At one of the world’s busiest airports, immigration officials are uncovering fake COVID-19 test results daily by checking the required documentation for misplaced letters and errant vowels. “Normally the way this type of counterfeit is spotted is an obvious spelling error,” said Lucy Moreton, an official with the Immigration Services Union (ISU), which represents border officials at London’s Heathrow Airport. With global vaccination programs still in early stages, a “negative” COVID-19 test from a local lab is now often necessary for plane travel around the world. But there is no standard form, language or encryption technology for such a certificate. “It is almost impossible to tell whether it is fake or not except by going through a lengthy and almost impossible verification process,” said Vinoop Goel, a senior official at the IATA. Fraudulent test results have been found at airports in Montreal, Paris and Mexico.<br/>
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US lawmakers on Wednesday gave final approval to a new $14b payroll assistance package to US airlines as part of a COVID-19 relief bill, the third round of government support to the struggling sector since March 2019. With the latest six-month extension that will keep thousands of workers on payrolls through Sept 30, Congress has awarded US airlines $54b for payroll costs since March 2020. US air passenger travel fell by 60% in 2020 to the lowest level since 1984, down more than 550m passengers. US passenger airlines are still collectively burning about $150m daily, and the cash bleed is expected to continue through most of this year as demand remains depressed.<br/>
The US CDC has so far declined to issue new guidance on travel for vaccinated Americans due to concerns about travel-related surges but is "looking forward" to updating guidance once more people get protected. "What we have seen is that we have surges after people start traveling, we saw it after July 4, we saw it after Labor Day, we saw it after the Christmas holidays," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday. Walensky said because 90% of people remain unvaccinated they will wait to update guidance until "we have more protection across the communities and across the population." She declined to provide information for the 10% of Americans who are vaccinated and looking for guidance on whether it is safe for them to travel. The issue of air travel for the vaccinated has become a hot-button issue, with the industry pushing back against the new CDC guidelines.<br/>
Wednesday marked a grim anniversary for Boeing and hundreds of families worldwide -- two years since the fatal crash of a 737 Max flown by Ethiopian Airlines that killed all 157 people on board. While the human toll outweighs the financial accounting of the crisis, the dollar cost is likely to make Boeing's 737 Max safety issues one of the most costly corporate mistakes ever. Boeing (BA) has already detailed about $21b in costs associated with the crisis, including nearly $9b in compensation for airlines that couldn't or still can't use those jets, and about $11b in increased production costs associated with the slower rate of building that will last for years. And then there are the $744m in additional costs -- so far -- mostly from storing hundreds of Max jets built during the grounding that Boeing couldn't deliver. Even with Boeing customers now getting those planes, it will be well into 2023 before airlines take possession of them. And that doesn't begin to even address Boeing's legal exposure. Story has more.<br/>
Prominent attorneys Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros have been named to oversee a $500m victim compensation fund for the relatives of 346 people killed in two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes, a spokeswoman for Feinberg confirmed on Wednesday, the second anniversary of the second crash. The fund is part of a $2.5b Justice Department settlement reached in January with Boeing after prosecutors charged the company with fraud over the certification of the 737 MAX following a Lion Air crash on Oct. 29, 2019 and an Ethiopian Airlines disaster on March 10, 2019. Boeing said it looked “forward to working with Mr. Feinberg and Ms. Biros to ensure the prompt distribution of these funds.”<br/>
The number of passengers travelling by air in Africa will not return to 2019 levels until at least the start of 2024 because of the lengthy rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, the leader of airline association AFRAA has warned. Secretary general Abderahmane Berthe noted that with only 20% of the continent’s population to be vaccinated by the end of 2021, herd immunity – which occurs when at least 60% of the population have been inoculated – will not be reached until at least two or three years’ time. This means it is unlikely that air traffic levels will return to 2019 levels “until the end of 2023”, and possibly longer, says Berthe. He argues that governments “need to accelerate the vaccination of African citizens in order to remove travel restrictions and [allow air travel to] come back as soon as possible”. The rollout of the vaccine risks being delayed in the continent by a lack of cold storage facilities at airports, he notes.<br/>
Australia’s government will subsidize 800,000 half-price airfares as part of a A$1.2b ($920m) package to prop up the nation’s ailing tourism industry. Stocks in the nation’s aviation and travel industries jumped. To run from April 1 to July 31, the discounted fares are designed to help tourism-dependent regions and should support airlines, hotels and hospitality venues, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. The package also includes further support for the international aviation industry, and will expand a government-backed loan program to small and medium-sized businesses. The subsidized tickets program “means more jobs and investment for the tourism and aviation sectors as Australia heads towards winning our fight against Covid-19 and the restrictions that have hurt so many businesses,” Morrison said. Australia’s domestic and international aviation industry has been badly damaged by the pandemic, even as the nation has managed to restrict the waves of infections that have roiled Europe and the US. While the government has provided billions in direct economic stimulus to help keep the economy afloat, it sees the need to deliver additional support as programs such as JobKeeper -- which subsidizes businesses to keep employees -- wind down at the end of the month.<br/>
Four months after the much-delayed Berlin Brandenburg airport opened, the chief of its operating company has requested to step down from his post. Engelbert Lutke Daldrup, who took over almost exactly four years ago, is seeking to terminate his contract of employment early, in September 2021. Operating company FBB says he has written to the supervisory board stating that, with the completion and opening of Brandenburg plus the development of a 2021 business plan, he has fulfilled his tasks. Daldrup had nursed the troubled project through its last critical stages, including the onset of the crisis driven by the pandemic, until the hub opened in November last year. “[He] took on great responsibility at a very difficult time for FBB,” says supervisory board chair Rainer Bretschneider. “The fact that [Brandenburg] entered into operation was largely due to his work.”<br/>