Airlines in Canada during the coronavirus pandemic have lost 23% of their market share on international routes to competitors in Europe and the USA whose governments have provided sector-specific relief funds, WestJet CE Ed Sims said during an online discussion hosted by multinational aviation group Eurocontrol on 2 March. The Calgary-based airline has been hit with “a double whammy” that forced it to dramatically reduce capacity amid a lack of federal airline stimulus and restrictions for domestic and international air travel, Sims says. Governments have provided around $200b to airlines since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Eurocontrol data, while Canada has only provided a federal wage subsidy to companies impacted by the pandemic instead of direct aid to any specific industries. This has resulted in what Sims says is a “scandalous” situation that forces WestJet and other Canadian carriers to reduce flights and allow competitors based in other nations to capture market share. “We’re operating every single day at an enormous structural disadvantage to Lufthansa, to Air France, to Delta / KLM,” Sims says. “We have lost 23% market share to international carriers, and I think that is disgraceful.”<br/>
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Congress looks poised to extend another $15b in aid to beleaguered US airlines — a reprieve for employees, but one that raises questions about the industry’s final destination. Not for the first time, airlines had threatened to furlough tens of thousands of staff when conditions attached to earlier rounds of bailout funds expire at the end of this month. American and United alone had put 27,000 employees on notice that it might stop paying them on April 1. While some aspects of President Joe Biden’s $1.9tn economic stimulus package have attracted political controversy, the extension of the airlines’ Payroll Support Program is not one of them. The new money — $14b for airlines and $1b for their contractors — will take the total earmarked for the industry to $63b. But the PSP, which bars airlines from furloughing employees or cutting pay, was created in March 2020 to see the airlines through a sharp liquidity crisis when it was assumed the coronavirus pandemic would last only months. A year on, US passenger traffic remains at a third of 2019 levels and the IATA forecasts a full recovery globally only in 2024. It is unclear when big US airlines will be able to support their current payrolls without subsidies.<br/>
FedEx is investing at least $2b toward sustainable energy initiatives, including electric vehicles and carbon capture research, as part of a new pledge to become carbon neutral by 2040, the company announced Wednesday. The Memphis-based logistics giant said it aims to replace all of its parcel pickup and delivery vehicles with a sustainable electric fleet by 2040. FedEx, which operates more than 200,000 vehicles and 680 cargo airplanes, will continue investing in alternative fuels to reduce emissions from its aircrafts and vehicles, the company said. “We have a responsibility to take bold action in addressing climate challenges,” FedEx CEO Fred Smith said. “This goal builds on our longstanding commitment to sustainability throughout our operations, while at the same time investing in long-term, transformational solutions for FedEx and our entire industry.”<br/>
The EU is still months away from issuing Covid-19 immunity certificates, raising the risk of another lost tourism season for the bloc’s aviation and hospitality industries. Technical work on a digital platform to authenticate travelers’ health status could take three to four months, according to a briefing note circulated to national delegations in Brussels on Tuesday. Beyond that, there are legal hurdles, the challenge of agreeing the scope of the program, and resolving thorny medical questions. The system being developed by the EC would confirm holders have recently tested negative, been fully vaccinated, or recovered from the coronavirus and are thus presumed to be immune. But EU member states are at loggerheads over the use of the “status certificates,” with tourism-dependent economies like Greece pushing for rapid introduction to allow for the return of travel and other activities like dining out, at least for a segment of the population. France and Belgium have resisted, citing concerns including privacy and fairness.<br/>
Airline passengers may have been unfairly treated while European Union’s regulators raced to approve bailouts to struggling carriers, the EU’s financial watchdog warned. The European Court of Auditors said Wednesday it has started to assess whether the EC protected the rights of citizens who traveled by plane or booked flights during the coronavirus crisis. “In times of Covid-19, the EU and member states have had to strike a balance between preserving air passenger rights and supporting the ailing airlines,” said Annemie Turtelboom, the ECA member leading the audit. “Our audit will check that the rights of millions of air travelers in the EU were not collateral damage in the fight to save struggling airlines.” Airlines balked at issuing refunds last year as pandemic restrictions grounded plans and racked up $150 billion in losses for the industry. That saw them clash with EU rules that require airlines to compensate passengers for canceled flights. The UK competition regulator is investigating if carriers ignored consumer rights by refusing refunds.<br/>
Airbus A320-family operators are set to be instructed to carry out repetitive inspections of windshield components after a main cockpit window on a Chinese A319 blew out in cruise nearly three years ago. About 40min after taking off from Chongqing for Lhasa, the Sichuan Airlines aircraft had been flying at 9,800m (32,100ft) when the first officer’s window began to crack and was then blasted from its cockpit frame. The aircraft, about 2.2nm west of waypoint MIKOS on airway B213, depressurised from its cabin altitude of 6,272ft. Inquiries by the Civil Aviation Administration of China concluded that external water vapour probably infiltrated the windshield’s seal, as a result of damage, and over time affected the insulation of electrical wiring located at the bottom edge. This eventually led to continuous electrical discharge arcing in the lower left windshield corner, resulting in localised high temperatures which caused the glass to fracture, weakening it until it could not withstand the differential air pressure between the cockpit interior and the external atmosphere. Story has more.<br/>
Taxes on long-haul flights are to rise and remain the highest in Europe despite crisis-hit airlines calling for them to be suspended to help rescue summer holidays. Air passenger duty (APD) rates for departures from Britain will increase by GBP2 to GBP82 for a traveller with an economy ticket, and by GBP5 to GBP181 for those in premium, business and first class. The change, revealed in Treasury documents accompanying Rishi Sunak's Budget, is in line with the RPI measure of inflation. Taxes on short-haul flights to destinations including European holiday hotspots will remain frozen at GBP13 for an economy ticket and GBP26 for those in premium, business or first class. The aviation industry has called for APD to be suspended after air travel was decimated by the pandemic. Karen Dee, the CE of the Airport Operators' Association, described the rise for long haul flights as "a very damaging blow to an industry already on its knees" and "not a budget for Global Britain".<br/>
South Korea on Wednesday unveiled another set of measures to support airlines hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in the latest move to help airlines stay afloat during the crisis. The government will continue to reduce the airport usage fee for the airlines until June, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, adding the fee will be lowered by 45.7b won (US$40.6m). The ministry said it will later consider whether to extend the fee reduction again by taking into account air travel demand. "Through this additional support measure, I expect our airline industry will keep its employees and improve corporate competitiveness until air travel demand recovers," Transport Minister Byeon Chang-heum said. <br/>
The Ministry of Transport permitted Vân Đồn International Airport in the northern province of Quảng Ninh to reopen from 6.01am on Wednesday (March 3) with the Covid-19 pandemic put under control in the province and the airport deemed safe to transport passengers. The airport was temporarily closed from Jan 29 after a Covid-19 outbreak involving several of the airport’s security staff was detected. Vietnam Airlines announced earlier it will resume flights between HCM City and Quảng Ninh on Wednesday, becoming the first to restart flights to Vân Đồn airport since the cluster broke out.<br/>