A new digital “health passport” is to be piloted by a small number of passengers flying from the UK to the US for the first time next week under plans for a global framework for Covid-safe air travel. The CommonPass system, backed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), is designed to create a common international standard for passengers to demonstrate they do not have coronavirus. However, critics of similar schemes point to concerns over the sensitivity and specificity of the tests in various countries amid fears over greater monitoring over people’s movements. Paul Meyer, the CEO at the Commons Project, which was given startup funding by the Rockefeller Foundation two years ago and created the digital health pass, said countries that have closed borders and imposed quarantines are looking for ways to “thoughtfully reopen” their borders. “It’s hard to do that,” he told the Guardian. “It requires being able to assess the health of incoming travellers … Hopefully, we’ll soon start to see some vaccines come on to the market, but there is not going to be just one vaccine. “Some countries are going to probably say, ‘OK, I want to see documentation you’ve gotten one of these vaccines, but not one of those vaccines’.” Pointing to existing requirements in a number of countries, notably paper-based evidence of a yellow fever vaccination, Meyer said similar proof – held digitally – for coronavirus could soon be required to travel for “the foreseeable future”. He added: “This is about risk mitigation. There is no perfectly safe solution. This is about providing information that can help countries reduce the risk of it spreading.” The trial will apply for passengers flying from Heathrow to Newark, US, on a United Airlines flight on Wednesday. Tests from the private testing company Prenetics will be administered by the travel and medical services firm Collinson in Covid-19 testing facilities set up with Swissport. It follows a pilot by Cathay Pacific on flights between Hong Kong and Singapore.<br/>
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Airlines face a long, hard winter after a much hoped for rebound from the coronavirus crisis failed to materialise, prompting savage cost-cutting programmes and fresh calls for government support. "We are in a race against time. The key thing is to have the cash... we need to move quickly, very quickly," said Stephane Albernhe, managing partner at Archery Strategy Consulting. Airline revenues plunged 80% in the first six months of the year, according to the IATA, but they still had fixed costs to cover - crew, maintenance, fuel, airport levies and now aircraft storage. After a slight recovery in July as coronavirus curbs were eased, traffic fell again last month while bookings for the winter season - which begins on Oct 25 - are down 78 per cent compared with a year earlier, promising more hardship to come. One of the biggest disappointments has been the absence of highly lucrative business-class travellers who prefer now to rely on tele-conferencing rather than run the risk of catching the virus. Repeated efforts to reassure passengers that air travel is safe have failed to make much of a difference while government restrictions, including quarantines of up to 14 days for returning passengers in many countries, have only added to the pressures on the battered airline companies. "The risk of contracting Covid-19 during air travel is really very, very low," said Dr David Powell, medical consultant for IATA. The industry as a whole is hoping that the introduction of airport testing systems will restore passenger confidence and reduce if not completely remove the need for damaging quarantine regimes. There are already trial systems in place in several major airports around the world and, last Friday, France announced it would introduce quick, antigen-based testing by the end of the month.<br/>
What will it take to get people flying again? International air traffic is down 92% this year as travelers worry about catching COVID-19 and government travel bans and quarantine rules make planning difficult. One thing airlines believe could help is to have rapid virus tests of all passengers before departure. Scattered experiments on improving safety are under way around the world, and a UN organization is leading talks to set guidelines. There is a lot at stake. With no end in sight to the pandemic, the near total halt to international travel will hinder economies as they try to bounce back from recession and return to normal levels of business activity. Millions of jobs - at airlines, airports and travel related businesses such as hotels and restaurants - are affected. Story looks at some of the key issues. One major factor keeping people from taking long-haul flights is the fear they will be seated next to someone with COVID-19, according to a survey by the IATA. While flying helped carry the virus around the world initially, airplanes themselves have so far not been proven to be super-spreader locations the way business conferences and meat-packing plants have been. Most people are also reluctant to fly into a quarantine that restricts their activities for up to two weeks after arrival. “Testing all passengers will give people back their freedom to travel with confidence. And that will put millions of people back to work,” says Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s DG and CEO. Initial trials focus on testing passengers before departure, either at the airport or remotely. Information about the test result could be documented through a smartphone app. Newer tests can give results in less than an hour. The IATA is calling for rapid, accurate and scalable testing for all passengers. After airline executives appealed for help on this from the European Union and the White House’s COVID-19 task force, the issue appears to have moved to a United Nations forum, the International Civil Aviation Organization based in Montreal. The ICAO is working on guidelines based on scientific advice that countries could use in establishing testing regimes.<br/>
The forecast a year ago was for the Asia-Pacific to continue to benefit from an aviation boom. Hirings were in full swing, with some airlines dangling attractive salaries and perks to woo pilots. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing projected that the region would need an additional 266,000 pilots over the next 20 years. Then, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Airlines grounded their planes and pilots are now housebound. The global aviation industry shed more than 350,000 jobs in the past six months, and there is little sign the industry will return to former heights any time soon. The situation looks set to be even more grim. The IATA has forecast that travel demand will not return to last year's levels until 2024. The Air Transport Action Group, a coalition of industry experts, foresees 46m aviation-related jobs at risk globally. IATA said Asia-Pacific airlines would lose US$29b this year, with August traffic sinking 95.9% compared with a year earlier. "The Asia-Pacific was the first region exposed to the weakness coming from the disease outbreak, and their losses will be larger compared with other regions as current demand recovery is not coming with profitability," IATA said in its report in June. Singapore's Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung has said that the global aviation industry will take at least two years to recover from the pandemic.<br/>
Europe’s aviation safety regulator is poised to clear Boeing’s 737 Max passenger jet for a return to service by the end of this year as questions over the future of the troubled aircraft intensify amid rising cancellations. The signal from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency removes a substantial barrier to the single aisle aircraft’s global return to service after two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. Easa has insisted on closer oversight of the recertification process since the jet was grounded in March 2019, when it emerged that a faulty anti-stall system had contributed to the crashes. Since then, inquiries have found that Boeing concealed information from regulators and pilots about the systems’ weaknesses. The US FAA has come under heavy fire at home and abroad for its weak oversight of the development of the 737 Max. Boeing has spent billions to repair the problem and in compensating victims and airlines. Patrick Ky, Easa executive director, told Bloomberg in an interview that the agency was performing final document reviews ahead of a draft airworthiness directive it expects to issue next month. “Our analysis is showing that this is safe, and the level of safety reached is high enough for us,” Ky said. Easa’s stamp of approval takes Boeing a step closer to relaunching deliveries of its ill-starred single aisle. The FAA is also in the final stages of recertification, having this month released new recommendations for pilot training.<br/>
Iran and Ukraine will start three days of talks over a downed Ukrainian aircraft in Tehran from Monday, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The sides will discuss compensation terms as well as the technical and legal aspects of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 that Iran mistakenly shot down in January, killing all 176 aboard, IRNA reported, citing Mohsen Baharvand, the deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs. The previous round of talks was held in Kyiv in July.<br/>
Israel and the United Arab Emirates agreed on a deal to allow for 28 direct weekly passenger flights connecting Tel Aviv with Abu Dhabi and Dubai, according to Israel’s Transportation Ministry. The flights will begin “within weeks” and came after significant commercial interest from airliners on both sides in the routes, the statement said. Both countries are in the process of developing economic and diplomatic agreements following the decision to normalize relations earlier this year.<br/>
South Korean airlines will not impose fuel surcharges on international routes in November on low oil prices due to the coronavirus pandemic, industry sources said Monday. The surcharge for one-way tickets on international routes will remain at zero next month, unchanged from a month earlier, according to the sources. Local air carriers' fuel surcharges on international routes will stay at zero for the eighth consecutive month, raising expectations that the zero rate may last down the road. Local airlines' surcharges depend on the level of jet fuel prices traded on the Singaporean market. If the average jet fuel price on the Singapore spot market rose over $1.50 per gallon during the past month, South Korean airlines are allowed to impose fuel surcharges starting one month later. If jet fuel prices drop below the threshold, no surcharge is collected. There are 10 levels of surcharges, depending on the length of the route. Jet fuel prices on the Singapore market averaged $0.978 per gallon between Sept. 16 and Thursday. Local air carriers will also impose no fuel surcharges on domestic routes for the seventh consecutive month in November due to the coronavirus fallout. Surcharges are levied if the jet fuel price exceeds $1.20 per gallon.<br/>