Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, has been elected as the new Chairman of the Star Alliance Chief Executive Board (CEB). He succeeds Pedro Heilbron, CEO of Copa Holdings and of Copa Airlines, who held the post for the last four years. Speaking on behalf of all Star Alliance CEOs, Kirby said: “I would like to thank Pedro for his dedication to the role of CEB Chairman during his four-year tenure. His leadership marked an important time in Alliance history as we accelerated digital innovation and continued to transform the customer experience.” In his role as CEB Chairman, Kirby will conduct the two annual board meetings and act as the designated spokesperson for the board. Reflecting on his tenure, Heilbron commented: "It was an honour for me to lead the board at a time of challenging market conditions for the entire airline industry. Scott’s standing as CEO of our largest member airline, and an acknowledged industry leader, make him an excellent choice to lead the Star Alliance Chief Executive Board during the most challenging times for our industry."<br/>
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United predicted that sales will rebound next summer as vaccines take hold, even as the company echoed rivals in warning that surging coronavirus cases have caused near-term demand to weaken over the past month. Bookings for Q3 2021, the heart of the airline industry’s peak season, will only be 40% below pre-pandemic levels, United said Friday in a regulatory filing. By comparison, the carrier expects a 70% decrease this month and next. “Recent positive results in vaccine development and efficacy show an encouraging line of sight to the other side of the pandemic,” United said in the filing. “While it will take time for the vaccine to be widely distributed, the company’s confidence is even stronger in the recovery and the trajectory of the rebound in 2021 and beyond.” To get there, however, the airline will have to endure a worsening short-term slump. The increase in Covid-19 cases has caused a “continued deceleration in forward bookings,” United said, and Q4 sales will be down abut 70% from a year earlier. The company said it would burn $24m to $26m in cash each day during the period, plus $10m in debt payments and severance costs. In Q3 of this year, the company went through $21m plus $4m in debt and severance.<br/>
United is telling some flight attendants whose colleagues test positive for COVID-19 to keep flying and monitor for symptoms, three employees said. “Most of us feel that’s unsafe,” said one of the employees. Reuters also viewed around a dozen comments in a private online group for United flight attendants, which expressed unease and frustration about loose quarantine and contact tracing protocols by the airline. The FAA has issued COVID-19 policy recommendations but there are no government mandates on the topic. That has created inconsistent safety protocols across the industry, from how an airplane is boarded and blocking middle seats to inflight service and crew quarantines, unions said. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents crew at 17 airlines including United, said that it has received complaints from members about United not isolating all crew who have worked with an infected colleague. “We’ve received concerns about quarantine protocols from flight attendants across the industry from carriers we represent and where we’re organizing,” said AFA spokeswoman Taylor Garland, who added some complaints were from flight attendants at Delta. United did not dispute that it tells some to self-monitor and continue working after a colleague tests positive for COVID-19, saying it follows CDC guidance on quarantines for “close contacts.” The CDC defines close contact as being within 6 feet (1.83 m) of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over 24 hours starting from two days before the onset of illness until isolation. “If a flight attendant or pilot meets the criteria, we ask them to quarantine. If not, they are instructed to self-monitor,” United spokeswoman said. <br/>
Flights between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are poised to resume within days for the first time since the pandemic forced authorities to shut airports earlier this year. Flydubai, which is owned by the Dubai government, will restart flights between Dubai and Istanbul starting on Dec. 17, according to a company spokeswoman. Turkish Airlines, in which Turkey’s government holds a 49% stake, plans to resume service on the route within days, said a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified due to its sensitivity. Turkish Airlines and Emirates withheld flights between their two hubs even as both carriers revived their pandemic-depleted schedules. While neither airline said why the services remain suspended, the prolonged halt coincided with a worsening of relations between the two nations. The planned restoration of flights suggests that tensions between Turkey and the UAE are receding. Saudi and Turkish leaders agreed last month to keep their channels of dialogue open. The Dubai-Istanbul journey, which takes between 4 and 5 hours, ranked among Emirates’ busier routes. For Turkish Airlines, the corridor provided a welcome way to attract budget-minded passengers headed for western Europe or North America through the country’s new Istanbul airport.<br/>
Portugal’s government has indicated that a restructuring of flag-carrier TAP should involve a reduction of fleet capacity, and the cutting of 2,000 personnel. The carrier group has over 100 aircraft, including its regional division Portugalia, but the Portuguese infrastructure minister Pedro Nuno Santos, speaking during a briefing on the restructuring, said it should begin 2021 with a fleet of 88. This is the minimum fleet required to avoid jeopardising TAP’s hub role, he states, adding that the carrier needs to focus on smaller, more efficient aircraft types. Nuno Santos says there is a parallel need to reduce the workforce to adapt to this capacity reduction. “What we have to do is fundamental to being able to save the company,” he says, adding that the plan will enable it to compete more effectively and, at some point, start recruiting again. Nuno Santos says the restructuring has to be conducted with “seriousness” to control the quantity of public money needed to rescue the airline. He says TAP has more pilots and crew per aircraft than its competitors, adding: “We need to be able to correct this difference.” The restructuring envisions cutting the workforce by 2,000 over the course of 2021-22 and implementing a salary reduction of up to 25%. This will allow the company to save 600-1,000 jobs, he adds.<br/>
South Africa’s government and trade unions are at loggerheads over unpaid salaries at SAA, which could lead to a messy court battle that may further complicate efforts to rescue the struggling airline. State-owned SAA has not made a profit in almost a decade and was already under bankruptcy protection when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, exacerbating its woes. It halted all but repatriation and cargo flights in March before suspending all operations in September. Some employees have not been paid since March. The ministry responsible for SAA wants workers to accept three months of unpaid wages totalling 600m rand ($40m) as it pushes to get the national carrier back in the air next year. But unions say their members are due more: five months’ salary for those who accepted voluntary severance packages before a September deadline and eight months for those still in layoff talks. That would be in addition to the severance packages themselves, which have yet to be paid.<br/>
THAI has delayed resuming domestic flights to Chiang Mai and Phuket from Dec 25 to Jan 1, the airline announced on Twitter. The delay is due to a resurgence of Covid-19 infections in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. No local transmission is known to have been detected in Phuket. The flights, the first to be relaunched since the airline suspended its international and domestic services at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in April, will operate until Feb 28. The airline will operate three weekly return flights to Chiang Mai on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays as well as thrice weekly return flights to Phuket on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The airline said customers who booked the flights before Jan 1 are entitled to a refund. The source said THAI management held an emergency discussion in the wake of the Covid-19 resurgence in several provinces and decided to move the relaunch flights to Jan 1. Management is also closely assessing the infection situation in the country. If the transmissions escalate, the airline may opt to delay the relaunch flights indefinitely.<br/>
Asiana Airlines said Monday it will cut its capital base to improve its financial status amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Shareholders approved a 3:1 capital reduction plan as the airline's capital erosion rate reached 56.3 percent at the end of June, a company spokesman said. "The company made the decision to avoid being designated as issues for administration or having its credit rating downgraded," he said. After the reduction, the number of Asiana's overall stocks will fall from 223.2m shares to 74.4m shares, while its capital will decrease from 1.11t won ($1.02b) to 372.1b won.<br/>
Three close contacts of an Air New Zealand crew member with Covid-19 will undergo testing on Monday. The crew member returned to New Zealand from the United States on December 9 and tested positive at the border. They had previously been self-isolating in an Air New Zealand facility and have since been moved to the Auckland quarantine facility, Jet Park. Preliminary genome sequencing has suggested the worker contracted coronavirus in the US, the Ministry of Health said. On Monday, it said the investigation into the origins of the strain continued. All three close contacts were also Air New Zealand crew members, the ministry said. They are all in isolation. Meanwhile, there were no new cases of Covid-19, either in managed isolation facilities or at the border, announced on Monday.<br/>
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern has announced a travel bubble with Australia could be in place from the first quarter of 2021. She said Cabinet had agreed in principle to establish the bubble next year. "It is our intention to name a date... in the New Year, once remaining details are locked down," Ardern said. "Our hard and early approach broke the back of the virus and despite flare-ups since... the vast bulk of New Zealanders have enjoyed freedoms for the majority of the year that few other countries have." Ardern added that the establishment of the bubble would be dependent on several factors, including sign-off from Australia's Cabinet and no change in each country's COVID-19 situation. Issues still to be worked through include contingency plans for an outbreak in Australia and how passengers from 'safe zones' will be separated from those travelling from COVID-19 affected countries. Air New Zealand said the announcement is a "great step forward". "Our teams are busy preparing for recommencing quarantine-free travel. Safety is obviously a big priority for our airline, and we've been working closely with governments, relevant agencies and airports on what is required to keep our customers and staff safe once travel opens up," said CEO Greg Foran. "We appreciate people are enthusiastic about travel, and we can assure customers that as soon as it is viable, Air New Zealand will be ready."<br/>