general

President Joe Biden will continue to restrict travel to the US from the UK, Ireland and 26 countries in Europe, and will extend the ban to South Africa, to slow transmission of Covid-19, said a White House official familiar with the plan. The latest ban would prevent most non-US citizens from entry if they have recently been in South Africa, where a new strain of the virus has been identified. It’s unclear how long the restrictions will continue. The Trump administration on Jan. 18, two days before Biden’s inauguration, announced a plan to wind down restrictions on travelers from a number of countries starting Jan. 26, when arrivals to the US would need to have tested negative for the virus. At the time, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the incoming administration planned to block the move, saying on Twitter that “this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel.” “In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” Psaki tweeted. Starting Monday, all passengers arriving in the US, including citizens, will be required to get a viral test for the coronavirus within three days of their departure, and to provide written documentation of a negative result.<br/>

The US airline sector is urging the Department of Transportation (DOT) to lead the creation of global Covid-19 testing standards for international travellers. In addition, the group wants the department to create a globally accepted “health pass programme”. Trade group Airlines for America (A4A), which represents major US carriers, outlined that vision in an 18 January letter to Pete Buttigieg, who President Joe Biden has nominated to become Secretary of State for Transportation. A4A’s letter notes that US airlines remain on shaky ground, with passenger numbers down 60% and the sector burning about $150m daily. To weather the storm, US airlines took on an estimated $67b in debt last year, which will require interest payments of about $5b annually for several years, more than double previous levels. “This remains a very dire situation for our industry,” says A4A’s letter. “We cannot sustain our businesses as they exist with this kind of passenger capacity.” A4A says Covid-19 testing requirements can help travel rebound, and that the US government is best situated to lead such an effort. “There is widespread agreement in the aviation and travel industries that appropriate Covid-19 testing protocols can enable the reopening of international travel markets,” the group says.<br/>

The US air transport and travel industries are pushing back on a potential quarantine requirement for international travellers arriving in the US, currently being weighed by the administration of President Joe Biden, in order to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Trade groups on 22 January say a mandatory self-isolation rule would be an additional setback to an industry trying to regain its footing following an almost-year-long decline, and it is also likely unenforceable. The idea was floated by President Biden himself in a televised statement on 21 January when he said, “In addition to wearing masks, everyone flying to the United States from other countries will need to test before they get on that plane, before they depart, and quarantine when they arrive in America.” “We believe a mandatory quarantine requirement for international travellers could be extremely difficult to enforce — and unnecessary in light of required testing and the many other protections now in place,” trade group US Travel Association says.<br/>

Jet fuel is piling up at airports on the East Coast as the pandemic is keeping US traveler traffic at less than half usual levels. Twice this month, the weekly buildup of jet fuel kept mostly at airport storage tanks has surpassed 2 million barrels. Increases this high hadn’t happened before at any point during the pandemic. Most of the added jet fuel is on the East Coast, which includes the New York area’s three largest airports. The airline industry has been the weakest link in the recovery of fuel consumption that was decimated when the pandemic first hit last year, robbing refiners of one of their biggest customers. Things may get worse for aviation fuel as the Biden administration vows tough enforcement of safety travel measures, including self-quarantine for people arriving from other countries. In the week ending Jan. 15, 2.16m barrels of jet fuel were added to stockpiles for a total of 39.5m, the highest since October, Energy Information Administration data show. That came after 2.26m were added in the week ending Jan. 1. The supply glut is forming as the number of passengers through US airports has slumped to about 16.7m people this year through Thursday, compared with more than 40m over the same span in 2020 and 2019, TSA data show.<br/>

Kuwait on Sunday reduced the number of daily overseas airline passenger arrivals by 80% to 1,000 to manage the spread of a new coronavirus variant, a source said. Kuwaiti newspapers earlier reported the decision, citing unnamed sources. Kuwait’s civil aviation authority could not be immediately reached for comment. The Gulf state on Tuesday reported its first cases of a more contagious coronavirus variant, which the health ministry said had been detected in two women returning from Britain. State-owned Kuwait Airways on Friday said it would operate fewer services between Jan. 24 and Feb. 6 following instructions from health authorities and the state aviation regulation. Domestic workers and transit passengers were exempted from the new arrivals limit, it said.<br/>

India’s domestic civil aviation operations continue steadily and the sector is nearing pre-pandemic levels, according to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. As many as 257,613 passengers flew locally as on Jan. 22, compared with 30,000 passengers that traveled by air when such flights were restarted on May 25, Puri said in a Twitter post on Saturday. “We are now within touching distance of pre-Covid figures.” India has allowed local airlines to fly limited schedules since May after two months of a strict nationwide lockdown, gradually opening up the domestic market.<br/>

Boeing says it will begin delivering commercial airplanes capable of flying on 100% biofuel by the end of the decade, calling reducing environmental damage from fossil fuels the “challenge of our lifetime.” Boeing’s goal – which requires advances to jet systems, raising fuel-blending requirements, and safety certification by global regulators – is central to a broader industry target of slashing carbon emissions in half by 2050, the US planemaker said. “It’s a tremendous challenge, it’s the challenge of our lifetime,” said Boeing’s director of sustainability strategy, Sean Newsum. “Aviation is committed to doing its part to reduce its carbon footprint.” Commercial flying currently accounts for about 2% of global carbon emissions and about 12% of transport emissions, according to data cited by the Air Transport Action Group. Boeing essentially has just a decade to reach its target because jetliners that enter service in 2030 will typically stay in service through 2050. The world’s largest aerospace company must also confront the task hobbled by the coronavirus pandemic and the 20-month grounding of its bestselling jetliner after fatal crashes, which has strained its finances and engineering resources. Boeing isn’t starting from scratch. In 2018, it staged the world’s first commercial flight using 100% biofuel on a FedEx Corp 777 freighter.<br/>

France is looking at extending state support for Airbus and other aerospace firms through 2024 after the planemaker reined in production plans amid concern that new coronavirus strains will stall a recovery in travel. “We will do everything to save our aerospace industry,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Friday ahead of a meeting with Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury. That could include prolonging a dedicated investment fund beyond next year to “allow the sector to recover,” he said. Le Maire also suggested the possibility of granting extensions for reimbursing the biggest state-backed loans, like those funding programs such as Airbus’s A350 jets. Le Maire spoke on a visit to Airbus’s headquarters in Toulouse following a week of negative news for aviation companies as resurgent Covid-19 infections prompt a slew of new travel restrictions. Airbus responded by slowing a ramp-up in single-aisle jet production, marking a retreat from the optimism shown in October when it told suppliers to expect a sharp increase in build rates. The French government will maintain a “whatever-it-takes” policy to save jobs and provide financial backing for aerospace suppliers, including diversification into other industries, Le Maire said, adding that the sector is considered strategically vital to the economy, like Air France-KLM.<br/>

UK civil aviation regulators are stressing that operators need to encourage crews to report fatigue-related occurrences as a result of abnormal duty patterns, in order to ensure that risk-assessment models remain valid during the pandemic. The pandemic has resulted in severe disruption to carriers’ services and forced aircraft crews to adapt rapidly to different duty cycles and changes to their environment. “Operators should recognise that safety reporting and behaviours may have changed and seek to validate all available information and safety data,” says the UK Civil Aviation Authority in a newly-published safety notice. It states that pilots and cabin crew should be “actively encouraged” to report occurrences relating to fatigue, and feel able to self-declare that they are potentially unfit to fly “without fear of punitive action”. “The current methods of assessing and managing crew fatigue may require additional considerations and measures to identify and mitigate fatigue risks,” the notice adds.<br/>

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has issued a directive on aircraft storage and maintenance, requiring that airlines rotate between in-service and stored aircraft every month. Furthermore, airlines are allowed to leave aircraft in storage for no longer than one month, in order to reduce safety risks associated with aircraft in storage for longer periods, the regulator states in a 18 January update on its website.<br/>Airlines must also obtain approval from CAAV should they require to ground aircraft for more than one month in order to conduct repair and maintenance. The regulator states that these measures were introduced as the number of aircraft in storage continues to rise. These regulations suggest that airlines will likely need to ramp up the frequency at which aircraft are brought out of storage and returned to service.<br/>