American Airlines and United said Monday they were preparing to recall tens of thousands of furloughed employees as they awaited lawmakers’ approval of a fresh $15b in payroll support under a broader COVID-19 relief package. But in a staff memo, United executives warned that it expects the recall will be “temporary” as travel demand remains depressed. The relief would cover employee payroll costs until March 31, 2021. “The truth is, we just don’t see anything in the data that shows a huge difference in bookings over the next few months,” CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart said in the memo, released by United. Wrestling with a sharp downturn in travel demand amid the pandemic, American and United together furloughed more than 32,000 workers in October.<br/>
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Air Canada says it has temporarily suspended flights between Canada and the UK in keeping with a government directive issued Sunday. Air Canada says it is notifying affected passengers and offering them other travel options, including flights with other carriers or to other locations that permit travel with Canada. Air Canada says it is monitoring the situation and plans to adjust its flight schedule as appropriate. PM Justin Trudeau announced on Dec. 20 that Canada would restrict travel from the U.K. to Canada for 72 hours, after officials raised concerns about a new, more infectious strain of COVID-19 spreading in Britain. The new travel restrictions went into effect Monday.<br/>
EgyptAir on Monday announced suspending flights to and from Oman from December 21 to 29, based on Oman’s directives to suspend flights due to the emergence of a new strain of coronavirus. “Egypt Air announces suspending flights between Cairo and Muscat until the end of the suspension period or its [probable] extensions,” the Egyptian flag carrier said. Oman has suspended travel from or to the country, through air, land or sea due to the emergence of a new strain of coronavirus. EgyptAir earlier suspended flights from and to Saudi Arabia, after the Kingdom closed its doors until more information is available about the strain. More instructions were also announced regarding people coming from Europe, such as obligatory quarantine and a Covid-19 swab test.<br/>
United Airlines has developed a comprehensive plan to “extract” sick, or possibly sick, pilots from foreign countries using airplanes without passengers, so pilots need not quarantine or receive treatment abroad unless absolutely necessary, according to an internal United employee memo on December 14. The memo was titled “International extraction procedure – COVID affected crew member.” As a giant pandemic rages, repatriation of crew members is a thorny issue at many passenger and cargo airlines. Pilots and flight attendants fear they might get stuck in a foreign country, at a subpar hotel, or worse, at a hospital or detention center. Pilot unions worry a crew member may test negative for Covid-19 before departure and then positive shortly after landing abroad. The Air Lines Pilots Association did not comment for this story, but it has been vocal about this danger. In July, the union said, three Federal Express pilots were “forced into mandated hospital facilities,” in Hong Kong after testing positive for the virus, while “several” others “were put into government camps under extremely difficult conditions.” Carriers generally have been receptive to pilot union concerns, because they don’t want to get in a position where pilots refuse to fly the few remaining lucrative long-haul routes. Most global airlines have plans to evacuate flight crew during coups, wars and terrorist attacks, and after natural disasters. But the United extraction plans seen by Skift are specific to this global pandemic, describing in detail where sick crew members may sit on board, which bathroom they may use, how they can eat during flights, and where they should dispose of their garbage. United has assigned an “extraction team,” to handle logistics, the memo states.<br/>
Singapore received its first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, according to its flag carrier, ahead of a rollout in the city-state that health officials have said could be as soon as two-three weeks away. Singapore Airlines, which carried the vaccines on board one of its freighters from Belgium, did not specify the size of the batch. Singapore is the first Asian country to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech shots after it said last week that it had approved the companies’ vaccine. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, has said he would be among the early recipients of the vaccine in the nation of 5.7 million people, which has one of the lowest coronavirus fatality rates globally. “Delighted to see the first shipment of vaccines arrive in Singapore,” Lee posted on Facebook on Monday, adding that the authorities will announce details of a rollout in due course.<br/>
SIA has used about $7.1b of the $8.8b raised from a rights issue in June, it said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Monday. Between Oct 14 and Dec 13, the flag carrier spent a further $900m of the gross proceeds from the rights issue. Of this amount, $500m was used to fund ongoing operating expenses, $200m went towards refunding tickets sold on flights which have been cancelled and $200m was applied towards debt servicing. Its last update on the use of proceeds from the rights issue was made in mid-October, when SIA said it had spent $1.8b over about two months. The amount was used for ongoing operating expenses, ticket refunds and debt servicing.<br/>