Johan Lundgren wasted no time in dashing off a letter of complaint when a UK government minister recently warned it was too early to even think about booking a summer break. The exasperation from Lundgren, the CE of easyJet, is understandable because the stakes are so high for an airline industry whose hopes for a vaccine-led recovery this year are already in jeopardy. The pandemic shut the skies abruptly last spring, bludgeoning the industry as it endured the largest decline in flying since the second world war. Less than two months into this year, the danger facing airlines is more akin to a slow strangulation as country by country travel restrictions are tightened and, in some cases, borders closed to prevent new variants of Covid-19 spreading. For an $800b industry built on moving people around, it is an alarming picture. Europe and the US have tightened travel restrictions; the UK introduced tougher quarantine rules on Monday while Australia’s borders are expected to stay closed until the end of the year. “Ever changing travel restrictions like quarantines are the single biggest barrier to customer bookings,” Lundgren said. Andrew Charlton, an aviation consultant, puts it bluntly: “The countries that have been really good at suppressing the virus have done it by killing international aviation.” Even as vaccines continue to offer a long-term solution to Covid-19 — and most carriers still believe that this year will ultimately be better than last — signs of the renewed pressures are multiplying. Story has more. <br/>
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The UN children’s agency launched an initiative Tuesday to get airlines to give priority to delivering coronavirus vaccines, medicine and other critical supplies to respond to the global pandemic. UNICEF said more than 15 airlines have signed agreements to support the priority delivery of pandemic-related materials. “Delivery of these life-saving vaccines is a monumental and complex undertaking, considering the sheer volumes that need to be transported, the cold chain requirements, the number of expected deliveries and the diversity of routes,” said Etleva Kadilli, director of UNICEF’s supply division. UNICEF said its Humanitarian Airfreight Initiative brings together airlines covering routes to over 100 countries, in support of the UN’s unprecedented COVAX program to buy and deliver coronavirus vaccines for hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people. Based on COVAX’s initial first round allocation plan, UNICEF said 145 countries will receive doses to immunize around 3% of their populations, on average, starting in the first half of 2021, “subject to all requirements being met and final allocation plans.” It identified airlines that signed the agreement so far as AirBridgeCargo, Air France/KLM, Astral Aviation, Brussels Airlines, Cargolux, Cathay Pacific, Emirates Skycargo, Ethiopian Airlines, Etihad Airways, IAG Cargo, Korean Air, Lufthansa Cargo, Qatar Airways, SAUDIA, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines.<br/>
Airlines have canceled more than 4,000 flights in Texas since Monday as an unusual winter storm bringing snow, ice and record cold temperatures hit the state, creating perilous road conditions and knocking out power to millions. Nearly 900 flights to and from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, American Airlines biggest hub, were canceled on Tuesday, more than half of the schedule. Close to 1,000 flights were canceled there on Monday as the storm snarled travel at the end of the Presidents Day weekend. American was putting airport staff up at hotels to help avoid commuting problems. George Bush Intercontinental/Houston Airport, a major United hub and the city’s William P. Hobby Airport, a Southwest hub, said they would remain closed until 4 p.m. CT. More than 100 flights in and out of Chicago were also canceled on Tuesday after the region received more snow. Airline schedules have been drastically reduced because of the Covid pandemic, but the storm struck after carriers saw a bump in demand for the long weekend. The TSA’s daily US airport screenings topped 1m Thursday and Friday for the first time since early January.<br/>
U.S. passenger airline traffic fell 60.1% in 2020 to the lowest number since 1984 as the COVID-19 pandemic devastated demand for air travel, the US DoT said on Tuesday. In total, there were 368m passengers in 2020, down from 922.6m in 2019. The previous yearly low was 351.6m in 1984, the department said. December air travel fell 62%, slightly more than the decline in November, the department said. For all of 2020, U.S. domestic air travel fell by 58.7%, while international travel fell 70.4% as many countries imposed significant travel restrictions. US airlines say air travel demand remains down more than 60% through early February.<br/>
A county board voted unanimously Tuesday to rename busy McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas after former US Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada. The all-Democratic Clark County Commission approved a measure directing the county’s airport staff to file a change with the FAA renaming the facility Harry Reid International Airport. The county commission oversees the airport and is the final authority on a name change. There have been longstanding calls to rename the airport. Its current namesake, former Nevada Sen. Patrick McCarran, served as one of Nevada’s two US senators from 1933 until his death in 1954. He was known for his contributions to aviation along with his anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic views. Reid, a Democrat and the former Senate majority leader, retired from the Senate in 2016 after serving 30 years. The FAA says it must take steps to process a name change before officially recognizing it. That’s expected to take a few months.<br/>
Boeing Tuesday backed first-ever fuel efficiency standards for new airplanes finalized by the Trump administration in its waning days that a dozen US states have challenged as too lenient, and that President Joe Biden's administration is reviewing. The largest US planemaker asked a US appeals court in Washington for approval to intervene on behalf of the EPA, which is being sued over its decision to finalize the first-ever standards regulating greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes. The plaintiffs, 12 states, the District of Columbia and three environmental groups, want tougher emissions rules. The states said last fall the EPA rule lags "existing technology by more than 10 years and would result in no GHG reductions at all compared to business-as-usual." Airplanes have been the largest source of transportation greenhouse gas emissions not subject to rules. In 2016, the UN ICAO agreed on global airplane emissions standards aimed at makers of small and large planes, including Airbus and Boeing, which both endorsed the rules. Boeing noted the ICAO emissions standards effort began under former President Barack Obama's administration, in which Biden was VP. The planemaker argued that it is "essential" rules "be reasonably achievable, given the billions of dollars it costs to design, build, and certify new airplanes."<br/>
Long-haul air services departing European airports accounted for more than half of CO2 emissions from all operations in 2020, while making up just 6% of flights, according to Eurocontrol data. The figure is broadly in line with that from 2019 – when it was 48%, versus 51% for 2020 – despite the devastating impact of the pandemic on the sector, the aviation body says. At the other end of the spectrum from the 2,160nm-plus long-haul flights, the 31% of flights that were under 270nm had only a 4% share of CO2, Eurocontrol states. It points out that while short-haul flights are an “excellent candidate for early electrification”, data shows that even removing 100% of CO2 emissions from such services would have a small impact on the overall total. “Increasing, the supply of sustainable aviation fuel to cover just 10% of the needs of long-haul would do more than can ever be done in short-haul to reduce net CO2 emissions,” it suggests. Eurocontrol says the figures take into account all emissions for flights departing from European airports – whether those emissions occur inside or outside European airspace.<br/>
The government’s travel restrictions have effectively shut down UK aviation and “permanently damaged” the careers and livelihoods of thousands of travel industry employees: that is the claim from the leading pilots’ union in a letter to the prime minister. The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) has written to Boris Johnson saying that coronavirus lockdown decisions “have huge knock-on effects, and in the case of the air transport industry, extremely serious ones”. Brian Strutton, the general secretary of Balpa, wrote: “Government policy has effectively shut down UK aviation. We understand the reasoning behind those decisions, but the effects have already been disastrous. Covid has seen permanent closure of Flybe and Norwegian Air UK. Thousands of pilots in airlines across the country have lost their careers or are furloughed, along with tens of thousands of other front-line staff members These are the same people who, in the face of this terrible virus, repatriated British citizens and ensured important cargo made it to the UK to protect the NHS and save lives. Now their careers and livelihoods have been permanently damaged.” Strutton described calls by ministers not to book summer holidays as “damaging”.<br/>
Russia has extended a ban on flights to and from Britain until the end of March 16 due to a new variant of the coronavirus first detected in the UK, Russia's coronavirus taskforce said on Tuesday. Russia, which has already reported a case of the more infectious coronavirus variant, has had the flight ban in place since Dec. 22.<br/>
The aviation sector will get additional support and extended cost relief to the tune of $870m, given that the volume of international air travel remains a tiny fraction of what it was. The sector is expected to remain badly affected this year, and recovery will take some time, said Deputy PM Heng Swee Keat on Tuesday. The funding for the sector will come under the $11b Covid-19 Resilience Package. Additional funding drawn from a separate $24b fund to help firms and workers emerge stronger will be invested in on-arrival testing and biosafety systems, said Heng. This will help to secure Singapore's position as a key aviation hub that both travellers and employees trust in. "Airports will be differentiated by their capabilities in securing public health and enabling safe travel," Heng added. "They will need digitalised systems and the ability to effectively reroute people and goods."<br/>
The latest generation of smartphones, 5G, can interfere with aircraft altitude instruments, the French Civil Aviation Authority warned on Tuesday as it recommended they should be turned off during flight. "The utilisation of 5G devices onboard aircraft could lead to risks of interference that could potentially result in errors in altitude readings," a spokesman for the agency said. The potential phenomenon is due to "signal interference from a close frequency source of a strength that is similar or even superior to that of altimeters". This interference can cause errors "in instruments that are extremely critical during landing", said the agency, known by its French acronym DGAC. It sent a bulletin on the issue to airlines last week, recommending that 5G phones should either be turned off completely or put in "airplane mode" during flight. Most countries have long required that mobile phones be turned off or placed in airplane mode due to concerns that previous generations of mobile telecommunications networks can interfere with a plane's navigation and communication equipment. The DGAC also recommended that in cases of disruption to an aircraft's equipment that the flight crew immediately notify air traffic controllers, who can then alert the authorities at the airport. DGAC also noted that it had laid out conditions for the positioning of 5G base stations in order to limit the risks of interference during landing at French airports.<br/>
The Covid-19 pandemic has hit aircraft manufacturers hard but Airbus is already looking towards a new plane to help drive its recovery and get a leg up on rival Boeing. The A321 XLR will be the latest in Airbus's single-aisle A320 family when deliveries begin in 2023. The XLR stands for extra long range and the aircraft can more than handle crossing the North Atlantic, opening up the possibility airlines can use it on routes that have been the preserve of wide-body long-range aircraft up to now. Since the model was first presented at the Paris Air Show in June 2019 the aircraft has picked up more than 450 orders, including 37 last year. Airbus, which has said its new orders plunged 65% in 2020 to 268, releases earnings results on Thursday. "The XLR continues to enjoy a very strong market demand," Airbus commercial chief Christian Scherer said recently. Among the 24 clients for the A321 XLR are American Airlines and compatriot United Airlines, which have ordered 50 each, while Australia's Qantas wants 36.<br/>