general

After getting battered this year by COVID-19 travel restrictions, experts say the commercial aviation sector could look very different as it tries to build a post-pandemic future. “The global airline industry is facing an unprecedented crisis and airlines are in survival mode. Many airlines will not have the financial means to survive an indefinite shutdown that, for many, already exceeds a half-year,” IATA Asia Pacific corporate communications assistant director Albert Tjoeng said. “The airline industry is facing an US$84b (S$114b) net loss this year and we are not expecting travel demand globally to recover to 2019 levels until 2024.” SIA reported a record S$1.1b loss for the quarter ending Jun 30 while Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung noted in Parliament that Changi Airport is serving just 1.5% of its usual passenger volume. Describing the revival of the Changi air hub as a “top national priority” for his ministry, Ong spelled out a few ways in which air travel could safely resume. These include the establishment of travel bubbles with countries and regimes deemed safe, as well as a “rigorous testing regime” in place of a two-week isolation period for travellers. “Imposing quarantine on arriving passengers has the same impact as closing the border,” said Tjoeng. IATA has called for universal, systematic testing for all travellers before departure as a way to reverse the fortunes of the ailing aviation sector. “Health screening before travel is essential. As testing technologies advance in speed, accuracy and scalability, we could see it playing an important role in future travel,” said Tjoeng. <br/>

A new $1.8t economic stimulus proposal from the Trump administration drew criticism from congressional Democrats and Republicans on Saturday, diminishing hopes for a coronavirus relief deal before the Nov. 3 election. In a weekly letter to Democratic colleagues, Pelosi said the Trump administration’s proposal lacked a “strategic plan to crush the virus” and gave President Donald Trump too much discretion to decide how funds were allocated. “At this point, we still have disagreement on many priorities, and Democrats are awaiting language from the Administration on several provisions as the negotiations on the overall funding amount continue,” Pelosi’s letter said. On a conference call on Saturday morning with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, multiple Republican senators criticized the price tag of the Trump administration’s proposal, a source familiar with the matter said. Mnuchin floated the $1.8t proposal in a 30-minute Friday afternoon phone conversation with Pelosi, according to the White House. White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said the administration wanted to keep spending below $2t but was eager to enact a fresh round of direct payments to individuals as well as aid for small businesses and airlines. <br/>

US officials are aiming to open travel between New York City and London with shortened traveler quarantine periods as soon as the holidays, according to people familiar with the matter. The growing availability of Covid-19 tests in the US has prompted officials at the DoT, Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to revive efforts to establish safe travel corridors between the US and international destinations, the people said. Establishing those routes would require travelers to be tested for Covid-19 before their flight and again upon arrival, allowing them to avoid lengthy quarantines at their destinations. The Trump administration and foreign governments must both agree to the plan, according to one US official familiar with the efforts. A Homeland Security official said the agency’s work to “safely encourage trans-Atlantic travel while mitigating public-health risks” was in its early stages. Federal officials have recently focused their talks with their UK counterparts, and discussions have also involved German officials, people familiar with the matter said. Limited availability of testing in the US earlier this year and long wait times for test results stalled previous efforts to open international travel. Many airline executives say it will take a proven and widely available vaccine to make fliers comfortable and return flying to 2019 levels. Airlines currently mandate that passengers wear masks and have ramped up cabin cleaning. Eventually, “proof of a vaccination will replace proof of a negative test result” as a travel-must, said Aaron McMillan, United Airlines’s managing director of operations policy and support.<br/>

The airline industry has been shaken to its core by the pandemic, pushing some foreign carriers into bankruptcy and driving a few small US ones out of business. Leaders of the large airlines were stunned when the CEO of Boeing predicted during a nationally televised interview that some of them would fail too. Nicholas Calio is adamant that won’t happen. Calio is a longtime Washington hand who served in two White Houses, and he is now the president and CEO of Airlines for America, or A4A, a trade group consisting of the largest US passenger and cargo airlines. These days, Calio’s time is taken up lobbying for billions of dollars in taxpayer relief that he says is necessary if the airlines are to remain strong enough to help the nation recover from the pandemic-caused economic downturn. The deadline for Congress and the Trump administration to approve that aid and avoid tens of thousands of furloughs was said repeatedly to be Sept. 30. That turns out to have been a moving target. American Airlines and United went ahead and furloughed 32,000 workers between them, but both say it’s not yet too late — they could reverse those cuts and bring people back to work if Republicans and Democrats in Washington can agree on a pandemic-relief measure. Story is interview with Calio about the campaign for more federal aid, the outlook for the industry, and whether any US carriers will file for bankruptcy protection because of COVID-19. <br/>

EU diplomats reached a deal on common thresholds for imposing bloc-wide travel curbs, such as requiring a negative Covid-test result or quarantine for visitors, according to a spokesman for the German government in Brussels. The non-binding guidelines, which ministers will formally sign off on Tuesday, could offer some relief to the continent’s battered airlines and travelers confused by the patchwork of country-by-country measures. Under the plan, restriction-free travel will be allowed between regions with fewer than 25 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people for the previous 14 days, and with fewer than 4% of virus tests giving positive results. A color-coded map of the 27 nation-EU -- plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland -- to be updated on a weekly basis, will show “green areas” between which travel is allowed without restrictions. The map will be published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, based on data provided by national authorities in each state. That could provide some relief to airlines. Uncoordinated announcements on quarantine requirements for incoming travelers and abrupt bans contributed to a drop in travel, adding to the woes of an industry already pummeled by its worst crisis on record. European airlines’ hopes for a bounceback have been dashed by rising case counts and a panoply of restrictions in countries such as the UK, Spain and France. <br/>

Ireland plans to introduce coronavirus testing at airports as part of a possible alternative to quarantine for some arriving passengers, although it is not clear when the capacity will be ready, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said Sunday. Airlines Ryanair and Aer Lingus have heavily criticised the government for imposing some of the strictest travel restrictions in Europe, with 14-day quarantines advised for almost all incoming travellers. Under an EU system to be signed off next week, travellers from regions with extremely low levels of the virus will be placed in a “green” category and allowed to travel without restriction, but very few regions in Europe now qualify. Other regions would be listed as “amber” or “red” with governments to impose restrictions. Health minister Stephen Donnelly said the default position would be to require travellers from “red” and “amber” regions to restrict their movements. But plans are being worked on by the government for testing that could allow some passengers to avoid quarantine. Testing at airports “will happen because it is required as part of the protocol,” Donnelly said in an interview with RTE radio, but he declined to specify a time-frame.<br/>

Singapore and Malaysia are eager to jump-start their economies. But just as the former appears to be turning a corner and moves to accelerate its reopening, the latter is scrambling to contain another wave of infections. Their diverging fortunes highlight the persistent challenge of dealing with this virus and the difficulty of balancing health and economic imperatives. Singapore on Sunday confirmed 10 new coronavirus cases, marking the 11th consecutive day with fewer than 20. The low numbers are encouraging the city-state to reestablish links with the world -- links the trade and travel hub needs to sustain its economy. On Thursday, Singapore began allowing general travelers from Vietnam and Australia, excluding the hard-hit state of Victoria. They follow Brunei and New Zealand on Singapore's list of greenlit countries of origin for inbound visitors. The lifting of the border restrictions for the four countries is not reciprocal, and the actual number of people entering the city-state is expected to remain limited for the time being. Yet, Singapore believes these unilateral reopenings are still meaningful. "It is like a standing invitation," Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said in parliament last Tuesday. "Although the other countries are not ready to lift their restrictions now, Singapore can be top of mind when they are ready eventually." Moreover, Ong said Singapore will start discussions with low-risk countries and regions on what it calls "air travel bubbles" for general travelers. For business travelers, the city-state has already set up reciprocal bubbles with China, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Brunei -- one by one since June. <br/>

Singapore and Indonesia have agreed to set up a reciprocal green lane (RGL) for essential business and official travel between both countries. Applications for the RGL will open on Oct 26 and travel will start soon after, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Monday. The agreement comes less than two months after MFA said on Aug 25 that Singapore and Indonesia planned to begin talks for a reciprocal green lane. Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi told CNA last week the two countries were in the final phase of negotiations for the green lane, and that preparations were being made on the ground to facilitate arrivals. MFA said on Monday that Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Mdm Marsudi have reaffirmed the “excellent and longstanding relations” between Singapore and Indonesia in a telephone conversation. <br/>

Airliners carry a variety of computer systems that could become vulnerable to hackers and US regulators haven’t imposed adequate counter measures, a government watchdog report concluded. The FAA hasn’t prioritized cyber risks, developed a cybersecurity training program or conducted testing of potentially vulnerable systems, the Government Accountability Office said in a report issued Friday. “Until FAA strengthens its oversight program, based on assessed risks, it may not be able to ensure it is providing sufficient oversight to guard against evolving cybersecurity risks facing avionics systems in commercial airplane,” the GAO report said. Commercial aircraft carry increasingly sophisticated computer systems, including wireless networks, seat-back entertainment, position broadcasts and devices that automatically transmit data to the ground. The FAA and planemakers have added “extensive” protections to those computers and there haven’t been any reports of successful cyber-attacks, the GAO said. “However, the increasing connections between airplanes and other systems, combined with the evolving cyber threat landscape, could lead to increasing risks for future flight safety,” the report said.<br/>

Airbus achieved deliveries of 57 aircraft during September, although order activity remained practically non-existent. Its delivery figure is the highest for any single month so far in 2020, exceeding the 55 achieved in February, just before the onset of the air transport crisis. The only order change registered was the reduction of Macquarie Financial Holdings’ order for 40 A220-300s, which has been revised to 37. Airbus has total orders for 545 A220-300s and a further 94 for the smaller A220-100. It has yet to record the agreement for six A220s in the recently-unveiled corporate jet version. The airframer kept its net order figure at 300 for the first nine months of the year – which is actually more than double the 127 it had achieved at the same point in 2019, when the commercial business was heavily affected by cancellations. Airbus’s deliveries so far this year total 341 aircraft including 32 A350s and nine A330s, plus 282 A320-family jets and 18 A220s. This figure is just over 40% lower than the 571 deliveries carried out over the same period in 2019.<br/>