The number of US air passengers screened topped 1.5m Sunday for the first time since March 2020, as air travel continues to rebound from a pandemic-related drop, the US TSA said Monday. TSA said it screened 1.54m people Sunday, the highest single day since March 13, 2020 and the 11th consecutive day screening volume exceeding 1 million per day.<br/>
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Major US airline and travel groups on Monday urged the government to develop a plan to reopen international borders this summer, assuming COVID-19 vaccine and case counts continue to move towards positive trends. In a letter sent to the White House COVID-19 recovery coordinator Jeffrey Zients, more than two dozen industry groups, including Airlines for America, said: “The time to plan for and chart a defined roadmap to reopen international travel is now.” The United States has banned most travel from Britain, Europe, Brazil, China and South Africa since the coronavirus pandemic started taking hold last year, devastating the airline and travel industry globally. The US groups called for a risk-based, data-driven roadmap to safely lift those restrictions to be finalized before May 1 so that a plan is in place for international travel by the summer of 2021.<br/>
The CDC on Monday again advised against travel, while Miami Beach, Florida, business owners fretted about spring break chaos. Miami Beach officials declared a state of emergency and ordered a rare curfew over the weekend, an effort to avoid spreading Covid-19 and stop large crowds and unruly behavior in the popular tourist destination. Some businesses in the area, eager to recover from a brutal pandemic year that drove down tourist numbers, say they are being unfairly punished. Many colleges in the US scaled back their spring breaks to prevent partying and new Covid infections. While Covid-19 cases have declined from the peak in January, the director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, has warned infections could rise if people travel for spring break. “Now is not the time to travel,” she said at a news conference Monday. “We are worried not just for what happens when you are on the airplane itself, but what happens when people travel, that is they go out, they mix, they mix with people who are not vaccinated,” she said.<br/>
Shares in European airlines and other travel companies fell on Monday, as rising coronavirus cases on the continent accelerated doubts over the summer holiday season. BA owner IAG dropped 8%, holiday airline Jet2 fell 7%, easyJet was 5% lower, while low-cost carrier Ryanair slipped 3% at the close in London after recovering from steeper losses at the open. The falls followed warnings from the UK government that a new wave of cases and lockdowns across large parts of continental Europe mean it is too early to book summer holidays, threatening a key source of revenue for the region’s battered carriers. Social care minister Helen Whately on Monday said she would advise people not to book summer holidays yet, because of the situation in Europe and the risk of new variants of Covid-19. “I would say to people, just hold off,” she said.<br/>
Sweden plans to rejig take-off and landing fees for aircraft so that they correspond to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from different types of plane and fuel, the government said on Monday. The plan would mean lower fees for newer, more efficient aircraft or those using bio-fuels and would cover both passenger and freight flights to and from Arlanda airport in Stockholm and Landvetter in Gothenburg, the government said, adding the move would be a world’s first. “The airline industry has to show that it is taking the climate issue seriously and this is a way for politicians to push them and say that it is time they do their bit,” Environment Minister Per Bolund said in daily Dagens Nyheter. The government said it would leave it up to the airports and the airline companies to agree how the system will work, but that the government was prepared to regulate if that failed.<br/>
Kuwait’s Aviation Lease & Finance Co. has pared back its plans for plane purchases over the next three years as the travel industry struggles to recover from the pandemic-induced slump. Alafco, as the company is known, said it would reduce aircraft commitments over 2020-2023 through a combination of cancellations and deferrals to boost its liquidity position and save on costs. Countries around the world were forced to shutter airports last year to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Alafco agreed with Airbus to defer aircraft delivery in August, citing the impact of the pandemic, and cut its orderbook with Boeing after ending a legal claim. The leasing firm is now identifying further cost-saving measures, and has formed a committee to help review and negotiate rent deferrals or waiver requests. It’s also working to collect rent from delinquent lessees and restructure contracts, Chairman Ahmad Al Zabin said.<br/>