The US Senate later this week aims to vote on a drastically scaled-back Republican coronavirus aid bill, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday, despite opposition from Democrats who are needed for any measure to be enacted into law. The bill, which some senior Republican aides described as a $300b package that was reduced from the $1 trillion McConnell advocated in July, would face a vote on Thursday. Barring a breakthrough, it could be the final attempt to pass a fifth coronavirus aid bill before the Nov. 3 presidential and congressional elections. With Democrats holding out for a far more comprehensive bill to further stimulate the economy and help battle the coronavirus, McConnell said in a Senate floor speech: “We want to agree, where bipartisanship is possible ... and then keep arguing over the rest later.” But House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has argued that a subsequent bill would be too far off to avert layoffs of police, fire and medical personnel unless emergency aid is rushed to state and local governments. The bill currently being considered would not provide the billions of dollars in aid that US airlines, struggling through the pandemic, had lobbied for, according to two congressional aides.<br/>
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Late-summer getaways helped lift air travel during the Labor Day weekend but the coronavirus pandemic has left its mark on what has shaped up to be a dismal season for airlines. The number of people screened by the TSA reached 968,673 on Friday, the highest since March 16, agency data released on Monday showed. During the Friday-through-Monday holiday weekend, close to 3.3m passengers passed through TSA checkpoints, down nearly 60% from the holiday weekend in 2019. That, however, is an improvement from the depths of the coronavirus crisis in April when passenger volume was off by more than 95%. From Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend, which comprises what is generally the busiest and most lucrative time of year for airlines, the TSA screened 65m people, down nearly 76% from the 269m it screened on the same dates last year.<br/>
Boris Johnson has been urged by an alliance of more than 400 British and US businesses to introduce compulsory Covid testing of travellers 48 hours before they fly so they can by-pass quarantine and restore international aviation. British American Business (BAB) said the move could shorten quarantine for arrivals in the UK by ten days by having a second test after three or four days, thus opening up “air bridges” between the US and UK and other international routes. Duncan Edwards, BAB CE, said that multinational corporations which split their business between the US and UK were desperate to cross the Atlantic to seal deals and re-invigorate trading links after lockdown. And he warned other small and medium-sized enterprises risked having to shut down their overseas operations if they continued to be barred from travelling and so unable to manage and oversee them. Edwards said: “For people who want to travel for business, the cost of paying for a pre-departure test is irrelevant compared to 14 days isolation or the risk of not going to see their overseas operations. That’s why we are arguing for a mandatory test no longer than two days before departure and then a test on arrival, maybe three or four days later depending on what the science recommends.” BAB represents all the major banks, airlines, finance houses, manufacturers which have UK and US operations.<br/>
Direct flights between London City Airport and Belfast City Airport have resumed for the first time since February this year. The five-times-a-week service is operated by BA CityFlyer, a subsidiary of BA. The London City-Belfast City is one of the routes that was suspended earlier this year following the collapse of Flybe. Commenting on the resumption of flights, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis said: “This is excellent news for Northern Ireland and the connectivity of the entire United Kingdom. It is crucial to the recovery of the economy that vital air passenger services to and from London and Belfast City Airport are maintained.” Last year, the route registered a 14.7% year-on-year growth, making it the fasted growing for London City Airport.<br/>
Three more Greek islands were added to Wales’ quarantine list just six hours before restrictions come into force. Travellers arriving from Santorini, Serifos and Tinos will have to self-isolate for 14 days from 4am on Wednesday because of rising coronavirus cases in these areas, the Welsh government said. It followed last week’s addition of Portugal, Gibraltar, French Polynesia and the Greek islands of Mykonos, Zakynthos, Lesvos, Paros, Antiparos and Crete. Health minister Vaughan Gething said he made the decision after reviewed the latest assessments by the UK government’s Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC). He has previously described a "rising tide of infections" coming from the Greek islands. The three named islands had been added England’s list, along with Mykonos, Zakynthos, Lesvos and Crete, on Monday. It followed an announcement from transport secretary Grant Shapps that the government was adopting a new ‘island corridor’ travel quarantine policy rather than applying restrictions across whole nations. However, he said the data did not yet allow for self-isolation rules to be applied regionally in mainland countries. Shapps gave holidaymakers 36 hours to return to England before the quarantine came into force, prompting another rush for flights to avoid having to self-isolate at home for two weeks.<br/>
A group of Thai airport workers are suing a security company hired by state-owned Airports of Thailand (AOT), saying they were tricked into accepting worse terms with the threat of losing their jobs. Ten security staff at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport said in a lawsuit they were pressured to resign from ASM Management and sign new contracts as part of a restructuring in May by AOT, which manages six airports and has been hit hard by coronavirus. Labour rights’ campaigners have voiced concerns about companies capitalising on the pandemic as an opportunity to cut costs by coercing workers to accept worse terms and conditions. Thailand is fast returning to normalcy having recorded about 58 COVID-19 deaths and 3,440 cases since January, but the tourism-reliant economy has been battered by the collapse of global travel and a ban on foreign travellers imposed in April. The workers in the lawsuit said their new contracts with AOT Aviation Security (AOT AVSEC) - a joint venture between AOT, ASM, and two other security companies - left them on lower pay and without benefits such as a transport allowance. The case was filed in July but had not been made public. The workers are suing ASM for termination without severance pay and not providing payment to cover their notice period. Five lawyers said coercing workers to resign amounted to wrongful dismissal under labour laws, and entitled them to compensation.<br/>
Boeing said Tuesday that it expected deliveries of its popular 787 Dreamliner to be delayed as it and the FAA look into quality control concerns with the plane, a wide-body jet capable of carrying hundreds of passengers long distances. Last month, the company said it had grounded eight planes already in service for inspection and repair after finding that it had fallen short of its manufacturing standards. On Tuesday, Boeing said it had identified another failure to abide by its own guidelines during production of a horizontal stabilizer, though it said there was no immediate safety risk. “We are taking time to thoroughly inspect completed 787s to ensure that they are free of the issues and meet all engineering specifications prior to delivery,” the company said. “We expect these inspections to affect the timing of 787 deliveries in the near-term.” Boeing said the new problem stemmed from excess force in assembling components of the stabilizer at its Salt Lake City facility and could affect the part’s life span. A total of 893 airplanes are believed to be affected, the company said, and it is examining whether repairs are needed on any jets now in service. The FAA is also investigating the company for manufacturing flaws related to the plane. “The agency continues to engage with Boeing,” the agency said on Monday. “It is too early to speculate about the nature or extent of any proposed airworthiness directives that might arise.”<br/>
Airbus delivered 39 jets last month while avoiding order cancellations as it battles to keep revenues flowing in a market battered by the coronavirus crisis. August handovers comprised 35 A320-series narrow-body planes and four twin-aisle jets, with the overall tally down 10 from the July figure, the company said Tuesday. Boeing said earlier that it delivered 13 planes in August, in an update overshadowed by news that handovers of the 787 Dreamliner are to be slowed for checks for a manufacturing flaw involving gaps in the plane’s horizontal stabilizer that are wider than specified. Even without the Dreamliner setback, Airbus has been ahead of its rival in riding out the pandemic, as Boeing continues to wrestle with the grounding of its 737 Max short-haul plane following two deadly crashes. The European company has generally managed to persuade airlines including EasyJet and Qatar Airways to defer deliveries rather than cancel deals outright. Airbus customers to get jets in August included Gulf Air, which took its first A321neo, and Portuguese carrier Orbest, which received an initial A330-900 wide-body. New sales remain rarities, with Airbus reporting an order for just one new plane, a corporate version of the A320, and Boeing eight.<br/>
Thousands of passenger planes are still grounded, but in-flight internet is surging to new highs. Data traffic over satellite company Inmarsat Group Holdings' European Aviation Network rose to a record in the final week of August, according to CEO Rupert Pearce. Global airline traffic was still down almost 80% in July compared to the same month a year earlier. “It suggests there’s some semblance of normality beginning to return to some segments of the aviation market,” Pearce said. He pointed to a partial recovery in short and medium-haul flights after pandemic travel restrictions were eased. The data rebound also reflects new internet habits formed under lockdown, said Alexander Grous, an expert on airline strategy and economics at the London School of Economics, who has previously written research on behalf of Inmarsat. “Lots of users are basically two to three times more likely now to connect and stay connected on board than they were at the beginning of the year, before Covid,” Grous said by phone. The potential for an airline data boom may reassure the institutions that bought Inmarsat last December in the UK’s second-biggest take-private deal of 2019. The $3.4 acquisition by Apax Partners, Warburg Pincus, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan was partly a bet on surging airline connectivity.<br/>