Airlines flying into the UK will be required to bar passengers from boarding if they do not have a negative Covid test within 72 hours of departure. Every traveller coming into any UK port or airport will be expected to have a negative PCR test in order to enter the UK as part of a significant toughening of border controls. It will cover all countries, including those with travel corridors under which peoples are currently exempted from quarantine on arrival in the UK. Although the policy has yet to be finalised, it is expected that travellers coming from "red list" countries with high rates of Covid will still have to quarantine on arrival even if their 72-hour test is negative. Those required to self-isolate will be able to leave quarantine if a second test, which can be taken from the fifth day, proves negative. All arrivals will still have to fill out the passenger locator form and will be liable to GBP10,000 fines if they breach their quarantine. Thomas Cook, Tui and Virgin Holidays confirmed on Tuesday that they have cancelled their flight schedules until mid-February. All three operators will refund customers or allow them to reschedule their flights for later in the year amid what Virgin called "extraordinary circumstances". The moves to tighten restrictions follow criticism of the failure to close borders at the start of the pandemic on the eve of the first lockdown. The new policy was being finalised on Tuesday by transport department officials and is expected to be unveiled in the next 48 hours.<br/>
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Airlines kicked off 2021 by shrinking their already meager UK schedules, prompted by a new coronavirus lockdown and the prospect of further restrictions on travel abroad. EasyJet, Britain’s biggest discount carrier, pared back its flying program to prioritize essential connections between key UK cities and “a small number of international routes.” British Airways said it’ll keep crucial links open, while TUI on Tuesday halted all package holiday tours from the UK through mid-February, when the new lockdown is set to end. A spokeswoman for Wizz Air, which has been adding UK bases in an effort to emerge stronger from the pandemic, said it will review capacity to ensure that it remains appropriate to demand. The fast-spreading virus strain that’s driven up UK case counts has also dashed airline-industry hopes of relief from 2020’s unrelenting downturn. PM Boris Johnson late Monday announced a new coronavirus lockdown that will keep most people at home until mid-February, when vaccines being rolled out are able to stem the worst infection rates since the start of the outbreak. EasyJet had already reduced its schedule for next week by one-third and Ryanair by two-thirds, said John Grant, senior analyst at travel data provider OAG. While airlines were braced for near-term disruption, the effects of the new lockdown would be magnified if it were to cause the industry to miss a second high season after last summer’s collapse, said HSBC analyst Andrew Lobbenberg. “The next six weeks won’t be a make or break for any of the major airlines but several would be challenged if the summer recovery doesn’t happen,” Lobbenberg said. “At some stage in March and April they are going to want to see those inflows for summer bookings.”<br/>
The FAA will soon require aircraft manufacturers to fully consider how various cockpit warnings might affect the ability of pilots to properly respond to failures. The requirements are laid out in a US funding law that seeks to address many concerns brought forth by two Boeing 737 Max crashes. The law requires the FAA to adopt, within one year, a recommendation from the NTSB that applies to “system safety assessments”. Those assessments are part of a process through which aircraft manufacturers, when designing and certificating aircraft, assign risk levels to various system failures. The risk levels are based on assumptions about how pilots will respond to failures. Within one year, the FAA must require that manufacturers’ safety assessments “consider the effect of all possible flight deck alerts and indications on pilot recognition and response”, the law says. That provision applies specifically to safety assessments that address instances when pilots must take “immediate and appropriate… corrective actions” in response to “uncommanded flight control inputs”. The law also requires that manufactures take steps to ensure their designs are safe even when pilots respond to failures in unanticipated ways.<br/>
Amazon on Tuesday announced it bought jets from a pair of airlines, bolstering its delivery network as online shopping booms and travel withers during the pandemic. The e-commerce colossus launched its air shipping division four years ago, but had previously relied on leased jets. The Seattle-based company said it bought 11 Boeing 767-300 aircraft, seven of them from Delta and four from WestJet. "Our goal is to continue delivering for customers across the US in the way that they expect from Amazon, and purchasing our own aircraft is a natural next step toward that goal," Amazon Global Air vice president Sarah Rhoads said. "Having a mix of both leased and owned aircraft in our growing fleet allows us to better manage our operations, which in turn helps us to keep pace in meeting our customer promises." The aircraft purchased from WestJet are being converted from handling passengers to cargo and will become part of Amazon's fleet this year, according to the company. The jets bought from Delta are not expected to be put to work in Amazon's fleet until 2022. <br/>
Construction has started on the first phase of Long Thành International Airport in Đồng Nai province, Vietnam. The new airport will be located near Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City and covers more than 5,580ha of total area. The milestone follows after the Government of Vietnam approved the first phase of Long Thành International Airport in November 2020. Under a statement on the website of the Vietnamese Government, phase one of the construction will need an investment of around $4.66b. Long Thành International Airport will feature a 4km runway, a terminal, and associated services. It will be capable of serving 25m passengers and handling 1.2m tonnes of cargo on an annual basis. The airport is expected to start operating from 2025.<br/>