COVID tests should be more widely used in international travel than quarantines, the chair of the WHO’s Emergency Committee said on Friday. Didier Houssin, chair of the independent panel of experts advising WHO on the COVID-19 pandemic, said it was important for the UN agency to provide fresh guidance on safe international air travel. “And clearly the use of the tests is certainly now supposed to have a much larger place compared to quarantine, for example, which would certainly facilitate things considering all the efforts which have been made by airlines and by airports,” Houssin said. WHO’s top emergency expert Mike Ryan said that travelling was now “relatively safe” and posed a “relatively low” health risk, but that “there is no zero risk”. “Therefore it is trade-off that countries have to make, the risk of a traveller arriving and potentially starting another chain of transmission, against the obvious benefit of allowing travel from a social and an economic point of view,” he said. “You can add testing and different measures into that. We are looking at that right now. We will be coming out very soon with more advice for countries in terms of the risk management process.” Ryan said that a WHO-led international team of scientists had held their first virtual meeting with Chinese counterparts regarding joint investigations into the origin of the novel coronavirus that emerged in China last December. “We fully expect the team to deploy on the ground,” he said, giving no timeframe.<br/>
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A global aviation manual now under review by a UN body suggests global guidelines calling for the use of highly reliable tests when screening passengers to detect the novel coronavirus ahead of flights, three sources familiar with the matter said. Carriers and airports are pushing for uniform global testing guidelines to waive strict quarantine requirements that are decimating travel, with airline trade group IATA forecasting a 66% decline in 2020 air traffic because of the pandemic. Travel restrictions and the use of testing now vary globally. Certain airlines require passengers to obtain a negative test, even as some countries allow visitors in without quarantine, while others bar all non-essential foreigners. The ICAO Manual on Testing and Cross Border Risk Management Measures, expected in November, would offer voluntary technical guidance but not oblige countries to remove quarantines. The manual is not expected to suggest specific tests, such as antigen or polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the sources said. Instead, it would recommend passengers be screened using a test with a sensitivity and specificity of 95% so there would be few false positives and negatives, the sources added. Some rapid tests are less sensitive and therefore more likely to miss positive cases than PCR alternatives, although the accuracy gap has narrowed. One of the sources said a range of tests, with reliability as low as around 80% to close to 100%, had initially been considered. Another proposal is that passengers be tested up to 48 hours ahead of travel but not necessarily at the airport, the sources said. <br/>
After nine years and billions of euros later, Berlin’s repeatedly delayed new airport finally opened on Saturday with an easyJet flight. The budget airline was greeted by a water salute after touching down at Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport, which was initially planned to open in 2011. Initially, the easyJet plane was due to land simultaneously with a flight operated by Lufthansa, but poor visibility meant the planes landed separately. EasyJet has formed a new partnership with the country’s rail operator Deutsche Bahn to ease passenger transfers by combining plane and train tickets into a single booking. It will be the leading airline at BER after it acquired part of bankrupt Air Berlin in December 2017. In 2019, more than 12m passengers travelled on easyJet’s Berlin flights. But, since then demand for air travel has collapsed due to the coronavirus pandemic.<br/>
Overseas travel from England that’s not related to work will be prohibited to help curb a resurgence of the coronavirus, throwing airlines into a fresh crisis. The new rules, part of a wider partial lockdown, will apply from Thursday until Dec. 2 and come as the industry struggles to survive a collapse in demand. Airlines hadn’t been informed about the restrictions before the announcement Saturday evening. Carriers were already reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic. They have eliminated jobs, retired older fuel-guzzling aircraft and turned to capital markets and asset sales to survive a slump in travel. Many have slashed capacity further in the wake of the resurgence in Covid-19 infections during the slower winter season. EasyJet said it will operate its planned flights until Thursday. “It’s likely that much of the UK touching schedule will be canceled during lockdown with our planned flying set to resume in early December,” it said. British Airways said it’s assessing the new information and will keep its customers updated on changes to travel plans. “Without targeted support to help protect the UK’s aviation industry, tens of thousands of jobs across the country will be lost,” Heathrow Airport said, calling on the government to put in a place a package of measures including business rates relief for airports and a Covid testing regime for passengers. According to restrictions announced late Saturday, “overnight stays and holidays away from primary residences will not be allowed -- including holidays in the UK and abroad.” All but essential shops will close, as will restaurants, bars and gyms, though schools and universities will remain open.<br/>
Argentina will resume commercial international flights from November and allow tourists to enter from bordering countries, the government said on Friday, as it aims to lift coronavirus restrictions after one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. Since April, most air traffic has been grounded, with the exception of special outgoing flights for residents and citizens of specified countries, including the US, and incoming flights for Argentines. The government extended the lockdown, including the flight ban, several times, prompting criticism from the Airline industry group IATA. In its official bulletin on Friday, Argentina said regular international commercial flights for all airlines that operate in Argentina will resume. Only Argentina’s citizens and residents and tourists from neighboring countries will be allowed to enter. Those tourists will be allowed into Buenos Aires under a health protocol that includes a negative test for the new coronavirus before the flight and travelers must submit a sworn statement that they are free of symptoms. “It is appropriate to promote the resumption of international flights on a regular basis in favor of airlines that operate to and from our country, to give certainty and predictability to both passengers and operations, strictly respecting entry restrictions into the country,” the resolution by the Ministry of Transportation said.<br/>
A super typhoon blew into the eastern Philippines with disastrous force Sunday, killing at least 10 people and triggering volcanic mudflows that engulfed about 150 houses before weakening as it blew away from the country, officials said. Typhoon Goni blasted into the eastern island province of Catanduanes at dawn from the Pacific with sustained winds of 225 kilometers (140 miles) per hour and gusts of 280 kph, threatening some provinces still recovering from a deadly typhoon that hit a week ago. Goni barreled through densely populated regions and threatened to sideswipe Manila, which shut down its main airport, but shifted southward Sunday night and spared the capital, the government weather agency said. Manila’s main airport was ordered shut down for 24 hours from Sunday to Monday, and airlines canceled dozens of international and domestic flights. Nearly a million people were preemptively moved into emergency shelters.<br/>
The man walked into an office at Kennedy International Airport with paperwork that showed the flight information and serial numbers he needed to pick up an expensive shipment. Everything appeared to be in order, and he drove off with a truckload of Prada. But the bags, clothing and jewelry never made it to their destination. Instead, they were taken to a defunct beauty shop in Queens, prosecutors said. On Wednesday, the man, David Lacarriere, and two others appeared in court to face charges in a 22-count indictment in one of the largest heists in the history of JFK airport. Prosecutors said they stole $6m worth of luxury goods in two thefts — the second more brazen than the first — that had echoes of the famous Lufthansa robbery in 1978 that played a starring role in the film “Goodfellas.” It turned out the men had used fake paperwork to cart off more than 4,000 real pieces of luxury merchandise, prosecutors said. They were caught in June when the police raided the Candi World Beauty Bar, the closed salon where the stolen merchandise was stashed, and interrupted a sale, prosecutors said. “After months of free spending and probably thinking that they had gotten away with these audacious heists,” said Melinda Katz, the Queens County district attorney, “all six defendants have been indicted.” Story has more.<br/>
An Aviation Security Services staff member planted a hoax bomb containing wires, a cylinder, batteries, a cellphone and a cryptic note to expose concerns over security at Dunedin Airport, a court has heard. Preetam Prakash Maid was arrested and charged with taking an imitation explosive device into a security-enhanced area several months later. Maid, 32, is on trial before Judge Michael Crosbie in the Dunedin District Court. Crown lawyer Robin Bates told the jury the device was planted on the northern side of the airport on March 17, 2019, just two days after the Christchurch terror attack. Part of Maid's role was to carry out perimeter checks. He told a supervisor he wanted to check an object spotted near a hut. He took a photo of what appeared to be a black bag near the hut's entrance. A further inspection treated the bag as “suspicious”, Bates said. The airport closed briefly, with an international flight returning to Australia and several domestic flights diverted.<br/>Story has full details.<br/>
Spain’s Ciudad Real airport had become almost obsolete before the Covid-19 outbreak, operating mainly as a drop-off point for hunting enthusiasts keen to visit the region’s renowned country estates. The arrival of the coronavirus ended even that trickle of demand, tearing up the growth plans of the owner, CR International Airport SL. But rather than face the prospect of collapse, the company reinvented the hub as a home for grounded planes, with capacity to store as many as 300 through a series of renovation projects. “When the pandemic hit, right after the end of the the hunting season in February, we received dozens of requests to stow planes,” said Francisco Luna, CEO at CR International, which bought Ciudad Real in 2016. The main taxiway has already been converted, and accommodates about half of the almost 80 jets parked at the hub. Three more reconstructions are underway to allow for more arrivals, the CEO said, adding that the hub is profitable. Ciudad Real’s pivot comes as more than 8,100 planes sit idle around the world, or 31% of the global fleet, according to aviation database Cirium. An expected resurgence in international travel hasn’t materialized, as fresh waves of infections and travel restrictions kill demand from the US to Australia. Meanwhile smaller airports are facing a financial crisis of their own, with one in four European hubs struggling to stave off insolvency without state help. Another Spanish beneficiary of the excess of grounded planes is Teruel airport, 275 kilometers east of Madrid, which expects revenues to increase 25% this year in part due to plane storage. Regional and city authorities own the hub, which was designed to maintain, recycle and stow planes. France’s Chateauroux airport near Paris is another to have become more focused on storage than travel, even turning away airlines seeking to store more planes.<br/>
Boeing’s decision on whether to launch a new, midrange jetliner is likely to hinge on the success of the 737 Max as it returns to service, according to one of the grounded jet’s engine suppliers. How sales of the Boeing narrow-body plane fare against Airbus models will be key to the US planemaker’s new-product strategy, Philippe Petitcolin, CEO of French engine-maker Safran, said Friday. A decision is probably two to three years away, he said. “If Boeing’s market share falls to a third, then it might decide to launch a project in 2022 or 2023,” Petitcolin said on a call after reporting Q3 sales. He added that while the move is possible, it’s “not the most probable.” LEAP engines made by a partnership of Safran and General Electric are the only option on the 737 Max and one of two turbine choices for the its main competitor, the Airbus A320neo family. Before the 737 Max was grounded in March 2019 following two deadly accidents, Airbus had an edge in the market. The gap has now widened, with several hundred Boeing Max cancellations since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The 737 Max is expected to win regulatory approval to fly again within weeks. <br/>
For days after the second fatal crash of a Boeing 737 Max last year, one nation after another halted flights on the beleaguered jetliner. But officials in the US held out, saying they needed hard evidence linking the two disasters to a common cause before grounding Boeing’s best-selling jet. Early on the third day, that evidence arrived from Boeing itself. One of the manufacturer’s top safety officials called the US FAA’s chief of safety, Ali Bahrami on the morning of March 13, 2019, according to documents released by investigators for the House of Representatives that reveal undisclosed details on the jet’s grounding. Satellite data of the crash in Ethiopia had been decoded the night before and showed similarities with a Max crash in the Java Sea months earlier, Bahrami said the Boeing official told him. Physical evidence from the scene also bolstered the linkage, he was told. The crashes and subsequent investigations have cost Boeing billions of dollars, spawned a criminal probe and tarnished the reputations of both the company and FAA. Regulators are poised to restore the jet to service later this year after mandating changes to a flight control system that went haywire, contributing to the crashes that killed 346. On that day in 2019, Bahrami abruptly ended the call with Elizabeth Pasztor, Boeing’s then-vice president for safety in its commercial airplanes division, and rushed to the office of the FAA’s then-acting Administrator Daniel Elwell. Bahrami said he recommended a halt to all Max flights and Elwell agreed. “Then I immediately called Boeing and let them know, ‘We’re going to ground the fleet,’” Bahrami said. Story has full details.<br/>