Pete Buttigieg, President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Transportation Department, told a Senate panel at his confirmation hearing Thursday that he will work to make sure transportation systems are safe during the pandemic. “We must ensure all of our transportation systems — from aviation to public transit, to our railways, roads, ports, waterways, and pipelines — are managed safely during this critical period, as we work to defeat the virus,” he said in prepared remarks ahead of the hearing. During the hearing, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation pressed Buttigieg on reforms to the FAA, which came under fire for outsourcing too many certification tasks to Boeing after two deadly crashes of its best-selling 737 Max. The crashes prompted bipartisan legislation that passed in 2020 to give the FAA more control over certification of new aircraft. Buttigieg said the FAA must “be in the driver’s seat.” He told Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat who pushed for the legislation, that he’d pursue personnel changes at the agency if necessary. The 39-year-old former presidential candidate and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, will face a country roiled by Covid-19, particularly airlines struggling to stem billions in losses as the virus keeps many customers off airplanes.<br/>
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Masks have become a matter of course on airplane flights, and unfortunately, so have ugly confrontations about wearing them. Since the pandemic started, flight attendants and crew members have reported more than 200 incidents to the federal government in which they were harassed or threatened over in-flight mask policies. In one case, a flight attendant said four passengers who would not keep their masks on harassed her over what they called "a simple mask issue." The situation got so tense, the plane had to return to its gate. In another incident, a passenger who kept removing his mask rolled his eyes and told a flight attendant to shut up. Then, he yelled it: "SHUT UP!" Other flight attendants have been met with passive aggressive displays of defiance. One flight attendant said a passenger refused to put his mask back on after the in-flight beverage service despite multiple warnings. Finally, he told the crew, "Well, if I hold my water bottle, I cannot wear my mask, right?" He then sipped water slowly for the rest of the flight, exploiting a policy that allows passengers to remove their masks while actively eating or drinking. Story has more details.<br/>
Aircraft movements in European airspace are collapsing towards the low levels seen during the first wave of the pandemic in April, as more travel restrictions hit demand for airline operations, according to Eurocontrol. Eurocontrol’s DG Eamonn Brennan explains that the region is essentially seeing only “cargo operations, business jets and a very limited skeleton service of traditional point-to-point” flights in its airspace. “We’re reaching a low point in aviation that we haven’t seen since the total stop of last April,” he states. “The requirement for advanced testing is causing a complete stop in the system.” Amid a devastating wave of Covid-19 cases across the region, Europe’s governments have been tightening borders – partly through the introduction of coronavirus testing requirements – and discouraging anything but essential travel during what was already expected to be a challenging quarter for airlines. The first quarter of the year is also one where few carriers make profits during ‘normal’ times. Amid this worsening near-term situation, airlines are instigating “huge capacity cuts” and are “removing flights” from already thin schedules, Brennan observes. Eurocontrol is currently seeing “a 62% reduction” in aircraft movements versus the same period in 2019. “But the bad news is that next week we will issue a new set of scenarios, and we’re trending downwards,” he states.<br/>
Airbus has slowed a planned ramp-up of A320 aircraft production, the European planemaker said, as the coronavirus travel slump takes a growing toll on its airline clients. Output of the single-aisle A320 jet family will increase from 40 a month to 43 in the third quarter and 45 in the last three months of 2021, Airbus said on Thursday, scaling back a previous July target rate of 47 “in response to the market environment.” The production curtailment comes after Reuters reported that Airbus was in discussions with suppliers over the timing of increases, with delays thought likely. Airbus had until now publicly stuck to its output schedule. Production plans for widebody aircraft remain unchanged, Airbus said. The decision to maintain stable output of five A350s and two A330s per month “postpones a potential rate increase for the A350”, the company added - in a sign that it aims to avoid a production cut. While Airbus beat its internal deliveries goal in 2020, industry sources say the availability of delivery financing remains blurred by uncertainty over the pace of COVID-19 vaccine distribution and the broader economic outlook.<br/>
Hong Kong has no alternative but to impose a strict new quarantine plan on incoming aircrew, the city’s health chief has said, confirming the existence of tougher rules due to be announced next week. A 14-day quarantine order is expected to be imposed on crewmembers of long-haul flights as Hong Kong seeks to contain a surge of Covid-19 infections, a move that could plunge the struggling aviation industry into a fresh crisis. Health minister Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee said the tighter quarantine requirements were warranted, as the city was reporting daily infections in the high double digits. “Under the premise of watertight measures and stringent prevention, we don’t have other alternatives,” Chan said Thursday. “Also, the virus is more active during winter and there have been more mutated strains … therefore, we hope to be more stringent. We are sorry about that.” Sources said pilots and cabin crew from Hong Kong, after a layover in any country, would be required to undergo quarantine in a hotel for 14 days upon returning to the city. The impact would hit Cathay Pacific the hardest, as it is by far the largest operator of such flights in the city. “The quarantine plan will affect local aircrew who operate a flight with an overseas layover – and it doesn’t matter if it’s a passenger or cargo flight – and it means those carriers which do long-haul or air cargo will be affected,” a source familiar with the plan said.<br/>
A relief package for Covid 19-battered airlines was yesterday extended by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT). The extension was granted at CAAT's first board meeting of the year, chaired by Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob, and was the third approved by the board since the onset of the pandemic in late March last year. Seven local airlines -- Thai AirAsia and Thai AirAsia X, Bangkok Airways, Nok Air, Thai Smile Airways, Thai Lion Air and Thai Vietjet Air -- have sought 14b baht in soft loans (easier terms and conditions) to sustain their operations. Even that sum was a substantial reduction on the 24b baht they requested last year. The board decided that relief measures for the airlines be reviewed every quarter. It announced that relief for the current quarter ending in March would incorporate assistance in four areas -- it extended a 50% discount on landing charges for domestic and international flights; a continued waiver of parking charges for airlines that have suspended operations due to the pandemic; keeping the 50% reduction on parking charges for both domestic and international airlines; and extending the 50% discount on air navigation service charges for domestic flights and 20% for international flights.<br/>
A coalition of aviation unions and businesses including Virgin Australia have issued an plea to the federal government to extend JobKeeper for their sector as they face another year of minimal international travel. Fourteen unions and companies, including some that have been at odds in the past, signed a joint letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison asking that the wage subsidy scheme continue past March for the aviation industry. Australians were last week told to expect curbs on international travel for most of this year because it remains unclear how effective planned vaccinations will be in slowing the virus' spread. The sector is proposing its "AviationKeeper" scheme would run until flights and travel returned to normal. Australian Services Union official Emeline Gaske said aviation workers feared for their futures. "Our members have been to hell and back over the last year, and 2021 looks no more promising," said Gaske, an assistant national secretary. "If borders are to remain closed, JobKeeper is to end, and banks are to finish up the mortgage holidays, how does the Prime Minister expect aviation workers to survive?" At least 11,000 workers lost their jobs in the sector during the coronavirus pandemic and on Monday, Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy cruelled hopes of an imminent recovery in tourism, saying there would not be substantial overseas travel to Australia this year. "I think we’ll go most of this year with still-substantial border restrictions," Professor Murphy said. "Even if we have a lot of the population vaccinated, we don’t know whether that will prevent transmission of the virus, and it’s likely that quarantine will continue for some time."<br/>