Airlines would get $17b in US government aid to recall furloughed workers and help cover payrolls through March under a bipartisan pandemic relief package unveiled in Congress on Monday that won immediate backing from an industry group. Airlines “enthusiastically support” the proposal, the trade group Airlines for America said in a press release. Carriers will attempt to bring back workers who have been laid off if it passes, “but that becomes increasingly challenging with each passing day,” the group said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked top congressional leaders in both parties to meet Tuesday afternoon to discuss Covid-19 relief and a crucial government spending package, congressional aides said, in what could be a make-or-break moment for a grand bargain after months of stalemate. The $748 billion bill was put forth by a dozen senators and has the support of 50 House members. Some Democrats in the group suggested voting on the bill even though it doesn’t have a top Democratic priority of state and local aid. Airline shares rose Tuesday following two days of losses, with a Standard & Poor’s index of nine industry stocks climbing 2.1% at 1:56 p.m. in New York. The index had tumbled 30% this year through Monday, while the S&P 500 gained 13%.<br/>
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President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to be his transportation secretary, assigning a one-time rival an important role in fulfilling a campaign pledge to “build back better.” In a statement announcing the pick, Biden described Buttigieg as “a patriot and a problem-solver who speaks to the best of who we are as a nation,” and that he wants him to lead the Transportation Department “because this position stands at the nexus of so many of the interlocking challenges and opportunities ahead of us. “Jobs, infrastructure, equity, and climate all come together at the DOT, the site of some of our most ambitious plans to build back better,” Biden said. “I trust Mayor Pete to lead this work with focus, decency, and a bold vision — he will bring people together to get big things done.” Biden is scheduled to introduce Buttigieg in an event in Wilmington, Delaware on Wednesday. A former candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Buttigieg narrowly won the Iowa caucuses but endorsed Biden after dropping out of the race.<br/>
A foot or more of snow could blanket the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast starting Wednesday, snarling travel and sparking power outages while bringing New York its worst December storm in 10 years. New York could get 20 to 30 centimeters of snow starting Wednesday afternoon, lower than earlier estimates as the worst of the storm is now expected to strike further inland the National Weather Service said. “There is going to be a large swath from central Pennsylvania to southern New England that could see over a foot,” said Tyler Roys, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. “It’s been a while since we’ve had such an impactful storm.” The storm threatens to snarl road, rail and air traffic throughout the eastern US, just as trucks carrying Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine from Michigan fan out across the country and carriers are burdened with holiday packages. <br/>
The EU plans to end a freeze on access to airport slots next year, when a travel recovery from the coronavirus crisis is expected to be underway, aviation sources said on Tuesday. Introduced early in the pandemic, the suspension of competition for take-off and landing rights at once-busy airports has become more divisive. Low-cost carriers are impatient to see a return to normal rules requiring airlines to use 80% of their slots or else cede some to rivals. While major airlines had proposed only a limited return of the "use-it-or-lose-it" rule for the northern summer starting in March, the EU plan falls well short of their flexibility demands, two people with knowledge of the plans said. Major airlines represented by IATA had proposed a regime allowing them to return surplus slots temporarily and use only 50% of those they held onto, without penalty. While the planned EU threshold is 40%, the absence of any provision for slots to be temporarily returned and excluded from the calculation sets the hurdle higher for incumbent airlines, which are "not happy" with the plan, one aviation source said.<br/>
Airlines are warning they face large fines for breaking strict European rules on the exchange of passenger data for flights into the UK from next month should trade talks with the EU collapse. Their concerns centre on the omission of how passenger data should be handled in EU contingency plans to keep planes flying in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to two people familiar with the matter. Airlines are now in talks with the UK government on personal data transfers when the UK’s EU transition period runs out at the end of December, said these people. Personal data, including names, means of payment and travel itineraries, is collected for each passenger travelling between the EU and UK. This is then passed to British authorities to counter terrorism and serious crime. Airlines say the transfer of data to the UK will no longer conform to Europe’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) for personal data on passengers unless a legal arrangement can be reached. This means airlines could be fined under the EU’s GDPR data privacy provisions if they pass on the passenger information. EC fines can rise as high as E20m, or 4% of a company’s turnover, although they must be proportionate to each individual case. Airlines could also face fines of up to GBP10,000 per flight for refusing to hand over data to UK authorities. The issue affects most UK and European carriers, including Lufthansa and Air France-KLM. Story has more.<br/>
Test to Release, a new system meant to cut quarantine times for travellers arriving in England, has been beset with problems on its first day. Travellers are allowed to end self-isolation early if they pay for a coronavirus test and get a negative result five days after arriving. The government picked 11 firms to carry out the private tests. But some of the largest Covid test providers were not included and many on the list have hit problems. Airlines UK, the trade body for airlines, admitted there had been "teething problems", but said these would be resolved. "Today is only the start - the end goal is the removal of quarantine altogether - but it's a positive beginning to what we hope will be the recovery of our sector," the group said. When the scheme launched on Tuesday morning, some test providers were overwhelmed with the sheer volume of demand from the public. One supplier has pulled out completely. Another approved provider, Axiom, said it couldn't take bookings but an update would be available "soon", while another, Medicspot, told visitors to its website to register their interest.<br/>
London’s Heathrow airport is waiting for a ruling from the UK Supreme Court Wednesday that could give it permission to build a third runway that it may no longer need. An appeals court ruled in February that the government failed to take full account of the Paris Climate Agreement when approving the airport’s expansion. Heathrow was allowed to appeal in May, but by then its growth outlook had diminished amid the collapse in travel caused by the coronavirus pandemic. That’s still the case as the Supreme Court prepares to decide whether to uphold the lower court’s ruling or overturn it. Borders are restricted, with the number of passengers passing through Europe’s busiest hub down 88% in November, and 72% year-to-date. “Heathrow would like to get the approval in the bag, to be ready for when demand comes back in the future, but as things stand, it’s impossible to project when the extra capacity delivered by the third runway will be needed,” said John Strickland, of airline advisory firm JLS Consulting. “In the short to medium term, there’s plenty of unused capacity.”<br/>
In a time when the ability to change travel plans has become key, choosing a flexible option when booking flights can increase the cost of that booking by as much as 17 times the original price, when you may be able to change the flight for free. That’s according to new research by consumer organisation Which?. Which? compared the prices of standard fares and flexible fares for flights from some of the UK’s biggest airlines, to check if paying extra for flexibility is worth it after nine months of travel disruption and uncertainty. In every example Which? looked at, the difference in cost between a flexible ticket and a standard fare was greater than the cost of the standard fare. This would suggest passengers could be better off simply paying for a standard fare and making a new booking if they were unable to travel on their original dates and had some flexibility about when they were taking the trip, rather than paying for a flexible fare. Additionally, many passengers could benefit more from the flexibility provided through airlines’ “book with confidence” policies, which most carriers have introduced to allow passengers to make changes to their bookings for free in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, than they would by paying for a flexible fare. The biggest increase in price that Which? found between a standard and flexible fare was for a BA flight from London Heathrow to Barcelona in February 2021.<br/>
Russia flew a new passenger airliner with domestically-built engines for the first time since the Soviet era on Tuesday, the start of what it hopes will be a revival of a civil aviation industry to challenge Boeing and Airbus. The medium-range MC-21 plane took off from a Siberian airfield powered by Russian-built PD-14 turbo-fan engines. The plane first flew in May, 2017, but with US-made engines. The MC-21 is built by Irkut Corporation, part of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), and the engines are built by United Engine Corporation, all of which are majority owned by Rostec, Russia’s state aerospace and defence conglomerate. UAC said the plane carried out a range of flight tests in a maiden voyage that lasted one hour and 25 minutes. The Soviet Union was a major builder of passenger airliners used widely at home and in allied countries. But after the fall of communism, airlines largely retired their fleets of Tupolevs and Ilyushins for Boeings and Airbuses.<br/>
Singapore will launch a new segregated travel lane aimed at business travellers on short-term stays, Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing announced on Tuesday. The travel lane, or the Connect@Singapore initiative, will be open to a “limited number” of business, official and high economic value travellers from all countries who are staying in Singapore for up to 14 days, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Applications for the segregated travel lane will open in the middle of January 2021, and Singapore can expect the first travellers to arrive from the second half of January, it added. “Global travel, especially global business travel has been severely impacted by the need for quarantine measures, and many people in different countries cannot meet each other for business activities, said Chan. “The idea is for business people to come into Singapore for up to a period of 14 days. During these 14 days, they will undergo the necessary routine medical checks to provide themselves the assurance that they are safe and also to provide the assurance to their meeting partners that they are safe.”<br/>
San Miguel awarded Royal Boskalis Westminster a US$1.73b contract to develop land for its 740b-peso ($15.4b) airport project north of the Philippine capital. Shares of the Dutch company jumped. “Our selection of a global giant in dredging shows how ready, willing, and committed we are to do everything necessary to make sure this airport project is developed properly and sustainably,” San Miguel President Ramon Ang said. Approximately 1,700 hectares of land will be developed for the airport in Bulacan province. Preparatory works on land development will begin in early 2021 and will be completed by 2024. Boskalis will ensure the area is sustainable for development and can withstand earthquakes, typhoons and future rise in sea level, Ang said.<br/>