unaligned

A woman died from Covid-19 on a Spirit Airlines flight in July, but none of the other passengers onboard were ever informed about the cause of death. The 38-year-old woman, who has asthma, was travelling from Las Vegas to Dallas on flight 208 on 24 July when she started to have difficulty breathing. She used her inhaler and was given oxygen, to no avail. A flight attendant attempted CPR after the woman had lost consciousness, and passed out herself from the exertion. The plane was diverted to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where medics attempted to revive the woman on the boarding bridge, but she was pronounced dead at the airport. Despite the fact that investigators learned within two days that the woman had tested positive for coronavirus, this information was not fed back to any other passengers, including those who had been sitting near her on the aircraft. Local police and fire departments were informed, but the health department, having received the positive Covid result directly from the lab rather than the Office of the Medical Investigator, did not investigate further or discover that the woman had been on a flight when she died. This meant it failed to launch a tracing process with the CDC. Story has more.<br/>

Ryanair CE Michael O’Leary condemned Boris Johnson’s “mismanagement” of the coronavirus crisis on Monday as the airline recorded losses over the lucrative summer months. The Irish airline’s boss also warned of a winter of deepening losses as governments roll out travel restrictions to contain the spread of the disease. The low-cost airline reported a net loss of E197m for the six months to the end of September, excluding exceptional items, after passenger numbers fell 80% to just over 17m. Charlie Cornish, CE of Manchester Airports Group, which owns London Stansted and East Midlands airports, also criticised the government over the new lockdown in England that comes into force this week and bans leisure travel. The government moves hit airline and aviation share prices in early trade, with BA owner IAG and Rolls-Royce two of the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100, although their shares recovered later in the London morning. The European summer is normally highly profitable for Ryanair, which recorded a profit of E1.15b in the corresponding period in 2019.  The European airline industry has been savaged by the pandemic. IAG suffered an operating loss of E5.95b in the first nine months of the year, while easyJet has lost more than GBP800m in 2020. Ryanair expects to record higher losses in the second half of its financial year, which began on October 1, following travel curbs in place across many of its key markets including the UK. Ryanair has no plans to cancel any UK flights despite the government restrictions banning leisure travel, which means customers will not receive refunds if they choose not to fly, O’Leary added.<br/>

Ryanair’s UK customers who had planned to go on holiday in November will likely not be able to do so due to a lockdown beginning this week, and the airline has said they will not be eligible for a refund either. The UK government has banned all travel not deemed essential under the new rules, but Ryanair does not intend to cancel any flights. It said as per law it only offers refunds in case of cancellation. Passengers who had plans to travel for non-essential reasons will be able to change to a later flight without paying a fee. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said: "If a flight is operating then no, we will not be offering refunds. But what customers can avail of is our change facility and we've waived the change fee so if they have booking in November they can change it and move it to December or January if needs be.” He also said that Ryanair had paid all refunds to customers who had requested one following disruption to air travel earlier this year. "We have refunded every single customer who has requested a refund… from March, April, May, June and July. Every customer who has requested a cash refund from Ryanair has now received it." If a flight is cancelled, customers are entitled to a full refund. They can choose to accept vouchers or a rebooking in its place. Earlier, Ryanair posted its first losses over the summer in decades, as passenger numbers plummeted amid the pandemic.<br/>

EasyJet said the date of its full-year results was not confirmed, having previously said they would be published on 17 November before new lockdowns across Europe led to a deepening of the COVID-19 crisis for airlines. “The date of reporting our full-year results is not currently confirmed. We will update the market once a date has been confirmed,” an easyJet spokeswoman said Monday. Even before new lockdowns were announced in England, France and Germany, easyJet had been considering options to bolster its finances. Its balance sheet has come under increasing strain as a second wave of the pandemic stopped dead a recovery in travel. Any delay in publishing its results would add to investor uncertainty. <br/>

The union representing pilots at Southwest on Monday urged US regulators to simplify the procedure recommended to address an emergency that can force down the nose down of the Boeing 737 MAX, an issue in both of two fatal crashes and the plane’s grounding. Monday was the deadline for submitting public comments to the US FAA, which on Oct. 6 released a draft report on revised training procedures for the MAX that has been grounded since March 2019 after two fatal crashes killed 346 people. The FAA proposal adds new training requirements to deal with a safety system called MCAS tied to both fatal crashes. Separately, the families of many victims of the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 737 MAX crash opposed the training changes as “inadequate.” The families called the changes “insufficient to ensure that 737 MAX pilots are properly equipped to handle all MCAS-related emergencies and prepared to serve as the last line of defense against another tragedy.” The FAA is requiring new safeguards to MCAS, including requiring it receive data from two sensors, before it allows the 737 MAX to return to service. Pilots will undergo new simulator training before they can resume flights, including training on multiple flight deck alerts during unusual conditions along with how to respond to a runaway stabilizer with timely pilot actions required. The Southwest pilots union said the revisions to the runaway stabilizer procedure should be simplified. The union added “error rates increase exponentially with a checklist containing eight memory steps including three conditional steps.” After testing the checklist in a MAX “simulator” the union “found it difficult to recall the steps in order, and furthermore find this checklist is ‘clunky at best.’” The union recommends redesigning the procedure.<br/>

A former flight attendant is suing China Southern for suspending him after his sexual orientation was made public without his consent last year, in a rare legal maneuver that pits him against the country’s largest airline. A video showing the man kissing another man was leaked on Chinese social media in October 2019. The man, surnamed Chai, who is declining to use his full name in media appearances, brought his case to a court in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Monday. Since the video appeared, the airline suspended Chai for six months and cut his pay, Chai’s lawyer Zhong Xialu said. Chai said he was paid around 10% of his salary while under suspension. The airline also declined to renew his contract, which was a five-year deal that was up for renewal in April this year. Chai, who had been working for the airline since 2015, said he was sad to lose a job that he loved. “I don’t want there to be anyone else like me who will be treated in this way. I think I really represent a very, very common worker, but just one who happens to be a sexual minority,” he said. “We shouldn’t be discriminated against, we shouldn’t be oppressed and receive this unfair treatment, that’s why I am protesting.” In the past few years, a few individuals, with assistance from activists, have successfully lobbied their cases in court. China Southern is owned directly by the government. Representatives to the company’s public relations department could not be reached for comment.<br/>

China Southern has applied to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for approval to establish a cargo subsidiary. To be based in Guangzhou, the new carrier, known as China Southern Airlines Cargo, will be wholly-owned by China Southern. Neither the CAAC nor China Southern gave any indication of when the new carrier will commence operations. CAAC documents state that the cargo carrier will be funded by China Southern, with a registered capital of CNY1b ($150m). It will operate Boeing 777 freighters — presumed to be transferred from China Southern’s existing freighter fleet — on domestic and international cargo flights. Cirium fleets data shows that China Southern operates 14 777Fs, alongside two 747-400Fs. China Southern states that it will also hand over its existing cargo slots to the new subsidiary, which will operate these flights under China Southern’s operating code.<br/>