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Can preflight testing get people flying again? The IATA thinks so. Last month, the trade association called for the “development and deployment of rapid, accurate, affordable, easy-to-operate, scalable and systematic” Covid-19 testing for all passengers as a way to restore passenger confidence, bypass quarantines and reopen borders. Within weeks, United, American Airlines and JetBlue announced plans to launch preflight testing programs to places such as Hawaii, Costa Rica and the Caribbean, depending on the airline. By that time, Italy’s largest airline, Alitalia, was already operating two flights between Rome and Milan for passengers who tested negative before boarding. Panama reopened its borders this week to travelers who arrive with a negative Covid-19 test in hand, or who test negative after taking a rapid test upon landing. But testing isn’t quite that simple. Just ask Iceland. When Iceland reopened on June 15, the country exempted travelers from a two-week quarantine if they tested negative for Covid-19 upon arrival. Cases started rising less than a month later. In August, Iceland revised its policy. It now requires two Covid-19 tests — one upon arrival and another five days later — with mandatory quarantining in between. In one of the most high-profile testing fails of the pandemic, a Covid-19 outbreak erupted at the White House this month due in part to its practice of relying on rapid tests to screen visitors. The tests are known to miss up to a third of asymptomatic infections. In calling for preflight testing last month, the IATA said that “deployable solutions are expected in the coming weeks.” Medical experts say that may be premature. Polymerase chain reaction tests, also called PCR, can more accurately diagnose positive cases, said Dr. Peter Gulick, an infectious disease expert at Michigan State University. But those tests, which rely on a nasal swap, throat swab or saliva, “are run in a lab so it may take days to come back, and a patient may get infected during that time,” he said. <br/>

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Wednesday said despite some progress, he still has not reached an agreement with Democratic lawmakers on a stimulus package, dampening hopes the US economy would get a new injection of cash before the presidential election. Wall Street sunk on the downbeat comments from Mnuchin, who has been negotiating for months with Democrats over passing a measure to restore expired provisions of the $2.2t CARES Act approved as the coronavirus pandemic struck in March. "We continue to make progress on certain issues, on certain issues we continue to be far apart," Mnuchin said. The official has been leading negotiations on behalf of President Donald Trump, and said he had a lengthy conversation with his Democratic counterpart House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday. Pelosi aide Drew Hammill confirmed the talks and said they would continue on Thursday "One major area of disagreement continues to be that the White House lacks an understanding of the need for a national strategic testing plan," he tweeted. "The Speaker believes we must reopen our economy and schools safely and soon, and scientists agree we must have a strategic testing plan." The two sides are deadlocked over how much to spend and what form to spend it in, with Democrats demanding aid for struggling state and local governments that are on the front lines of delivering aid. "We continue to have discussions and try to compromise on a broader package," Mnuchin said, adding Pelosi rejected a stand-alone measure to fund airlines that have furloughed tens of thousands of workers this month. An agreement with struggling US airlines to avoid layoffs in exchange for payroll funding lapsed at the start of October, and the carriers have since announced tens of thousands of job cuts.<br/>

The EU will extend until March 27 a waiver of the requirement that airlines use 80% of their take-off and landing slots, to help an industry still suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic. The EC, which adopted the extension on Wednesday, said in a statement that it had adopted the proposal. The waiver initially ran until Oct 24. The waiver was put in place to avoid airlines operating empty “ghost flights” to keep their slots. European Transport Commissioner Adina Valean said flights were down 54% in September and that it was not set to rise in the near term.<br/>

September figures for Europe’s biggest hub airports show passenger traffic down more than 80% on previous year levels, data for London Heathrow, Frankfurt Airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle reveals. Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, on 12 October disclosed its passenger numbers fell 81.5% to 1.26m in September. Domestic and European passenger levels were down 75% and 72% respectively, and by almost 95% on the key transatlantic market. The decline on previous year passenger levels at Heathrow was in line with the reduction reported in August. French airport operator Aeroports de Paris today disclosed passenger numbers at Europe’s second biggest hub, Paris Charles de Gaulle, were down 80% at 1.35m. Passenger levels were down 60% at its other Paris airport Orly, which had closed totally between April and June at the height of the pandemic, in handling just over a million passengers in September. It was a similar story at Frankfurt Airport, Europe’s fourth biggest airport in 2019. Passenger numbers were down 83% in September compared with the same month in 2019 at 1.15m. Transatlantic passengers were down 91% in September. The airport’s owner Fraport, which operates or has interests in a number of airports across the globe, reported some brighter traffic performances in September as a result of some holiday traffic. Passenger levels were 61% down across its Greek airports - which include Rhodes and Thessaloniki - down 53% at Turkish airport Antalya, 29% lower at St Petersburg and under 10% down at Chinese airport Xi’an in September.<br/>

UK travel group ABTA said the government is not doing enough to support the sector, which has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. It criticised the government for “ever-changing quarantine rules and a dwindling number of destinations for holidaymakers to visit,” and demanded tailored support, including further grants. ABTA said it is “vital that the Global Travel Taskforce launched this month to consider a testing regime, and other measures to support recovery of the travel industry, acts decisively and urgently to help increase consumer confidence and get the industry moving again.” The taskforce was set up by the government and is meant to report to prime minister Boris Johnson no later than early November, setting out recommendations for how the UK can support the recovery of international travel. According to new figures released by ABTA, only 15% of people took a foreign holiday between February and July 2020 compared to 51% over the 12-month period, and 64% the previous year. Mark Tanzer, ABTA’s CEO said: “There is no doubt that people’s confidence and trust in the industry has taken a huge hit — and we must work hard to earn that trust back. Not only is that by being creative and flexible in terms of the holiday and customer experience we offer, but also by making sustainability a fundamental principle of travel.”<br/>

Britain’s transport minister said on Wednesday that his coronavirus testing plans would get more people flying in the months ahead, sounding an optimistic note at a time when travel companies are struggling to survive. A 14-day quarantine for arrivals from most countries could be replaced by an as-yet unspecified shorter isolation period followed by a negative test result under plans that Transport Minister Grant Shapps set out last week. “I believe the measures I’ve outlined will result in significantly more people flying in the months ahead,” Shapps said. Airlines have cut back their already anaemic flying schedules for autumn due to mounting travel restrictions in Europe. Shapps said the government was working hard to get the new arrivals regime in place and much of the work had already been done, with another approach also being considered for pre-departure testing. Final details due in early November. BA said it backed pre-flight testing, “where travellers arriving in the UK all have a negative test up to 72 hours before flying”. But the IATA has said the plan does not go far enough, because 80% of travellers will not fly it there is any quarantine in place.<br/>

The number of domestic Chinese flights in September topped last year’s levels, official data showed on Thursday, with passenger numbers indicating the local aviation sector is nearing a full recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were a total of 371,000 domestic passenger flights in September, up 3.5% from a year ago, Qiao Yibin, an official with the CAAC, told a news conference. Domestic passenger numbers reached 47.75m, or 98% of 2019’s levels, Qiao said. China’s domestic travel a robust rebound over the eight-day Golden Week holiday at the start of October, encouraged by the country’s success in reducing the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and cheap fares offered by hotels, airlines and tourist hotspots.<br/>

At a time when the global aviation industry has been drastically hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, India's airlines appear to be turning the crisis into an opportunity by expanding their international operations under the ongoing "travel bubble" arrangements. The latest company to join the bandwagon is low-budget carrier SpiceJet, which earlier this month announced that on Dec. 4 it will launch non-stop services connecting Delhi and Mumbai with London's Heathrow Airport. "For SpiceJet, this is a big step [as] it's the first time we are starting scheduled long-haul operations," said Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh during an online briefing to announce the London flights. The airline has until now been flying to international destinations closer to India such as Bangkok and Hong Kong. "More importantly, we are the second-largest airline in India and connect destinations in small towns [in the country]," he said, pointing out that many people from these places want to travel to London, while passengers arriving from the British capital will also be able to travel to other Indian cities on SpiceJet's domestic network. Singh said SpiceJet would soon be announcing more long-haul flights. SpiceJet's flights will operate under an "air bubble" agreement between India and the UK. This is a temporary bilateral arrangement aimed at restarting commercial passenger services when regular international flights are suspended due to the pandemic. India has entered into such pacts with more than a dozen countries including the US, Canada, France and Germany. With the London flights, SpiceJet has become the first Indian low-cost carrier and only the third airline in the country to fly to the UK -- the other two being state-run Air India and Vistara. The gap left by Jet Airways, which was grounded last year, is also expected to work in SpiceJet's favor.In August, Vistara, a full-service airline, started flying non-stop on the Delhi-London route -- where it deployed its new wide-body Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft -- as part of the transport bubble, marking its foray into long-haul international operations. Story has a lot more detail.<br/>

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asia was one of the fastest growing markets for air transport. But despite being buoyed by high demand, a deregulated airline market squeezed the profit margins of most Southeast Asian airlines, leaving them particularly vulnerable to the economic fallout from COVID-19. Southeast Asia’s "sky liberalisation" produced fierce competition between low-cost carriers and full-service carriers over the last decade. This rivalry had a revolutionary impact on airfares. But the price war that increased affordability simultaneously reduced margins, with unstable fuel costs further elevating the industry’s cost structure. With the pressure of such a business environment, airlines were already struggling to perform. The emergence of a COVID-19-induced recession has now debilitated the industry. Airlines were abruptly affected and several airlines were immediately thrown into the red as domestic and international tourist numbers collapsed. Thai Airways is in bankruptcy court with reported losses of US$564m in H1 2020. Malaysia Airlines is similarly on the brink of bankruptcy after revealing a loss of US$3.32b. Other airlines in Southeast Asia share the same destiny, with Vietnam Airlines revealing a US$284m loss, Philippine Airlines posting US$183.1m in losses and Singapore Airlines recording a loss of approximately US$538m in the first half of this year. Garuda Indonesia similarly announced US$696m in losses. The crisis is not contained to FSCs — AirAsia Group, the LCC with the biggest market share in the region, is also in the red, with losses of up to US$188m. The underperformance of Southeast Asian airlines will shape how they restructure and downsize post-COVID-19. Story has more.<br/>

For the second time in six weeks, crew members on a commercial airliner flying near LAX on Wednesday found that they were sharing the skies with a person soaring solo over Southern California in a jetpack. The latest encounter was reported to have occurred at an altitude of 6,000 feet — nearly six times the height of the Wilshire Grand Tower, the tallest building not only in Los Angeles but west of the Mississippi. A China Airlines crew spotted the person about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday roughly seven miles northwest of the airport, the FAA said. The agency is investigating the report. A spokeswoman for the FBI said, “We are aware of the report and are in contact with the FAA,” but declined to comment further. Federal officials said last month that they were investigating the earlier jetpack sighting by two commercial pilots. The sightings at such high altitudes are surprising, given that most jetpacks are not equipped to fly for more than a few minutes, or to go very high. Flying in busy airspace like that around a major city’s airport also presents the risk of a collision with a jetliner or of being drawn into a plane’s engine.<br/>

Auckland International Airport is trialling new coronavirus-busting technology, including thermal-imaging cameras to detect travellers with fevers, as it prepares to process the first passengers to fly to Australia under a new one-way travel bubble. From Friday New Zealanders who have not been in a designated Covid-19 hotspot in the past 14 days will be able to travel to New South Wales and the Northern Territory without needing to go into quarantine. The arrangement will be one-way, with Australians still not allowed to enter New Zealand, and anyone leaving these shores for Australia will need to pay for two weeks of managed isolation upon their return to New Zealand. Qantas and its subsidiary Jetstar were quick to reinstate flights across the Tasman following the news, with Qantas operating six Auckland-Sydney flights and four Christchurch-Sydney flights per week and Jetstar operating three Auckland-Sydney flights per week. Auckland Airport said the Jetstar and Qantas restart brought the number of airlines operating scheduled services across the Tasman to four, joining Air New Zealand and Qatar. Air New Zealand has continued flying to Australia throughout the pandemic, with services from Auckland to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Auckland Airport operations general manager Anna Cassels-Brown said it had various technology trials underway to protect passengers at the airport, on top of existing safety measures such as separate terminal areas for transit passengers. Trials were underway on thermal-imaging cameras that could detect someone with a fever amongst a group of people, she said.<br/>

Only 28% of participants in the air cargo industry feel they are well prepared to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine once available, according to a survey released on Wednesday, as the industry begins to gear up for a major logistical challenge. Ground handlers and airports feel less prepared than freight forwarders and airlines, according to the survey conducted by The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) and Pharma.Aero which found 36% of participants planned to invest in additional physical or digital infrastructure. TIACA Vice Chairman Sanjeev Gadhia, who heads Nairobi-based air cargo operator Astral Aviation, said the global distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine would be the toughest logistical challenge ever faced, with an estimated 10b doses requiring distribution in 2021 and 2022. More than 40 vaccine candidates are already undergoing clinical trials, according to the WHO. “We know that as from November the first vaccines might be ready to be transported,” Gadhia said. “TIACA and Pharma.Aero call for more collaboration and transparency: information on vaccines specifications, volumes, production sites, trade lanes, is desperately needed by all.” Large cargo airlines like Korean Air Lines and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific have been investing in expanding pharmaceutical handling capabilities as they seek alternative revenue sources with passenger demand at a fraction of last year's levels. “Yield on vaccines are high compared to general cargo, hence airlines will have a financial benefit to transport vaccines and to invest in the supporting equipment,” said Gadhia, whose own airline is adding a freighter later this month.<br/>