China will suspend direct flights to and from Britain indefinitely over fears of a new strain of the coronavirus, Wang Wenbin, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday. “After much consideration, China has decided to take reference from other countries and suspend flights to and from UK,” Wang said. “China will closely monitor relevant developments and dynamically adjust control measures depending on the situation." There are currently eight weekly flights between mainland China and Britain, according to aviation data provider Variflight, including one each by Air China, China Eastern and China Southern. BA operates two flights a week from London to Shanghai. China barred non-Chinese travelers from Britain last month, including those with valid visas and residence permits, because of rising coronavirus cases.<br/>
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Almost 1.2m people took to the skies in the US on Wednesday, the most since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted in March, despite warnings against large gatherings and travel during the holidays. People have flocked to airports in the past week, according to TSA data. An average of more than 1m people a day passed through TSA screening over the past week, which is a post-coronavirus record. The passenger levels remain far below what was typical before the pandemic, when airlines routinely carried more than 2.5m people a day during busy periods. <br/>
Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in Europe’s airline sector since the crisis began, as carriers seek to reduce cash burn and ‘right-size’ for the eventual recovery in demand. In many cases, the desire to emerge from the crisis as smaller businesses means cuts have affected all job functions – not just pilots and cabin crew. Even among employees who have survived cuts so far, as many – if not more – remain subject to conditions including lower pay, forced part-time working, unpaid leave and furloughs. The coming year could bring further losses as government support schemes come to an end. Story features a rundown of the cuts at a selection of the region’s main operators and groups.<br/>
A bleak economic winter is forecast for the New Year holiday as airlines are seeing declining bookings and the TAT estimates only 2.75m domestic trips for the upcoming period. Nuntaporn Komonsittivate, head of commercial operations at Thai Lion Air (TLA), said tourism demand softened significantly because of a recent surge in new Covid-19 cases locally, which began earlier this month. The spread began among Thais who brought the virus over from Myanmar to Chiang Rai, followed by a big cluster of infections that emerged over recent days in Samut Sakhon. Prior to the new wave of infections, TLA forecast December to be its best month in a crisis-plagued year as local confidence had been improving month-by-month. The average load factor for TLA in November hit 75%, prompting the airline to forecast it reaching 80-85% this month. "The colder weather this month was favourable for tourism activities, but unfortunately the string of new cases weakened passenger demand. As of now, the monthly load factor is lingering at 70%, while forward booking is difficult to predict," she said. Thai AirAsia reported an average load factor of 80-85% in December, below the 90% recorded for the same period last year.<br/>
The Cambodian government has extended tax holidays for airline companies and tourism establishments for another three months from January to March, 2021 to help offset losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. "The extended measures aim to continue stabilizing businesses, as Cambodia is still facing the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis," the government said Thursday. People whose livelihoods have been hit by the pandemic will also receive cash reliefs from the government for another three months. Unemployed workers in the garment-textile, footwear and travel goods sector will continue to receive 40 U.S. dollars from the government and 30 dollars from the suspended factory per month for another three months, while the jobless in tourism also get 40 dollars a month from the government for the same period.<br/>