United became the latest carrier to announce a timeframe to fly the Boeing 737 MAX again, saying Friday the jet would resume flights in February. The plane, which was out of service for 20 months following two fatal crashes, will re-enter United's schedule on Feb 11, with service from Denver and Houston. The move comes on the heels of the FAA November decision to permit the jet to fly again following upgrades to its software and new protocols on pilot training. United said there was still additional work to do on its jets before they can return to service with the carrier. The two 737 MAX crashes, in Ethiopia and Indonesia, claimed 346 lives and led to its worldwide grounding. "Nothing is more important to United than the safety of our customers and employees," a United spokesman said. "United's MAX fleet won't return to service until we have completed more than 1,000 hours of work on every aircraft, including FAA-mandated changes to the flight software, additional pilot training, multiple test flights and meticulous technical analysis to ensure the planes are ready to fly." United said it would be "fully transparent" with customers and will rebook or refund customers who don't want to fly on the aircraft.<br/>
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United said Friday it was in talks with US health officials to alert passengers on a recent flight of potential exposure to the new coronavirus after a man died following a medical emergency on the plane. The man, on flight 591 bound for Los Angeles from Orlando on Monday, was pronounced dead by a hospital in New Orleans, where the plane made an emergency landing, the airlines told Reuters in an emailed statement. “At the time of the diversion, we were informed he had suffered a cardiac arrest, so passengers were given the option to take a later flight or continue on with their travel plans,” the airlines said, but did not specify whether the deceased passenger had coronavirus. United said it was sharing requested information with the US CDC, so it could work with local health officials to reach out to passengers of flight 591 who CDC believes may be at risk for possible exposure or infection.<br/>
Taiwanese visitors to mainland China could face problems if their Covid-19 test certificates carry the words “Wuhan coronavirus”, according to Air China. “Regarding passengers who are taking cross-strait flights and need to provide a Covid-19 negative polymerase chain reaction certificate issued within 72 hours, they are reminded to provide the certificates that bear the official term ‘Covid-19’ or ‘novel coronavirus’,” the company said in a notice to Taiwanese travel agents on Wednesday. “If their certificates carry the words ‘Wuhan coronavirus’ they will be deemed void,” Air China said, adding that any missing or invalid paperwork could result in passengers being refused entry on arrival. An Air China official, who declined to be named, said that “novel coronavirus” and “Covid-19” were acceptable terms for the pathogen and the disease it causes, as used by the World Health Organization (WHO). If a passenger’s test result papers failed to use the correct terminology it “could result in the deprival of the rights of entry”, she said. Wuhan is the central China city in which the coronavirus was first identified at the end of last year, but Beijing has sought to prevent its name becoming indelibly linked to the pathogen. Another of China’s airlines, China Southern, published a similar warning to passengers on its Taiwan-based website on Thursday. All customers should use the official name for Covid-19 on their test results, it said.<br/>
Singapore Airlines will be resuming daily non-stop flights between Singapore and Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York's JFK International from Jan 18. Joey Seow, SIA's regional vice-president for the Americas, noted Thursday that there are "promising signs for recovery in international air travel, particularly with the start of the vaccine inoculation programme". He said PM Lee Hsien Loong's announcement of further easing of travel measures and the World Economic Forum switching next year to Singapore from Davos, Switzerland, signalled that "Singapore is open for business". "The Government has taken on the objective of opening up Singapore," he said. He added that Americans are allowed to transit in Singapore, which was initially not the case. This means there are more opportunities to go on a flight. "Step by step, there are all these signs, there's a lot more positivity," he said. He also cited the discussions Singapore's Government is having with Vietnam on "green lane" travel bubble arrangements. "As more and more of these travel bubbles and green lanes are being negotiated, business opportunities will come about. The country begins to slowly but safely open up and we see encouraging signs, which are cause for further optimism."<br/>
Privatisation of Air India may spill into next fiscal year as the divestment process is unlikely to conclude in the remaining a little over three months of 2020-21, an official said. Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group and US-based fund Interups Inc were among "multiple" entities that put in preliminary bids last week for buying loss-making carrier Air India. A group of over 200 Air India employees also submitted an expression of interest (EoI) for the carrier in partnership with Interups at the close of the deadline on December 14. 'The Transaction Advisor will inform the qualified bidders by January 6 following which the bidders will be given access to virtual data room (VDR) of Air India,' an official said. The share purchase pact will be shared with the bidders, following which financial bids would be invited, the official added. 'The transaction will be concluded only in next fiscal as we are expecting bidders to have a lot of queries once they get access to VDR and before they put in their financial bids,' the official said.<br/>