WestJet said Thursday it had denied 10 passengers from boarding a flight for lacking the proper test for the novel coronavirus, just after a Canadian government requirement that passengers show proof of a negative result before boarding took effect. Faced with a mounting second wave of infections, the government said last week that passengers would need to test negative for the coronavirus before boarding a plane bound for Canada, starting on Jan. 7. Global airlines have been calling for COVID-19 testing as a way to ease travel restrictions and reopen borders without crippling quarantine measures, although Canada still requires international passengers to self-isolate for 14 days. News of the surprise Canadian measure left airlines fearful of possible confusion over which testing facilities abroad were eligible and how the results from the PCR test must be presented to carriers. WestJet said on Thursday it could not board the passengers because they did not have eligible tests to meet the requirement. Air Canada said it is helping some passengers obtain the tests. <br/>
unaligned
It is too early to discuss how much compensation to pay relatives of those killed when Iran shot down an airliner last year, even though Tehran has suggested an amount, a Canadian adviser said on Thursday. Many of the victims were Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. Last month Iran’s cabinet allocated $150,000 for each family of the 176 people who died when Revolutionary Guards downed the Ukraine International Airlines plane near Tehran on Jan. 8, 2020. Former Canadian cabinet minister Ralph Goodale, charged with helping the victims’ families, said the amount of compensation could only be agreed at special talks between Iran and the five nations whose citizens had died. “Their floating of a number is way, way premature ... they do not get to determine what the level of that compensation is,” Goodale said by phone, adding there was no agreement on where and when the talks would occur. Goodale declined to say what the appropriate amount should be, noting legal experts had speculated it could significantly exceed $150,000.<br/>
A series of commemorative events stretching over two days has begun to mark the one-year anniversary of the downing of Flight PS752. At 9:42 pm EST — the exact moment the Ukrainian International Airlines flight took off from Iran — more than 1,000 people from around the world tuned in to a live stream to honour the 176 people on board who died. More than 100 of the victims had ties to Canada, and at least 55 were Canadian citizens. The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims group organized the service. Voices of loved ones — some wishing to talk to those who died, others wanting to know their last thoughts — played over videos and photos of faces young and old. Biographies of the victims were to be read throughout the night and outdoor rallies were to take place later in various cities, including Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton. The plane was bound for Kyiv on Jan. 8, 2020, when it was shot out of the sky shortly after takeoff from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. Tension between Iran and the US had been brewing. A few days earlier, a US strike on the Baghdad airport had been ordered by President Donald Trump that resulted in the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. Iran’s military had fired missiles at American forces in Iraq in retaliation. “Justice delayed is justice denied” was repeated in the comment section of the online memorial. It’s a sentiment the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims have said looms over their heads, as many still wonder when they will see accountability. <br/>
Ryanair warned that it would carry even fewer passengers than forecast this year after slashing its winter flight schedules in response to the new wave of lockdowns and travel restrictions in the UK and Europe. The low-cost carrier said it expected to run few, if any, flights to and from the UK and Ireland from the end of January until restrictions on movements were eased. As a result, Ryanair has revised down its passenger forecast for the year to March, from below 35m to between 26m to 30m passengers — less than a fifth of the 149m it carried in the previous financial year. The airline also called on the British and Irish governments to speed up their vaccination programmes and said “vaccinations rather than lockdowns is the way out of this Covid-19 crisis”. Changes illustrate how the winter season is turning out to be even worse than expected for Europe’s airlines, despite Ryanair’s expectation that reductions will not hit profitability as the flights were lossmaking. The group’s passenger numbers in January are expected to fall to under 1.25m passengers, and then dip to 500,000 in February and March — the lowest since air travel all but stopped last spring.<br/>
Ryanair plans to begin deploying its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in the United Kingdom following its first deliveries in the coming months, CEO Eddie Wilson said on Thursday. The airline has said it expects to receive around 30 of the MAX aircraft, which were ungrounded in the United States late last year after a 20-month safety ban that followed two fatal crashes. “We will deploying those probably initially in the UK,” Eddie Wilson said.<br/>
Wizz Air will cut its flying plans for January because of new lockdowns in Britain, its chief executive Jozsef Varadi said, adding there was little visibility for the coming months but travel demand should return by summer. Earlier on Thursday, larger competitor Ryanair cut its annual traffic forecast by around 5m passengers, also blaming lockdowns. During December, Varadi said Wizz flew 35% of 2019’s capacity. He forecast that the new lockdowns in the United Kingdom, one of Wizz’s three biggest markets alongside Romania and Poland, would mean capacity would fall to 25% in January. Varadi, who co-founded Wizz in Hungary in 2003, said Wizz’s longer term growth story remained intact, and the airline should bounce back. “I think if restrictions get removed by summer, I would say that summer 2021 would not be far away from summer 2019 from our perspective,” he said. “But you would not see that happening at many of the other airlines.”<br/>
The boss of Wizz Air said stripping voting rights from the majority of his investors was a sustainable way to meet post-Brexit rules, even as a leading sector analyst said it may not be enough unless there was a regulatory change. Under EU rules, EU airlines must be owned and controlled by nationals from the bloc or aligned European Economic Area (EEA) countries, or lose their licences. UK investors were deemed non-EU from Jan. 1, meaning some airline groups must act to stay compliant. Those most affected - Wizz, Ryanair easyJet and British Airways-owner IAG - have restricted voting rights or introduced other measures, such as board changes, to try to meet the EU control requirement. “Personally I think this is a sustainable proposition,” said Wizz CEO Jozsef Varadi, when asked in an interview about the airline’s decision to disenfanchise the owners of about 60% of its shares. But HSBC analyst Andrew Lobbenberg said in a note on Thursday the issue was unresolved and forced share disposals or corporate restructurings may be needed without a subsequent deal to loosen ownership rules.<br/>
Etihad Aviation Training (EAT) is to offer full-flight simulator pilot training for Israir's Airbus A320 pilots. The Israeli airline will dry-lease the simulators at the training facility in Abu Dhabi, where the sessions will be conducted by Israir instructors. “Following Etihad’s announcement to commence services to Tel Aviv, EAT is delighted to further commercial opportunities with Israel by providing comprehensive aviation training services,” said Paolo La Cava, MD at Etihad Aviation Training. "Continuing our commitment to providing highly skilled pilots by offering state-of-the-art training facilities, EAT is looking forward to working with Israir Airlines and is anticipating further collaboration with the airline to cement this landmark agreement.”<br/>