Aiustralia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne has described an incident at Doha airport, where 13 Australian women were invasively searched without their consent, as a "grossly disturbing" and "concerning" set of events. A group of 13 Australian women were subjected to invasive physical searches without their consent, earlier this month, after reports airport terminal staff in Doha discovered a premature baby abandoned in a bathroom earlier. The incident took place on board flight QR908 from Doha to Sydney on October 2. It is alleged Qatari authorities forced the women to remove their underwear for a genital examination in an ambulance on the tarmac. Sydney lawyer Dr Wolfgang Babeck was a passenger on the 42-person flight. Himself returning to Australia from Germany, he said most of the people on the flight were transitting from various locations in western Europe. "Speaking beforehand, we exchanged some of our stories because many had been knocked back from flights two or three times trying to get home," he said. Dr Babeck said one of the 13 women searched was a mother travelling with her two children. Some of the other women were travelling with partners, while others were alone. "Obviously some were upset, some were angry ... one was also crying," he said of when the women were brought back into the cabin. He said the plane's staff did not appear to know what had occurred. According to a statement from Hamad Airport the baby remains unidentified but is safe and receiving care. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is still seeking information from the women affected and has made counselling and mental health services available for them.<br/>
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French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari isn’t shying away from a possible temporary nationalization of airlines hit by the travel slowdown caused by the coronavirus epidemic. Nationalizing airlines is “a technical option, temporarily, but you need a project, a strategy,” Djebbari said Sunday. “Nationalizing a company, entering the company’s capital, it’s a short-term solution.” France and the Netherlands each own a 14% stake in Air France-KLM, which has agreed to a government rescue package with loans and state guarantees. But as the pandemic is accelerating in Europe, uncertainty over travel and the future of airlines is increasing, and governments might be asked to step in again. Smaller airlines, like Corsair in France, are also struggling, and some are wondering if infusions of taxpayers’ money are just prolonging the pain. “In a world where we don’t travel as much, the question is: what should be the business model of Air France-KLM? What’s its cash need and what should the role of the state be?” Djebbari said.<br/>
Airlines are piling up billions of dollars in additional losses as the pandemic chokes off air travel, but a recent uptick in passengers, however modest, has provided some hope. American Airlines on Thursday reported a loss of $2.4b and Southwest lost $1.16b in the third quarter, typically a very strong period of air travel that includes most of the summer vacation season. Revenue plunged at both airlines. Combined with earlier losses reported by Delta and United, the four largest US airlines have lost at least $10b in each of the last two quarters. It’s an unprecedented nosedive that has caused the once highly profitable airlines to forage for billions of dollars in government aid and private borrowing to hang on until more travelers return. The airlines, however, are offering upbeat forecasts about Thanksgiving and Christmas travel, even as many states report an increase in confirmed virus cases. Southwest feels confident enough that it will stop blocking middle seats on its planes Dec. 1. Southwest and Delta are among a handful of airlines still limiting capacity to reassure passengers who are nervous about packed planes during a pandemic. Southwest said it will drop that policy because of “science-based findings from trusted medical and aviation organizations” about how COVID-19 is spread. Airline groups and aircraft manufacturers, relying in part on research by the military, say that strong cabin air flow and high-efficiency filters make planes safer than other indoor settings. There is a financial angle too, as flights become more full. Southwest said it turned away $20m in ticket sales in September and estimated it could lose $40m in November. Delta plans to stop blocking seats in the first half of next year. American and United have long tried to fill every seat. Story has more details.<br/>
More than seven months into a pandemic, some small cities are grappling with airline service cuts because of the slump in air travel. US airlines lost more than $10b in the previous quarter and have been cutting routes to some small cities in an effort to stop bleeding cash. Under the terms of $25b in federal aid, airlines were prohibited from laying off employees through Sept. 30 and were required to maintain minimum levels of service. Now that those terms have expired, airlines have begun furloughing thousands of workers and are cutting additional routes — service reductions that are hitting smaller cities especially hard. Talks for additional aid have dragged on for months without a deal. American Airlines, for example, initially suspended service to 11 cities from Oct. 7 to Nov. 3 and has recently extended those suspensions until the end of November. CEO Doug Parker said earlier this month that American would be forced to make cuts to other markets if the government fails to provide additional aid to the industry. For six of those airports, American is the only carrier operating scheduled flights. Many of them are hundreds of miles from the nearest airport or major city. Service cuts at airports like these are more than an inconvenience. Airports, even small ones, provide a wide range of jobs, everything from maintenance and food service to taxi driving and construction. Some airports may get by with private and chartered flights, but scheduled airline flights provide a valuable stream of visitors and revenue. Story has more.<br/>
Singapore and Germany have agreed to start a reciprocal “green lane” allowing travel for business or official reasons, the latest step by governments to prise open borders largely sealed by the coronavirus. Residents of both countries will have to follow virus prevention and public health measures, according to a joint statement on Friday. Operational details, including health protocols and application processes, will be announced in due course. The agreement could serve as a model for future ones between Singapore and other countries in Europe. With coronavirus cases easing in Singapore, the city state has been working on re-establishing travel links to help reboot its economy and aviation industry. On October 15, Singapore and Hong Kong announced they planned to reopen their borders to one another for the first time in almost seven months, though no firm date has been set yet. That arrangement, which includes leisure travel, could start with one daily flight between the two Asian financial hubs. <br/>
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government is in “continual discussions” with airlines over aid for an industry buckling under the financial strain caused by Covid-19. His comment Friday suggests the government is getting close to delivering on industry-specific funding it first pledged in March, as it shut down large swathes of the economy in response to the pandemic. “The details are still very much under discussion and in reflection,” the prime minister said at an Ottawa news conference, when asked about a report his cabinet is weighing an airline bailout package. “There are certain industries that are harder hit than others because of this pandemic. Travel and tourism is certainly one of them,” Trudeau said, promising he’d work “to ensure that we’re going to have a strong airline industry coming back... My largest preoccupation is always going to be for Canadians themselves for workers and for people in rural and remote -- and not even so rural and remote regions, like Atlantic Canada -- that are seeing significant reductions in airline service.” <br/>
Auckland International Airport expects it will be more than three years before international travel recovers to pre-pandemic levels. The company's annual meeting has heard that it was taking a more cautious approach than the IATA and ratings agency S&P Global, which have picked a recovery in global air travel within three years. "At this stage we continue to think it prudent to take a more conservative approach," chair Patrick Strange said. "We believe a full recovery could well take longer than three years. But we're hopeful that domestic travel will return to normal within two years. And we believe that we will see quarantine-free travel both ways across the Tasman and to the Pacific Islands earlier." Strange said the pandemic had been the biggest challenge to the company in its 54 year history, with international traffic having gone from 30,000 a day to mere hundreds, and on some days no one. The company was quick to slash all unnecessary spending, suspend big capital projects such as expanding terminals, and laid off 260 staff, more than a third of its workforce. Earnings over the past few months have been about $10m a month, better than expected, but Strange said the outlook was still so uncertain that it will not make any financial forecast for the current year.<br/>
Finland is to provide a E350m recapitalisation of state-owned airports operator Finavia amid the continued slump in air traffic demand. Passenger traffic remained 90% down in September across Finavia’s airports and 92% down at its biggest gateway, Helsinki. In response, Finavia will shut one of the three runways at the capital’s airport this winter. Finland’s ministerial committee on economic policy is now seeking authorisation from parliament to inject E350 million into the company. Tytti Tuppurainen, minister responsible for state ownership, says: ”Passenger numbers at Finavia’s airports have completely collapsed and, unfortunately, are not expected to return quickly to pre-pandemic levels. As a long-term owner, the state wants to develop Finavia’s competitiveness and thus ensure that there are preconditions for good domestic and international air connections throughout Finland in the future as well.” Finavia chief executive Kimmo Maki says: “The Covid-19 crisis has caused unprecedented financial distress for the aviation and tourism sectors. The consequences are also dramatic for us. “Helsinki airport has achieved a significant position as an important hub for air traffic between Europe and Asia. The current standing is a result of long-term work and it will take years to get it back.”<br/>
Helsinki Airport has announced its plans to close Runway 1 for six months, beginning from 1 November 2020 until 30 April 2021. Just as other airports in the world, the number of flights at Helsinki Airport has decreased significantly because of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions. Finavia airport director Ulla Lettijeff said: “It is sad that we have to close one of our runways for the second time this year. It is an indicator of the prevailing difficult situation in air traffic. There is no end in sight for the difficulties faced by the aviation industry.” Out of the three runways of the airport, Runway 3 was closed earlier this year for four months, from the beginning of April to the beginning of August. There were indications of recovery in air traffic during summer, but as ‘the autumn has gone on, the coronavirus situation has again worsened’, the airport stated. Lettijeff added that estimates indicate there will be only 25% of regular flight numbers during the winter and so it ‘makes no sense to maintain full capacity’. The projected number of takeoffs and landings every day will be 100 to 150 while the regular number is more than 500 operations per day.<br/>
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has denied reports that it will freeze development of the Mitsubishi Aircraft SpaceJet, but is looking at “possibilities” for the regional jet programme. “MHI is continuing a detailed review of the schedule of the SpaceJet program, in view of the impact of COVID-19, and is moving forward with development with an appropriate budget that takes into consideration the challenging financial headwinds facing MHI Group,” says MHI. “It is true that we are considering various possibilities, but there is no truth to reports that we have decided to freeze development.” MHI also confirmed that MHI’s next mid-term business plan, which also covers the SpaceJet programme, will be announced on 30 October alongside the company’s second quarter financial results. MHI issued the statement in response to Japanese media reports, quoting sources within MHI, that the programme will be radically scaled back, effectively freezing it amid the global aviation slowdown. Flight testing is on hold, but Mitsubishi Aircraft says “our teams are focused on validation and reviewing the flight test data we have from over 3900 flight hours.”<br/>