, passenger demand continues to sputter. Airports may need step up dismissals as the extent of the slump becomes clear, Hayler said. Story has more.<br/>
Transport Canada is holding early talks with airlines to introduce COVID-19 testing at airports, but the day when such tests could become an alternative to the quarantines decimating travel could still be far off, sources familiar with the discussions said. The airline-led talks come as Air Canada and WestJet introduce their own testing plans for Toronto and Vancouver airports, respectively this fall. The use of airport testing to reduce or eliminate Canada's strict two-week self quarantine rule would be logistically challenging as it would require cooperation from airports, airlines, federal and provincial health authorities, the sources said. And government-approved lab tests that largely take 24 to 48 hours to deliver results would need to be used, making them impractical for airport departures, they added. Canada has faced pressure from airlines to change its travel restrictions, with the country's borders now closed to all noncitizens except for essential workers. "The airlines have a vested interest in seeing this happen," one of the source said. "But there is no guarantee that Canada would choose to lift the 14-day quarantine even if testing were able to take place at airports." Globally, carriers and airports largely back testing to replace quarantines, with a UN aviation task force expected to weigh in on one industry proposal at a Sept. 15 meeting, airline group IATA said.<br/>
Scottish holidaymakers returning home from Greece will have to quarantine for two weeks, it was announced on Tuesday night, after a significant rise in cases of coronavirus being imported from the Mediterranean country. Nicola Sturgeon’s government in Edinburgh has acted before Westminster in enforcing the measures, which will come into effect at 4am on Thursday, but Whitehall sources said plans were not yet in place for England to follow suit this week. This would mean that for the second time, there will be variance in the rules for travellers returning to England and Scotland, after tourists arriving from Switzerland were forced to quarantine in Scotland a week before being made to do so south of the border. The move comes as all passengers returning to Wales from Zante, a Greek island, have been asked to self-isolate for two weeks, following a spike in cases in the popular holiday destination. There have also been serious concerns about Portugal, with the UK’s ambassador to the country saying that holidaymakers heading there should “only travel if they are content to unexpectedly quarantine” when they arrive back home. Portugal is looking increasingly likely to be placed on the Government’s "red list" - where returnees must self-isolate for two weeks upon return, and prospective tourists are hedging their bets by double booking flights, with thousands of seats already sold out.<br/>
Traffic among Arab air carriers is not now expected to return to pre-crisis levels until at least 2024 and could potentially not reach those levels before 2027, fresh analysis from the Arab Air Carriers Organisation (AACO) shows. In its third status report of the impact of the pandemic on the economy, travel and tourism, published on 31 August, the Arabian airline body estimates the best-case scenario for passenger traffic among Arab carriers returning to 2019 levels is in 2024. But it considers a worst-case scenario that traffic for these airlines will not return to the previous highs until 2027. The fresh analysis comes as it now expects the global return in traffic to pre-crisis levels to take a year longer, in 2024, than its previous expectations. After a bright start to the year, Arab carrier traffic was all but wiped out by the pandemic during April. Passenger traffic among these carriers in the first half was down 55% - on capacity cut 51% - compared to the same period in 2019. ”As for the second half of 2020, demand is expected to improve gradually as restrictions are relaxed and passengers regain confidence to travel,” AACO says. It expects traffic to be 57% down among airlines in the region for the full year, though it sees capacity cut only a third compared to 2019.<br/>
Commercial pilots are accustomed to sharing the sky with birds or, more recently, drones, but on Sunday two pilots reported a novel sighting at 3,000 feet approaching LAX: a man flying a jet pack. “Tower, American 1997 — we just passed a guy in a jet pack,” the pilot of American Airlines Flight 1997 from Philadelphia told air traffic control, about 6:35 p.m. Sunday. The exchange was captured and posted by LiveATC.net, which shares live and archived recordings of air-traffic-control radio transmissions. “Were they off to your left side or right side?” the controller asked. The pilot said the person was 300 yards to the plane’s left, and about 30 seconds later, another pilot said he had also seen the man pass by. The controller, after asking the pilot of JetBlue Flight 23 to keep a lookout, added, “Only in L.A.” Now both the FBI and the FAA are investigating. American Airlines declined to identify the pilot, referring inquiries to the FAA. A JetBlue official would not comment. Seth Young, a pilot and a professor of aviation at Ohio State University, said it was “very dangerous" to fly so close to an airplane, especially in the busy airspace near Los Angeles International Airport. “The risk is obviously having a collision with that airplane or getting a drone, or the person getting ingested into an engine,” Young said. “We have these issues with birds flying within congested airspace, as well.”<br/>
BOC Aviation has cancelled an entire order for 18 Airbus A320neo family aircraft, after its airline customer opted to purchase the aircraft directly from the manufacturer, a 30 August filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange shows. The order, first announced on 31 December, was scheduled for delivery between 2022 and 2023. BOC Aviation said in the December disclosure that it granted an option to the unnamed airline customer to either take the aircraft on “long-term leases” or to purchase the aircraft at the time of delivery. The lessor says in its latest disclosure that its wholly-owned subsidiary BOC Aviation (Cayman) had “entered into an agreement with Airbus to amend the transaction by terminating its commitment to purchase the aircraft, which the airline has instead agreed to purchase from Airbus”. As at 30 June, BOC Aviation had a fleet of 571 aircraft owned, managed or on order.<br/>
In-flight connectivity provider Gogo has agreed to sell its commercial aviation business to bankrupt satellite company Intelsat for $400m in cash. Gogo provides both air-to-ground and 2Ku-branded satellite-based airborne Wi-Fi services to a number of carriers including Delta Air Lines. Following the transaction, Gogo will provide Intelsat with exclusive access to its air-to-ground services in North America for 10 years. Intelsat says the deal will combine its next-generation high-throughput satellites with Gogo’s 2Ku antenna to “uniquely position Intelsat to deliver more cost-effective and advanced commercial aviation broadband connectivity services”. The transaction has been approved by a US bankruptcy court and is expected to close before the end of the first quarter of 2021. Intelsat will fund the acquisition using existing debtor-in-possession financing and cash on hand. “Consumer demand for in-flight connectivity is expected to grow at a double-digit rate over the next decade, notwithstanding the impact of Covid-19,” states Intelsat CE Stephen Spengler. “The addition of Gogo’s commercial aviation business provides compelling strategic value for our stakeholders and makes strong commercial sense.”<br/>