Airlines have been warned that on-board disinfection measures could corrode sensitive flight equipment, and may “compromise airworthiness” if applied incorrectly. The caution, issued by the US FAAy, states that “the majority” of disinfectants which are effective against the Covid-19 virus “may not be suitable for use on an aircraft, except in very limited or localized application”. Many airlines use 'fogging' techniques to disinfect cabins, spraying disinfectant at regular intervals between flights – but the FAA warns that liquid may enter electrical systems. “Liquids can intrude into flight deck switches and seals. Excessive liquid intrusion can lead to electrical shorts in the near term and unexpected corrosion in the long term.” It continues: “[Aircraft] operators should approach the disinfection process similarly to any maintenance or repair action for which improper execution may compromise airworthiness.”<br/>
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China has suspended entry for foreign visitors from a further eight countries as it seeks to prevent importing the coronavirus. Notices telling people about the restrictions were posted on the websites of China’s embassies in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, France, India, Italy, Nigeria, Russia and Ukraine on Thursday. They came after would-be travellers from Britain, Belgium and the Philippines were given a similar message. The statements said the suspensions were a “temporary response necessitated by the current situation of Covid-19”. China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday the ruling was based on the changing epidemic situation in the countries involved, and described the move as “reasonable and in line with international practices”. The restriction would apply regardless of whether people held valid visas or residence permits, but members of the diplomatic service and international transport workers, like airline crews, would be exempt, the statements said. While several of the countries served with notices have reported high numbers of coronavirus infections and deaths from Covid-19, the two nations with the largest caseloads, the US and Brazil, have so far escaped China’s no-entry ruling. However, Beijing said last week that visitors from the US would be required to produce both a nucleic acid test and a blood test no more than 48 hours before boarding their flights to China. Similar conditions apply to travellers from Australia, Germany, Canada and several other countries.<br/>
New federal support for Canada's pandemic-battered airline industry will be contingent on carriers providing refunds to passengers whose flights were cancelled, the government announced on Sunday. Transport Minister Marc Garneau laid out the requirement as he announced that Ottawa is ready to respond to the sector's desperate pleas for federal assistance by launching talks later this week. Canada's commercial airlines have been hit hard by COVID-19, with passenger levels down as much as 90% thanks to a combination of travel restrictions and fear of catching the illness. That has prompted airlines to furlough hundreds of pilots and technicians and discontinue dozens of regional routes since March. They have also cancelled numerous pre-booked trips, offering passengers credits or vouchers instead of refunds. Many Canadians have since expressed anger over not getting their money back. The Canadian Transportation Agency received 8,000 complaints between mid-March and the end of August, most of which are believed to be related to refunds. Passengers have also filed a handful of proposed class-action lawsuits and three petitions garnering more than 100,000 signatures that call for customer reimbursement. Garneau acknowledged the challenges facing the sector as he revealed the pending talks. "The air sector cannot respond to these challenges on its own, given the unprecedented impacts on its operations," Garneau said. "We are ready to establish a process with major airlines regarding financial assistance which could include loans and potentially other support to secure important results for Canadians... We anticipate beginning discussions with them this week." Yet Garneau also made clear what the government would be demanding from airlines, starting with refunds of what is believed to be millions of dollars in prepaid flight tickets and a curb on cancelled routes."<br/>
The UK has announced it will ban foreign entry to visitors from Denmark amid widespread outbreaks of COVID-19 in the country’s mink farms, as of 4am on Saturday. All non-British national or resident travellers who have been in or transited through Denmark in the last 14 days will be denied entry into Britain. The government also said its expanding the self-isolation rules for Denmark, it also removed the country from the government’s list of travel corridors on Friday. UK transport secretary, Grant Shapps announced the move on Twitter. He said: “Visitors arriving into the UK from Denmark will not be permitted entry into the UK. This decision to act quickly follows on from health authorities in Denmark reporting widespread outbreaks of coronavirus in mink farms. Keeping the UK public safe remains our top priority,” Shapps added. Denmark also announced strict new lockdown measures and a nationwide cull of millions of minks bred in the country’s 1,139 mink farms after authorities discovered a mutated virus strain in the animals.<br/>
BA and Ryanair pilots and cabin crew operating flights from Copenhagen to the UK will be required to quarantine with their households for two weeks immediately after landing. Overnight the UK government imposed a ban on all but British nationals and permanent residents arriving from Denmark, because of fears about a coronavirus mutation passed from mink to humans. Previously flight crew have always been exempt from having to self-isolate when returning from locations on the government’s “no-go” list. But such is the concern among the medical authorities about the mutation that pilots, cabin crew and anyone who lives with them must all self-isolate. The sudden decision will mean the children of affected flight crew will not be able to attend school for two weeks, and their partners must not go out to work. Exemptions for pilots and cabin crew will apply only if the aircraft returns from Copenhagen with no passengers on board – which would be highly unusual. The quarantine requirement applies to the crew of the three British Airways flights from the Danish capital to Heathrow on Saturday, as well as Ryanair’s flights from Copenhagen to Manchester and London Stansted. SAS, which flies between Copenhagen and Heathrow, is unaffected because its flight crew are based in Denmark.<br/>
British airports urged the PM to provide bespoke support for the sector, warning that without it some could shut, ruining government hopes for UK trade as the country seeks new economic ties beyond the EU. A new lockdown in England started on Thursday, banning international leisure travel and wiping out the remaining meagre income airports had from the small number of passengers still flying despite quarantine rules. UK Airport industry group AOA said that the latest lockdown would lead to more job losses and could floor some operators. "Britain's global connectivity is on the line if government is not willing to support the industry," AOA said in a letter to PM Boris Johnson. The situation was "unsustainable" and a package of support was needed, the letter said. Britain's transition period with the EU ends this year and the government has said it wants to boost trade with new markets across the world, but AOA said this would be "unachievable" if airports were not supported. At the beginning of the first lockdown, many airports were financially robust, but the AOA said the new lockdown comes as the UK's mostly privately-owned airports are already struggling following eight months of the pandemic. The group wants business rates relief for English airports, a temporary suspension of air passenger duty, and help with other costs such as funding the UK aviation regulator and policing. It also wants new rules over a testing regime to replace Britain's quarantine rules to be in place by the end of the current lockdown on Dec. 2.<br/>
Scotland’s government is to embark on a renewed effort to sell Glasgow’s Prestwick airport to a private investor, following the recent withdrawal of a potential buyer. Prestwick had been managed by New Zealand firm Infratil until 2013 when it sold the airport, for a token price, to the Scottish government. Cabinet secretary for transport Michael Matheson says the government is “formally putting the business back on the market”, through a notice in official EU documentation. “This allows interested parties to submit formal proposals, and may encourage new interest as well,” he adds. “This is an incredibly challenging time for the aviation industry, but we remain confident Glasgow Prestwick airport has a role to play in Scotland’s aviation sector.” Matheson had appeared before a rural economy and connectivity committee on 7 October, stating that “good progress” had been made towards selling the airport following interest from “credible investors”. But the preferred bidder, he said, was “unable to meet the commitments” needed to maintain that status following the deterioration of the air transport sector over the last few months. “Although that is disappointing, it is completely understandable,” Matheson told the committee. But he stated that discussions were under way with “more than one” interested party. He said that Prestwick’s operator turned in an underlying operating profit of GBP3m for the year to 31 March 2020 – on a 46% rise in revenues to GBP36m – just before the full impact of the pandemic emerged.<br/>
A governing panel at the UN’s aviation agency urged Iran on Friday to accelerate an investigation into the downing of a Ukrainian airliner in January, while an Iranian official said a final report on the crash would be circulated soon. The ICAO said members of its 36-nation council issued the call, nearly 10 months after a Ukraine International Airlines flight was shot down by an Iranian ground-to-air missile, killing 176 people. “We have had several exchanges with the Iranian CAA in which we urged its authorities to expedite the accident investigation,” council president Salvatore Sciacchitano told a meeting of the committee, according to ICAO. Iran’s representative to ICAO, however, said he had made a full report to the council on the progress of the investigation. A draft of the final report has been completed and is being translated, Farhad Parvaresh said. It will be sent to participating nations in “a couple of weeks,” he said, adding that Iran was adhering to international rules on air investigations known as Annex 13.<br/>
Berlin bid farewell Sunday to the German capital's central Tegel airport, beloved by some and reviled by others, as it shifts all air traffic to a new hub on the outskirts of the city. On Saturday, airlines moved their last planes stationed at Tegel to the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt, which finally opened at the end of October nine years late and far above its original budget. The final scheduled flight took off Sunday afternoon from Tegel, an Air France jet to Paris, a tribute to the first commercial flight from the airport flown by the airline 60 years ago. During the Cold War when Berlin was divided into French, American, British and Soviet sectors, each had its own airport. The oldest, the American sector's Tempelhof Airport, was closed in 2008 and its main area is now parkland. Britain's Gatow airport was shuttered in 1994, and the Soviet Schoenefeld Airport, located in the surrounding state of Brandenburg in what was communist East Germany, was expanded into the new so-called BER. Tegel, a site used for airships in the early 1900s and later an air force training area during the Nazi era, was constructed rapidly in 1948 as a response to the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, when the Western Allies had to supply the city entirely by air. It became a critical hub for the Berlin Airlift operation, which was able to break the Soviet blockade by 1949 — a key moment in the Cold War that demonstrated the Western Allies' resolve to stand beside West Germany. Story has more background.<br/>
Flights between Tasmania and New Zealand are set to restart in January for the first time since 1996. PM Scott Morrison announced the deal on Saturday that will include 130 direct flights from Hobart each year, with three departing per week in warmer months, and two in winter. It comes shortly after the government also announced plans to allow the state to introduce hotel quarantine and start accepting Australians stranded abroad. “This has been an incredibly tough year for Australians, and particularly our tourism and hospitality sectors, but the deal will mean tourists from low-risk areas can come to sample Tasmania’s incredible experiences, sights and produce,” PM Morrison said. The plan to restart travel between the two countries will reportedly cost the federal government $50m, while state governments will contribute $10m for structural upgrades. They will mark the first regular flights since 1996, when Air NZ pulled the route due to its viability.<br/>
Europe's Airbus booked 72 jet deliveries in October, approaching last year's monthly pace for the first time since the start of the coronavirus crisis and easing concerns over a cash-depleting overhang of unwanted jets. It said Jan-Oct deliveries reached 413 aircraft, down 36% from a year earlier. However, October deliveries were down just 6.5% from 77 in the same month of 2019. Airbus sold 11 jets last month, mainly to private jet operators amid a slump in airline demand, and received another three A220 cancellations from Australia's Macquarie. So far this year Airbus has sold 381 jets, or 308 after cancellations, outstripping Boeing in orders and deliveries as the US planemaker's 737 MAX remains grounded by a 19-month-old safety ban, expected to be lifted this month. Airbus issued the update after reaffirming plans internally to reach cash breakeven in the last quarter, boosted by deliveries of the narrow-body A320neo family, while expressing worries over the market for wide-body jets.<br/>
Chinese airlines are shunning some deliveries of Airbus aircraft, citing fears of coronavirus infection for their staff in the latest tussle over efforts to keep delayed deliveries on track despite the pandemic, industry sources said. Airbus has pushed Chinese airlines to take delivery of jets now that the domestic market has rebounded to pre-COVID levels. But many airlines are using the pandemic as an excuse to delay deliveries, said one source with direct knowledge of the matter. "The fact is there is no shortage of aircraft now in the domestic market," said the source. Airbus had no immediate comment. Airbus deliveries surged in September to a peak since the crisis began but deliveries to China have lagged despite the fact that airlines there are leading a recovery in jet usage. Airbus delivered 341 jets in the first 9 months including some 39 to China which usually accounts for a quarter of Western deliveries. Airbus was due to update October data on Friday.<br/>