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United on Sunday is set to fly to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport for the first time in more than five years as the carrier takes advantage of a lull in air travel to snag space at the once-congested airport. United’s JFK service kicks off with a 7:30 a.m. PT flight from Los Angeles International Airport and a 9:30 a.m. PT flight from its San Francisco International Airport hub. Both will be operated with a Boeing 767-300. The JFK-San Francisco flight takes off at 5:10 p.m. ET and to Los Angeles at 7 p.m. ET. United’s New York-area service is concentrated at its Newark Liberty International Airport hub and at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. United CEO Scott Kirby has said leaving JFK in October 2015 was a mistake and has expressed a desire to return to the New York City airport because moving transcontinental flights to Newark allowed competitor American Airlines to win some lucrative corporate clients.<br/>

Unused airline tickets are getting extra shelf life as the steep drop in travel demand extends into a second year due to Covid-19. Fewer flight credits are on the verge of lapsing after United and American Airlines Group recently extended expiration dates into 2022, following similar moves earlier in the crisis by rivals. About 11% of all open, unused tickets are now set to expire this year, down from 55% as of Jan. 29, according to TripActions, a corporate travel management firm. “It’s pretty clear that the shift is a reflection of the fact that airlines are adjusting dates to accommodate customers, both business and leisure, in this fluid travel environment,” said Kelly Soderlund, a spokeswoman for TripActions. The changing rules reflect the uncertain recovery of air travel after last year’s unprecedented collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Most credits have traditionally expired 12 months after a ticket is purchased, and carriers extended expiration deadlines last year as air travel plunged. But many were set to expire this year -- and some already have -- as millions of would-be flyers continue to stay off planes. As more deadlines get extended, flight-credit expirations in 2022 have increased to 89% from 45% before, Soderlund said. The numbers represent unused US airline ticket credits in TripActions’ database, but are largely reflective of the industry as a whole, she said.<br/>

Boeing delivered its first 787 Dreamliner since October, handing over a jet to United Airlines while the planemaker continues to inspect others for small structural defects. United received a new 787-9 on Friday and will take another Monday, a spokeswoman for the airline said. The first plane will be ferried from Charleston, South Carolina, to the carrier’s San Francisco hub on Saturday. Additional deliveries to United haven’t been scheduled. The airline has 61 of the wide-body aircraft and is slated to take 10 more this year. Friday’s handover ended a five-month delivery hiatus that has squeezed Boeing’s cash and aggravated other financial struggles amid the coronavirus pandemic and a 20-month grounding of its 737 Max jet after two fatal crashes. More than 80 Dreamliners are in storage.<br/>

Deutsche Lufthansa’s unit Swiss could announce additional job cuts in Q2 as the pandemic crimps air travel, its CE told Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick. Last October, Swiss announced 1,000 job cuts through attrition over two years. The company has about 9,000 staff “From the 1,000 announced positions, we completed 500 of the job cuts through the end of 2020,” Dieter Vranckx said. “How many additional positions we will potentially have to cut is something I can answer only in the second quarter. We’re in the middle of the analysis.” Switzerland’s 1.5b Swiss franc ($1.60b) state credit guarantee for the airline is currently sufficient, Vranckx said. “For now, it’s enough,” he said, adding that planes flying now are profitable and the cargo business has grown in significance.<br/>

Investigators have determined that a Swiss Airbus A220-100 engine shutdown during climb out of Paris was triggered by a faulty seal leading to a loss of oil pressure. The aircraft was en route to Zurich from Paris Charles de Gaulle and climbing through 22,000ft. Swiss investigation authority SUST says the crew had received several warning messages about low oil quantity and low oil pressure on the left-hand Pratt & Whitney PW1500G engine. The crew shut down the engine and proceeded to Zurich where the twinjet landed without further difficulty. SUST has traced the issue to a faulty O-ring seal on the engine’s fuel oil cooler. At the time of the incident, on 13 October 2018, a service bulletin was in circulation detailing replacement of a cooler component with one having a longer thread length and tighter torque. The bulletin had been published four months earlier but was classified as “less urgent”, says the inquiry, and had yet to be carried out on the A220 involved.<br/>

Ethiopian Airlines is to trial IATA Travel Pass, a digital travel mobile app to enhance efficiency in testing or vaccine verifications and restart travel. The IATA Travel Pass initiative helps verify the authenticity of test information presented by travelers which is essential for ensuring the safety of passengers while complying with entry requirements of countries. In future it will also manage vaccine certificates for travel. Ethiopian has gone digital in all of its operations to avoid physical contact and combat the spread of the pandemic. Regarding the trial of the IATA travel pass, Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines said, “Digital technology is vital to solve many of the problems that arise from the pandemic. We are glad that we are offering new digital opportunities to our passengers so as to fully and safely restart air travel. Our customers will enjoy efficient, contactless and safer travel experience with their travel pass digital passport. As a safety first airline, we are going to be among the first to implement IATA’s travel pass initiative to facilitate travel. The new initiative will increase travelers’ confidence in travel, encourages governments to reopen their borders and expedites industry restart. “<br/>

PM Narendra Modi’s government is close to inviting financial bids for flag carrier Air India, moving toward the sale of an airline that’s surviving on taxpayer money, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri said. The financial offers are expected to come in within 64 days from the date of request, he said. The process is likely to be completed by May or June, he said. “It’s a question of taking the decision and handing over the airline,” Puri said, without giving details of the bidders who made the initial shortlist. India’s Tata Group and SpiceJet Chairman Ajay Singh have been shortlisted to bid for the carrier, local media reported this week. An invitation for financial bids will be a progress for Modi, who has failed previously to sell the enterprise that has been rescued by the government multiple times in the past decade. The government loses 200m rupees ($2.8m) everyday on the carrier, Puri said. Air India’s cumulative debt stood at 600b rupees, he said. “This time we decided there is no choice,” he said, adding: “We either privatize or we close the airline down.” The sale is also key for Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is seeking to raise money from asset sales to arrest a budget deficit that widened to a record due to steps to fight the pandemic. Air India on its part has set up teams to facilitate bidders to evaluate different aspects of the airline, the people familiar said.<br/>

Air India is forecast to widen its full-year net loss to Rs97.8 billion ($1.35 billion), even as the Indian government reiterated its support for the long-drawn divestment of the national carrier. Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri disclosed the figure in a parliamentary response on 25 March, where he said that the coronavirus outbreak has “worsened the financial position” of Indian carriers, including that of state-owned Air India. The net loss forecast for the year ended 31 March 2021 compares with the carrier’s net loss of Rs80b for the previous financial year. He notes that hte airline has taken a number of measures to reduce costs, including unpaid leave and closure of some foreign stations. The Indian government provided no equity infusion in fiscal 2020/2021, instead providing a guarantee support of Rs9.6b to the ailing carrier, which was used to raise new working capital loans. The government also extended aircraft bridge loans for the carrier.<br/>

THAI is challenging lessors’ claims for future rentals agreed under long-term lease agreements, according to a lawyer acting for some of the airline’s creditors. “Thai Airways is challenging the lessors’ claims in part because the lessors’ claims are a little bit different from other trade creditors,” John Frangos, a Bangkok-based partner and deputy director at Tilleke & Gibbins’ dispute resolution practice said. Frangos, who has been briefed on the airline’s Thai-language restructuring plan by his colleagues who speak the language, said that Thai is challenging lessors’ requests for future payments under their lease terms. “Let’s say if you are an OEM or maintenance provider, and you did all this work for Thai two years ago, Thai defaulted and didn’t pay you – you have those debts from those years. But with leases, it is my understanding some lessors have asked for the payments owed under the lease for the entire lease term. Thai is challenging their obligation to pay that.”<br/>

EVA Air is working with digital-solution-provider Affinidi and joining Singapore Changi Airport in a pilot program that uses a digital platform to verify passengers’ PCR test results for its Singapore-Taipei flights. The airline plans to extend this service to flights from Malaysia and Indonesia to Taipei and is evaluating introduction of digital systems on other routes based on trial outcomes. When the epidemic started, EVA began monitoring digital verification platform development and cross-border application standardization that will enable international systems to connect and help prevent further spread of the pandemic. EVA is also working with airlines and industry organizations to implement a reliable digital platform for verifying passengers’ PCR test results and vaccine injection records. Singapore just began requiring QR Codes for PCR test results from medical institutions in March 2021. At airports with Affinidi’s platform, airline ground staff can scan the QR code and quickly determine the authenticity of test results, including the name of the medical institution, date of the test and whether the passenger meets relevant policy requirements in their destination country. <br/>

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers are urging the US government to establish a pre-clearance immigration facility at Taiwan Taoyuan International airport. In a 25 March letter to Troy Miller, a senior official at the US Customs and Border Protection, nine lawmakers say Taiwan has already submitted a formal application to the US Customs and Border Protection to create the facility. China Airlines, Eva Air and United Airlines currently fly between the USA and Taiwan. The US government has 16 pre-clearance facilities in six countries: Aruba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates. The facilities allow US-bound travellers to pass through US customs and immigration checkpoints at those airports. The letter says a pre-clearance site in Taiwan would support US-Taiwan air connections and, more broadly, strengthen US ties with Taiwan, a critical US partner in the Asia-Pacific region. “All of the current pre-clearance facilities abroad are located in Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East, but the Indo-Pacific region is a critical region for our economic future,” the letter says. “Taiwan is America’s ninth-largest trading partner and its government strongly supports Taoyuan airport’s bid for the pre-clearance facility programme.”<br/>