Japan Airlines is offering a service to cover the expenses of its international passengers for their tests, treatment and quarantine if they have become infected with COVID-19 while overseas. Travelers with tickets until June 30 are eligible to receive the service, which began in late December, for free. The service applies to travelers that test positive outside their country of residence within 31 days from the departure date of their first flight, JAL said. It is the first airline in Japan to launch such a program. Through a tie-up with Allianz Group, a major German insurance company, JAL Covid-19 Cover can compensate passengers for up to E150,000 for treatment and up to E100 per day in accommodation fees during quarantine for a maximum of 14 days. For now, the service, which is strictly not an insurance policy, targets business people. JAL hopes the measure will also include tourists once travel restrictions are eased, according to its officials.<br/>
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Cathay Pacific has secured approval from mainland Chinese authorities to fly most of the routes previously covered by its now-defunct subsidiary, in a move seen as a confidence booster for Hong Kong’s struggling flag carrier. The carrier did not raise any objection to its nascent rival Greater Bay Airlines’ (GBA) bid to fly more than 100 routes from Hong Kong. The newcomer might be able to launch as soon as this summer given the lack of opposition, sources said. Mainland aviation regulator the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in a notice dated January 29 that it would award Cathay Pacific the operating licence to fly passenger and cargo services to 15 mainland cities, including Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan and Nanjing. The other routes approved for Cathay were Fuzhou, Qingdao, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Hangzhou, Xi’an, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Haikou and Sanya. But some routes previously operated by the flag carrier’s shuttered regional brand, Cathay Dragon – such as Jinan, Kunming, Changsha, Guilin and Nanning – did not appear on the latest list, implying they could be dropped from Cathay’s schedules.<br/>
Malaysia Airlines’ aircraft operating lessors will vote on the airline’s restructuring scheme on Wednesday, the parent company of the national carrier said on Saturday. The lessors are among 40 creditors to which the airline owes 16b ringgit ($3.9b). To push ahead with its restructuring - a major step for the company, long beset by high costs and a bloated workforce and further upended by COVID-19 - Malaysia Airlines needs approval from aircraft operating lessors holding at least 75% of the money owed. Malaysian Aviation Group (MAG) said creditors have been divided into seven classes and that it is only taking aircraft operating lessors to the British court that is adjudicating its restructuring plans.<br/>
Ryanair has accused the Transport Secretary of handing an unfair advantage to British Airways by allowing it to retain the best take-off and landing slots without running flights. The carrier criticised Grant Shapps’s decision to extend into summer a pandemic waiver over strict “use it or lose it” rules meant to protect competition. A Ryanair spokesman said: “We oppose the extension of slot waivers into summer 2021 because this will lead to fewer flights and higher fares for consumers as legacy airlines at hub airports – Lufthansa, Air France or BA, for example – will have no incentives to operate flights because the normal ‘use it or lose it’ slot rules have been waived. Ryanair believes slot waivers distort competition by preventing low-fare airlines from expanding, while legacy carriers are able to reduce capacity and raise prices.” In normal times, airlines are required to operate 80% of the maximum possible flights to retain their slots. Failure to comply would result in slots, which can be worth tens of millions of pounds, being handed back to a central authority and reallocated to other airlines.<br/>