India will make COVID-19 molecular tests mandatory for people arriving directly or indirectly from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil in a bid to contain the spread of more infectious virus variants found in those countries. India, which has reported the highest number of overall COVID-19 cases after the US, detected the South African variant in four people last month and the Brazilian one in one person this month. The government has said the South African and Brazilian strains can more easily infect a person's lungs than the UK mutation. India has so far reported 187 cases of infection with the UK variant. The government late on Wednesday said airlines would be required from next week to segregate inbound travellers from those countries. India does not have direct flights with Brazil and South Africa, and most people travelling from these countries generally transit through Middle Eastern airports.<br/>
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Boeing issued a technical bulletin to airlines reminding them to ensure pilots closely monitor the airplane’s state and flight path to prevent a loss of control in flight, according to a document seen by Reuters. The bulletin, dated February 15, was sent after Indonesia issued a preliminary report into a Jan. 9 Sriwijaya Air crash that killed all 62 people on board a 737-500. It was not explicitly linked to that crash and covers all modern Boeing models but it addresses one of the potential areas of interest for investigators following the accident, pending the discovery of the cockpit voice recorder memory unit. “Continual crew awareness of airplane attitude, airspeed, flight control position and thrust settings is fundamental for airplane upset prevention and can reduce the effect of startle or surprise caused by rapid unexpected changes,” the bulletin said. Manufacturers have periodically issued such reminders and Boeing said it regularly communicates with customers on how they can safely and confidently operate their airplanes. “In close coordination with investigative and regulatory authorities, these latest communications reinforce the importance of industry-wide and Boeing guidance and training materials on aircraft upset prevention and recovery,” the US planemaker said.<br/>
The UAE cleared Boeing’s 737 Max jet to fly again in its airspace, marking another step toward the aircraft’s global return to service. Local airlines must first provide a plan for bringing the plane back safely, and develop a strategy to address differences between requirements set by U.S. and European regulators, the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority said Wednesday. Foreign operators of the Max need to provide a compliance statement from home regulators, along with evidence of required pilot training. Clearance in the UAE is important for Boeing because the country serves as an international air-travel crossroads via hub airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It’s also home to state-owned Flydubai, which has ordered 251 Max jets as it pursues an aggressive regional expansion. Those planes are meant to feed into longer-distance flights by its partner Emirates, which is also government-owned. Flydubai has idled 14 Boeing Max jets it had in March 2019, when the model was grounded worldwide in the wake of a second deadly crash in five months.<br/>
Aerion Corp., which designs supersonic planes, is in talks to go public through a merger with Altitude Acquisition Corp., according to people with knowledge of the matter. The companies are discussing a deal that would value the combined firm at up to $3b, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. A deal could be announced as soon as this month, the people said. The talks could still fall apart and end without an agreement, they said. Boeing announced a partnership with Aerion in 2019, along with a significant investment in the company. Aerion had planned to finalize the design of its first supersonic business jet model last year. Manufacture of the AS2 will start in 2023 with plans for it to be in service in 2027.<br/>
Takeover target Signature Aviation said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell its engine repairs business to Carlyle-owned StandardAero for $230m to streamline its business and focus on cash-generating areas. Signature, a private jet services firm, is in the midst of a months-long takeover battle, and earlier this month backed an offer from former Gatwick owner GIP, Blackstone and Bill Gates’ investment vehicle. Bloomberg reported here on Wednesday that Carlyle, which had also expressed an interest in buying Signature, was planning to bow out of the bidding after the StandardAero deal. London-listed Signature has been looking to offload the division for a few years, with the sale coming at a time when the airline industry has been pummelled by the coronavirus crisis. Formerly known as BBA Aviation, Signature said it expected the sale to be completed this year, with the net proceeds of about $140m to be partly used to cut debt.<br/>
Amazon’s aircraft fleet is on pace to have doubled in size between May 2020 and June of this year, laying further groundwork for Amazon Air to rival the likes of carriers FedEx and UPS, according to a study. Amazon Air now makes an average of 140 flights per day and is expanding its fleet, signaling a “growth spurt this spring,” said the report issued Tuesday by DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development. “As new airplanes are added to the fleet, we anticipate the number of flights will grow to 160+ by June 2021,” according to the report. “If it reaches this milestone, Amazon Air will have approximately doubled in size in the 13 months between May 2020 and June 2021.” Amazon’s air cargo fleet is a critical part of the company’s strategy to meet its increasingly ambitious one- and two-day delivery targets. The company quietly began testing out air cargo operations in Wilmington, Ohio, in 2015 as part of a project under the code name “Aerosmith.” Since then, Amazon Air has grown rapidly, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. Amazon leases most of its cargo aircraft through Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings and Air Transport Services Group, but in January it purchased 11 used Boeing 767-300 jets from Delta and WestJet. When the 11 Boeing jets are in service by the end of 2022, Amazon will have a fleet of more than 85 planes. That’s a far cry from FedEx, which has 679 planes, and UPS’ fleet of 572 owned, leased or chartered aircraft. Still, analysts believe Amazon’s growth trajectory could set it on a collision course with major shippers.<br/>
A leading UK airline boss has warned that business travel will not recover from the coronavirus pandemic to anything close to 2019 levels. Jonathan Hinkles, CE of Loganair, said: “We think in the medium term that probably only 60-65 per cent of business travel will recover. It will be 90%-plus for some sectors like construction, health care and others but probably only a 25-30% recovery across sectors like accountancy, consulting and others.” He said: “There used to be a rule of thumb that if a journey took more than four hours, people preferred to fly. That’s extended to six or seven hours now.” The Loganair CEO gave the example of the former Flybe links from East Midlands airport to Edinburgh and Glasgow. The flights of around 240 miles took an hour, compared with six hours by rail from Nottingham to Glasgow. Yet neither route appears viable in a post-Covid era.<br/>
One year ago 26-year-old Perrine was on the cusp of realising her childhood dream of becoming a flight attendant. Then the Covid-19 pandemic arrived and Perrine is now on track for a job in insurance instead. At the CFA centre near Paris's Bourget airport where Perrine has been training in mock aircraft cabins, the seats for passengers are now empty and there are no attendants. Most of the 8,000-square-metre (86,000-square-foot) facility is silent. In a vast hanger that holds a Falcon business jet and a Super Puma helicopter for technical training, just a couple of dozen students are busy at work benches. Making the traditional welcome speech at the start of the academic year in this very unusual year "was a bit touch and go", said instructor Pierre-Henri Greze. "Most of the students are concerned, anxious about the future," he added. The number of apprentices at the start of the 2020 academic year was down by half to 300, with the courses for flight attendants at a complete halt as airlines shed cabin crew jobs to match the vastly reduced number of flights they are operating. The mechanic and technician students are down by a third. Story has more.<br/>
Auckland International Airport has posted an after tax profit of $28m for the six months to December, and is forecasting a full year loss of up to $55m as hopes of a Tasman bubble before July fade. The interim profit is an 80% reduction on the previous year. When allowing for adjustments, including removing property value increases due to annual volatility, the company made a net underlying loss after tax of $10.5m. Auckland Airport CE Adrian Littlewood said it was not expecting a trans-Tasman bubble to get off the ground before June 30 and the company was predicting to post an after tax loss of between $35m and $55m for the 2021 financial year. “Although the Government remains committed to restarting two-way trans-Tasman travel, and we support this, for the purposes of this underlying earnings guidance we have assumed there will be no material quarantine-free, two-way Tasman travel during the remainder of the 2021 financial year.” The national gateway has been deeply affected by Covid-19 border restrictions with international passengers down 97% and domestic passengers down 45 per cent resulting on total passenger numbers falling 73% to 2.8m, compared to the six months to December 31, 2019.<br/>