Reaching all 7.8b people on the planet with a coronavirus vaccine will require a global airlift filling the equivalent of 8,000 Boeing 747 freighters, according the IATA. The capacity estimate assumes that an inoculation program would require only one dose, while multiple-course treatments would add to the demand, Glyn Hughes, the industry body’s head of cargo, said Wednesday. “Airlift is the correct terminology here,” Hughes said. “We know the procedures well. What we need to do is scale them up to the magnitude that will be required.” Some planes may not be suitable if the vaccines require the typical temperature range of 2-to-8 degrees Celsius for transporting drugs, he said. Frozen shipments would exclude even more aircraft. IATA is working with airlines, airports, global health bodies and pharmaceutical firms to pull together plans for a distribution program, calling it the industry’s “largest single transport challenge ever.” Fraport’s Frankfurt airport is assessing how it can help, while Air France-KLM is studying ways to maximize its network in Africa, Hughes said. Flights to that continent as well as Latin America and parts of Southeast Asia, which lack vaccine-production capabilities, will be especially critical. Developing markets rely almost wholly on cargo carried in the bellies of passenger planes, many of which remain grounded because of the fall-off in demand and travel restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the virus. There are as many as 250 different vaccine programs under development, Hughes said, citing the World Health Organization.<br/>
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A fresh US Senate Republican coronavirus spending package introduced on Tuesday does not include new government assistance for US airlines or airports, a text of the proposal showed, as the sector races to save jobs before October. More than 35,000 workers at two of the largest US carriers alone - American and United - are set to lose their jobs once an initial $25b in payroll support from the government expires this month. That has fueled a furious push by unions for a six-month extension of the aid, with flight attendants and other aviation workers planning to march outside the US Capitol on Wednesday. Last month a group of Senate Republicans backed extending $25b in payroll assistance for airlines, an idea Democrats also support. That proposal was excluded from the latest Senate measure, but it is an opening salvo for talks that are expected to intensify once the U.S. House returns from recess next week. The Senate proposal also excludes $10b in assistance for airports that was part of an earlier Senate bill.<br/>
A coalition of international airline and aviation groups is calling on US government leaders to help set Covid-19 testing protocols to assuage passenger concerns and boost severely depressed international travel. In a letter to three cabinet secretaries signed by 18 groups, they call on the government to set up “a globally accepted framework for testing protocols for international travel.” The plea comes as the US and UK are discussing virus protections aimed at reopening travel between the two countries. “Coordinated and deliberate action must be taken to safely reopen the international travel market,” the letter said. “A collaborative approach between governments and industry will help to ensure the development of standardized measures that promote needed consistency across the aviation system. The industry groups acknowledged that the issue of Covid-19 testing is complex and, at times, controversial. But the groups said that is all the more reason for the government to become involved to help evaluate the protocols and their potential value. Groups signing the letter include the US Chamber of Commerce, the Aerospace Industries Association and the IATA.<br/>
Major US airlines warned Wednesday that travel demand will continue to languish until there is a widespread COVID-19 vaccine, while awaiting developments in Washington on additional federal aid. US airlines received $25b in payroll grants under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March and have been lobbying for a six-month extension to protect tens of thousands of jobs at risk when the first round expires this month. Union leaders met with senior congressional Democrats to discuss aid after a proposal from the Republican-led US Senate on Tuesday for additional coronavirus relief did not include new government assistance for US airlines or airports. Republicans and Democrats have been jockeying for months over the next phase of coronavirus aid. Officials expect discussions to accelerate in the coming weeks, though it was not clear whether an agreement would be reached before the first $25b runs out this month. The sector does not expect a meaningful recovery until there is a widely accepted COVID-19 treatment or vaccine, which could stimulate pent-up demand and the need for trained workers. American Airlines told an online conference it could apply for more Treasury loans if other airlines do not take their share of a separate $25b available under the CARES Act. Speaking at the same conference, Delta CFO Paul Jacobson warned that any coronavirus vaccine must be followed by broad vaccinations, a process he said could take between six and 12 months.<br/>
The US government is set to end enhanced screening of some international passengers for COVID-19 and drop requirements that travelers coming from the targeted countries arrive at 15 designated US airports, according to US and airline officials and a government document. The changes are set to take effect as early as Monday, according to the draft rollout plan seen by Reuters, but the move could still be delayed, US officials said. The administration in February imposed enhanced screening requirements on travellers who had been in China, the UK, Brazil, Iran and the Schengen region of Europe, and barred most non-U.S. citizens who have been in those locations from coming to the US. The document says the CDC "is shifting its strategy and prioritizing other public health measures to reduce the risk of travel-related disease transmission.” It said that of 675,000 passengers screened at the 15 airports, "fewer than 15 have been identified as having COID-19." The "current entry strategy for international arrivals only covers a small portion of the traveling public, requires significant resources and is not sustainable as travel volumes increase," document said. Those travellers, who numbered around 6,750 a day as of late August, undergo visual observations, temperature checks and complete traveller declarations. Anyone showing signs of illness or possible exposure is referred for public health assessments.<br/>
As Lufthansa announces the expansion of its coronavirus testing centre at its Frankfurt hub, pressure is growing on the UK government to allow alternatives to two weeks of quarantine. The German airline is increasing capacity from 4,500 to 10,000 passengers a day. But the UK government has yet to agree to any use of testing to limit the current 14 days of self-isolation for arrivals from most countries. Virgin Atlantic CE Shai Weiss said: “The economy, which is already in deep recession, will not take off unless we have travel and tourism back on track. The only way to do that, I believe, in the interim period before treatment and a vaccine are made available, is through testing.” He advocates testing on arrival until pre-departure testing with near-instant results becomes feasible. Boris Johnson and other ministers have rejected the concept of a single test on arrival, claiming it will pick up only 7% of infected travellers. Their assertion, which is a misrepresentation of the conclusions of a theoretical study by Public Health England three months ago, has been rubbished by one of Britain’s leading statisticians. Lufthansa says that 1% of passengers have tested positive in the Frankfurt airport tests. Meanwhile a leading travel boss has proposed that business travellers should be used to pioneer transatlantic flying. Drew Crawley, chief commercial officer for American Express Global Business Travel, said a limited number of closely monitored executives should be able to fly on the world’s busiest intercontinental link, between London and New York. While BA, Virgin Atlantic and US carriers are still operating a limited number of services, the planes are largely empty and represent a small fraction of the normal 30-plus departures each way.<br/>
Boris Johnson has thus far resisted growing calls for Covid-19 testing at airports, stating that it would give “a false sense of security”. But a new and improved on-the-spot test could be the key to opening up travel in the near future, in time to save the tourism and business travel industries from a catastrophic collapse. The rapid antigen test, developed by Innova Medical Group and marketed by UK-based company Tried&Tested.Tech, is now being touted as a quicker, cheaper and far more reliable alternative to the more common polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, potentially allowing the Government to replace quarantine restrictions with the type of rigorous testing programme The Telegraph is calling for. A number of independent schools and travel companies, including airlines, cruise lines and hotels, have already expressed their interest in the new test, and there is a plan for pop-up testing stations at eight locations across the UK, including London and Glasgow, which if successful will lead to a nationwide rollout. Kim Thonger, Tried&Tested’s co-founder and director, said: “All of the travel entities we’ve been talking to, and we’ve been talking to dozens of them now, are of the opinion that quarantine for 14 days is completely unworkable, and it is killing the travel industry. But if you can reduce that quarantine time, at a relatively low cost for the company that’s implementing it, or at relatively low cost to the consumer, then you radically reduce the problem and make it more likely that people are going to take a chance on going on holiday.”<br/>
Demand for air cargo was more robust than air travel in July, the IATA said in a webinar on Wednesday. Air cargo traffic volume, expressed in terms of tonne km flown, was down only 13.5% year over year in July, compared to a 79.8% year-over-year drop in global passenger traffic in the same month. “Cargo business is becoming more important, because it is providing a partial offset to the collapse in passenger revenues,” said Brian Pearce, IATA Chief Economist. “We think for the next year or so, it’s likely to be much more significant – unfortunately, not significant enough to offset the continued weakness,” he added. Cargo industry has also been suffering from a significant number of challenges. As the world has gone into lockdown at different degrees of severity, it has become difficult to get qualified staff to the airport to help offload the cargo to process it through the facility. “Because cargo is very precious. And it needs to be handled in such a critical manner. It also means that certain training validity requirements which would otherwise have expired,” said Glyn Hughes, IATA’s Global Head of Cargo. There have also been challenges in addressing closed airspace, closed airports, and crew restrictions, as countries have implemented quarantine procedures and restrictions on people returning to a country, he added. Capacity has continued to be the “biggest” challenge, Hughes said, despite the industry’s “innovative” response to the problem. Airlines have begun removing seats from passenger aircraft to carry greater cargo volumes, while installing specific and unique tracking systems that the cargo can be safely secured to.<br/>
China's International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, the country's biggest airshow, scheduled for November, has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the next one will take place in 2022, the organiser said on Wednesday. The biennial event usually draws key suppliers - such as Airbus, Boeing and COMAC - and has traditionally been used by Beijing to show off its growing aviation capability, such as military fighters and drones. The cancellation comes as foreign nationals are largely barred from entering China due to concerns about importing coronavirus cases and as international flights have been severely restricted. It follows the cancellation of this year's largest aerospace expo, Britain's Farnborough Airshow, because of travel curbs and an industry downturn resulting from the pandemic. China's domestic aviation industry has been recovering and is now running at more than 90% of pre-pandemic capacity levels, according to data firm OAG, but that has yet to translate into a return to profitability for Chinese airlines.<br/>
An investigation by Which? has revealed that hundreds of cyber security risks were found on numerous travel firms’ websites, potentially putting customers’ data at risk. Security vulnerabilities were found on Marriott, easyJet, British Airways, Lastminute.com, and American Airlines websites. Out of the hundreds of vulnerabilities found on these companies’ websites, 18 were classed as ‘critical vulnerabilities’ on Marriott’s internet properties, and 12 were in the same category for the BA websites. The number of critical vulnerabilities for American Airlines, Lastminute.com, and Easyjet was 7, 4 and 2, respectively. Editor of Which? Travel, Rory Boland, said: “Our research suggests that Marriott, British Airways and easyJet have failed to learn lessons from previous data breaches and are leaving their customers exposed to opportunistic cybercriminals. Travel companies must up their game and better protect their customers from cyber threats, otherwise the ICO [Information Commissioner’s Office] must be prepared to step in with punitive action, including heavy fines that are actually enforced.” Boland is calling for an opt-out scheme that deals with large-scale data breaches to make companies more accountable for the loss of their customers’ data.<br/>