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A United flight from London to Newark, New Jersey, performed the first US trial of a new digital health app designed to share travelers’ coronavirus test results. The CommonPass mobile app, created by the Commons Project Foundation and the World Economic Forum, is seen as a tool to help governments reopen borders by providing test data. The approach offers a common standard while avoiding paper documents and the risk of identity fraud, said Paul Meyer, the foundation’s CEO. Officials from US Customs and Border Protection and the CDC observed the arrival of Flight 15 at Newark Liberty International on Wednesday. The plane carried several passengers who were tested before boarding at London’s Heathrow Airport, with their results uploaded to the mobile app. The first CommonPass trial occurred earlier this month with a Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. flight from Hong Kong to Singapore. Airlines and airports worldwide have been crafting pilot programs in an effort to open air-travel corridors on specific routes in which travelers could avoid stringent quarantines by proving a negative test result. The digital framework for proving virus tests and future vaccination “gives countries more flexibility and opportunity to avoid closing the borders and having mandatory quarantines in place for all arriving countries,” said Dr. Brad Perkins, a co-founder of the Commons Project Foundation and its chief medical officer.<br/>

ANA Holdings is expecting to book a record net loss of around Y530b ($5b) and shed about 30 large jets in the business year through March as the coronavirus pandemic hits air travel demand hard, company sources said Wednesday. The parent of All Nippon Airways, which has withheld an earnings estimate so far this business year, believes it will take some time for demand, particularly for international flights, to recover due to the pandemic, the sources said. ANA will retire half of about the 60 wide-body jets it owns, including those on lease, to cut costs. They are less fuel efficient and require more spending for maintenance compared with smaller aircraft. The company said the number of passengers for its international flights plunged 96% in the five months through August from a year earlier after many countries around the world imposed travel restrictions. Even though the number of domestic flight passengers has been gradually increasing partly thanks to the government's travel subsidy program, the IATA expects that global air traffic will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024. The aviation company plans to announce next Tuesday its earnings results for the first half of the current business year through September and outlook for the full-year earnings. ANA will also unveil a plan to acquire Y400b in subordinated loans from Japanese banks, allowing ANA to count part of the debt as capital, the sources said. As part of efforts to turn around its business, ANA has been in talks with labor unions to cut annual pay for its employees by around 30%, while considering selling unused assets and suspending operations on unprofitable flight routes. ANA logged a net loss of Y108.82b in the April-June quarter.<br/>

They are both critically important to their domestic economies, highly regarded by customers and totally reliant on international travel. They are also in deep financial strife and shedding thousands of jobs because of the coronavirus crisis. Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines have stood out for over half a century as aviation powerhouses, prestigious brands atop a lucrative market fueled by Asia’s economic boom. The pandemic has severely hurt the pair, but Cathay is likely in a tougher spot, analysts say. Cathay announced Wednesday that it is laying off nearly 6,000 people and eliminating 2,600 vacant positions, which combined amount to about 24% of its total workforce. “In these straitened times, we must focus on a single world-leading premium travel brand -- Cathay Pacific -- complemented by a single low cost leisure travel brand -- HK Express,” Cathay Chairman Patrick Healy said Wednesday, referring to the budget carrier the company acquired last year. Cathay’s cull follows Singapore Airlines saying in September that it was cutting 20% of its workforce, or 4,300 positions, not long after it raised US$8b from a rights issue and loans. Cathay also raised billions of dollars in a restructuring in June that, among other things, resulted in the Hong Kong government getting a stake and two observer seats on its board. Investors welcomed Cathay’s announcement Wednesday. “The worst could be over for Cathay with this restructuring,” said K. Ajith, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian Pte in Singapore. Yet the outlook remains challenging at best, with Cathay warning that it will be operating at well under 50% of pre-pandemic passenger capacity next year. And that’s its most optimistic scenario. Singapore Airlines is in a better position because its staff costs are about 20% lower than Cathay’s, said Ajith. “We’re expecting Singapore Airlines’ earnings to show some improvement in the fiscal year second-quarter, while for Cathay it will be in the first half,” he said. “This improvement in earnings for Cathay will be driven by its cargo business.” Story has more.<br/>

Air Canada will fly all-business-class configured Airbus A319s on several scheduled routes this winter as it searches for passengers after the coronavirus decimated Canada’s air transport industry. The carrier says on 21 October it will deploy the A319s – which are part of the company’s Jetz charter fleet – on Air Canada routes to warm-weather destinations during the all-important Christmas travel season. The A319s have only 58 seats, all in business class. “Customers booking on a Jetz flight will enjoy such amenities as its all-business-class seating configuration, upgraded meal service and shorter boarding and deplaning times. These features, combined with Jetz’s other attributes, create a private-jet-like experience,” says Air Canada VP network planning and alliances, Mark Galardo. The aircraft, which are typically available for charter by professional sports teams, touring music bands or corporate clients, will be used for commercial service between 12 December and 6 January. They will fly nonstop from Air Canada’s hubs of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal to southern sun destinations in the US, Mexico and Caribbean. Such destinations, popular with Canadian snowbirds, include Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, Cancun, Barbados and Puerto Vallarta. In addition, Air Canada will offer the aircraft on flights from Toronto to western Canadian destinations Kelowna and Vancouver.<br/>

A Canadian union has floated the idea of re-nationalising legacy carrier Air Canada in light of the “disheartening impact” of the coronavirus pandemic and the government’s lack of support for the industry. The airline’s machinists’ union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), on 20 October sent a letter to the country’s ministers of transport and finance asking to discuss returning the airline to government ownership. The letter cites “unparalleled devastation” of the industry. Air Canada was privatised in 1988. ”We now recommend a debate on the re-nationalisation of Air Canada,” the union writes. “It is long past time for the federal government to step in and prevent our crucial air transportation industry from collapsing in the midst of this global pandemic... We are calling for investment in the industry, particularly as it impacts upon Air Canada and the tens of thousands of Canadians who rely upon this company for their income and their livelihoods." But a trade group representing Canada’s largest passenger carriers said on 19 October that loans and loan guarantees would be more useful than a government takeover. “We are not looking for government ownership,” Mike McNaney, chief executive of the National Airlines Council of Canada, which represents Air Canada, WestJet, Jazz Aviation and Air Transat, told Canadian television. <br/>

The government is likely to extend the deadline for submission of bids for privatisation of Air India yet another time till December 15. The last date for submission of bids is October 30. Earlier, while issuing a corrigendum to the bid documents, the Department of Disinvestment (DIPAM) in the Finance Ministry said that in view of the requests received from the interested bidders and the prevailing situation due to Covid-19, the date has been extended to October 30 from August 31. The government is also trying to sweeten the deal by allowing flexibility on the debt component of Air India. There is talk on giving investors the flexibility to decide on the high debt of the airline. The flexibility if it comes will replace the current condition of the buyer taking over more than a third of the debt and transferring the rest to a special purpose vehicle. Some potential investors have sought flexibility and asked that the debt should not be fixed at the stage of the bidding. The government has been trying to sell Air India for the past few years. According to a report by financial services house, HSBC, previously, when the government tried to sell Air India, the terms and the shape in which government wanted to sell Air India were not sufficiently attractive to any of the potential buyers. Hence the government has sweetened the deal this time and has decided to be more flexible with the terms. First of all, the government is ready to sell a 100% stake in Air India (previously, it was selling only 76%). In addition, the government has shifted almost 60% of the total debt to a SPV. Total debt on Air India’s balance sheet stood at $8b, but the government has transferred $5b of debt to a SPV and the buyer will have to absorb $3b of debt, most of which is aircraft-related.<br/>

India has struck a deal to restore flights with Germany, which had ended abruptly in late September amid a row over parity of services. Germany was one of several countries India negotiated a “travel bubble” agreement with in the summer to enable the restoration of limited services between the two countries as coronavirus-related travel restrictions began to be eased. But Lufthansa late last month was forced to cancel its flights to India until 20 October after the Indian government complained about travel restrictions which put Indian carriers ”at a significant disadvantage” resulting in inequitable distribution of traffic in favour of Lufthansa. It noted the German carrier was operating 20 frequencies a week between the countries compared to Air India’s three to four weekly services. Today in a social media posting, Indian aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri says flights between India and Germany will recommence under an air bubble agreement. He says under the arrangement Lufthansa will operate to Delhi four times a week and to both Mumbai and Bengaluru three times weekly. For its part Air India will serve Frankfurt five times a week from Delhi and twice-weekly from Bengaluru. Lufthansa had originally planned to restore flights to Chennai in October prior to the suspension of the air travel bubble arrangement.<br/>

Copa Airlines started flying Wednesday from Havana to Panama, as part of one of few authorized operations at the Jose Marti International Airport. Flight CM0372 will departure Havana at 15:15 local time, and once in Panama it will be connected to some other airports in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, the United States, Mexico, Uruguay, Chile and Canada, Nelson Cabrera, Copa Airlines´ Sales executive, reported. There will be a second Copa flight with same flight number, departure site and destination, slated for October 29, which will have connections with terminals in São Paulo, Guayaquil, New York, Miami, Mexico City and Santiago de Chile. After seven months of border closure due to Covid-19, Panama reopened its international flights on October 12, and imposed as an entry requirement that travelers submit a negative PCR test maximum 48 hours before boarding.<br/>

A passenger has accused a Turkish Airlines employee of slapping him after an altercation at the check-in desk. Video recorded by the traveller shows a worker appearing to slap the phone he’s filming on out of his hands, reports samaa.tv. The incident occurred on 17 October at around 5am after a heated exchange between the passenger and a staff member at Islamabad Airport in Pakistan. It was sparked by the employee giving the passenger’s passport and ticket back to someone else by mistake, according to the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA). The PCAA tweeted about the event after the video went viral on social media. “A video was shared on social media wherein a passenger alleged that he was slapped by staff at the airport. Civil Aviation Authority has made a preliminary check along with scrutiny of the CCTV footage,” it said. “It has been found that the staff at check in counter of a foreign airline handed over passport and ID card of the pax to another passenger. Immediately, the other pax was located and documents retrieved. There was exchange of hot words between the pax and the airline staff.” While the PCAA claims there was no evidence of the alleged attack, it said an investigation into what occurred is ongoing.<br/>

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has hit Ethiopian Airlines with a five-week suspension of operations. The East African carrier is banned from flying its route from Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport to Shanghai’s Pudong for five weeks beginning Monday, October 26. The ban is a result of as many as 15 passengers from flight ET684 on October 6th testing positive for coronavirus. Five of them showed positive results immediately upon arrival and were quarantined at the airport. Another ten tested positive a week later, on October 13. China requires all international travelers to have a negative PCR test done no later than 48 hours before departure. The people who tested positive on Ethiopian’s October 6 flight had received their pre-departure test certificates from Silk Road General Hospital, a Chinese-owned COVID-19 testing center in Addis Ababa. As a result, Ethiopian says it will no longer accept passengers with COVID-19 tests done at Silk Road General Hospital.<br/>

Air New Zealand’s next safety video will be made in conjunction with the country’s tourism board and focus on promoting domestic travel. The film, set to be released this year, will feature local actors and the airline’s staff and comes after Air NZ and Tourism New Zealand signed a new three-year memorandum of understanding to co-operate on marketing activity. “Kiwis are looking to do something new and go somewhere they have never been to before. They are also looking for spectacular natural landscapes and iconic experiences, which the video will have in spades,” said Tourism NZ commercial director René de Monchy. “With 71% of Kiwis planning to take a domestic holiday in the next 12 months, and domestic tourism being so vital to the country’s recovery, it’s the perfect time to showcase what New Zealand has to offer.”<br/>