general

A small minority of frequent flyers dominate air travel in almost all countries with high aviation emissions, analysis suggests. In the UK, 70% of flights are made by a wealthy 15% of the population, with 57% not flying abroad at all. There are calls for a Frequent Flyer Levy - a tax that increases the more you fly each year. Greenpeace supports the tax and also wants air miles banned because they say it encourages frequent flying. The campaigners believe frequent flyer levies would be broadly popular because they disproportionately affect the rich, who fly the most. The UK Citizens' Assembly last year supported the principle that people who fly more should be taxed more. Research for the climate campaign group Possible says that, in the US, just 12% of people take two thirds of flights. The government's advisory Climate Change Committee wants a levy on frequent fliers. The Possible research suggests the frequent flyer trend is mirrored in other wealthy countries.<br/>

When the EU announced its plans for a “digital green certificate” this month, the tourism industry breathed a sigh of relief that maybe summer could be salvaged. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the concept of a “vaccine passport” has been floated regularly. Once inoculated against Covid-19, a person could carry proof of vaccination that would allow them to travel or access services that are otherwise shut under lockdown. The EU’s certificate, which avoids using the term “passport,” would create a common digital system for Europe, likely in the form of a smartphone app, to prove vaccination, a negative test or that they have recovered from the virus. EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said a common EU-wide approach to such a certificate would “gradually restore free movement” in the region. “It is also a chance to influence global standards and lead by example based on our European values like data protection,” he said earlier this month. Different industries around the world have been tinkering with these passes for months. Now as vaccine rollouts gather pace, the prospect of these digital passports or certificates have caught the eye of many different industries. Story has more.<br/>

When the coronavirus pandemic brought travel to a standstill, airlines turned to every financing source they could find — even their previously untouched frequent-flier programs. Whether this is a positive development for the industry depends on who you ask. United, Delta and American Airlines have raised more than $25b through debt deals backed by their traveler loyalty programs. American’s $10b offering, a combination of bonds and loans, was the largest ever for an airline and reportedly drew $45b in orders from yield-hungry investors. The carrier used the proceeds to repay a pandemic loan from the US Treasury that carried more onerous terms. Spirit and Hawaiian raised an additional $2.05b backed in part by their loyalty programs. It’s all the more incredible because no airline had tried to monetize its frequent-flier program in this fashion until the pandemic. On the face of it, this looks like an incredible feat of Wall Street ingenuity. United pioneered the financing vehicle with the help of Goldman Sachs after a separate earlier debt deal backed by aging aircraft had to be scrapped because of investor concerns about the value of that collateral amid a potential glut of retired jets. Frequent-flier programs, on the other hand, throw off a lot of cash and in theory tend to be less volatile than airlines’ traditional ticket revenue or the value of the underlying fleet. All it takes is a quick glance at the yields on these bonds to see that investors think highly of loyalty programs. Story has more. <br/>

US airlines have committed to numerous initiatives in order to help the industry get to net-zero carbon emissions by the middle of this century. Trade group Airlines for America (A4A), which represents the country’s top 10 passenger and cargo airlines, says on 30 March that US carriers will work with the government and other stakeholders to increase production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), invest in electrification, revamp air traffic control, develop new airframe and propulsion technologies and support international agreements including ICAO’s 2016 Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). The ultimate goal is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, A4A says. “We are proud of our record on climate change. But we know the climate change challenge our country and the world face has only continued to intensify,” says the organisation’s CE Nicholas Calio. “Today, we embrace the need to take even bolder, more significant steps to address this challenge.”<br/>

Domestic air passenger travel and freight flights are rising in Europe but “normal operations are still severely damaged by the pandemic,” the head of European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol said on Tuesday. Low-cost airline traffic is around 84% below pre-pandemic levels, director general Eamonn Brennan said. Key to reopening markets will be the pace of vaccine rollouts, with progress expected in coming weeks, he added. <br/>

The Irish government is considering health officials’ advice to add more countries including the United States, Germany and France to a list of jurisdictions subject to mandatory hotel quarantine on arrival, Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said. Ireland has some of the strictest travel resrictions in the European Union and last week followed neighbouring England in bringing in hotel quarantine for arrivals from countries deemed “high risk” or those without a negative COVID-19 test. The Irish Independent newspaper reported earlier on Tuesday that officials had recommended a more than doubling of the list of high risk jurisdictions with the addition of 43 countries. It also named Italy as being among those under consideration. Varadkar said more countries would be added but that the government had to decide first whether to exempt vaccinated travellers, examine if it had the hotel capacity and sort out issues around EU freedom of movement rules when considering including other member states.<br/>

Under a new post-Brexit agreement the UK Civil Aviation Authority is to be considered a full participating member of the European Union ramp inspection programme. The CAA had been part of the programme up to 31 December 2020, after which the UK completed its withdrawal from the EU. But it has reached an agreement with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, signed in March, to maintain close co-operation and a harmonised approach to the programme, and enlarge its scope. Ramp inspection findings are part of the information taken into account during EU airline blacklisting decisions. The agreement says having the “largest possible amount of information”, with a view to ensuring enforcement of safety standards regarding third-country aircraft, is “in the interest” of the two sides. It sets out the working procedures for carrying out ramp inspections of aircraft suspected of non-compliance with safety standards after landing in the UK, as well as the collection and exchange of information on aircraft safety. The CAA must collect relevant safety data including the results of ramp inspections, pilot and maintenance reports, incident reports, information from whistleblowers, and action taken subsequent to the checks.<br/>

Nepal has ordered schools to close for four days after air pollution climbed to hazardous levels, forcing millions of students to stay home across the country. Nepal, with a population of 30 million people, is located in the Himalayas between China and India, two of the world’s biggest polluters. Air pollution is a chronic problem in the rapidly growing capital city of Kathmandu and an additional headache for the government that is struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Officials at Nepal’s only international airport in Kathmandu said poor visibility, which was down to 1,000 metres on Monday, widely disrupted flights.<br/>

Nearly 80 flights to and from Brisbane Airport was cancelled today as the city went into its first day of a snap lockdown. It came as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed eight new local cases of the British variant of COVID were recorded. The shutdown of Brisbane, announced yesterday, led to Victoria, WA, SA and the NT all effectively closing their borders to the state. The timing has been a huge blow for the domestic aviation industry, which is transitioning away from JobKeeper support to a new package offering passengers half-price tickets to stimulate demand. On Tuesday, 45 flights departing Brisbane, and 34 due to be arriving, were cancelled, with both Virgin and Qantas yet to make an official announcement on how its capacity will change moving forward. Victoria’s Acting Premier, James Merlino, also said on Tuesday morning his state’s border were unlikely to open as soon as the lockdown ends, raising fears of a lengthy shut out. The state has declared Greater Brisbane a “red zone” under its travel permit system.<br/>

European planemaker Airbus sees demand for flying on the industry’s most-used jets - the medium-haul A320 and Boeing 737 families - recovering to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, amid concerns over the shape of demand for bigger models. CE Guillaume Faury said on a webcast on Tuesday that the recovery in air travel in Europe had been “very disappointing” so far in 2021 but that traffic was rebounding in the United States. The aerospace industry has been attempting to estimate how long it will take to return to record pre-pandemic traffic levels seen in 2019, with average estimates focusing on 2024. “We think on the single-aisle business, on the narrowbody planes, it is probably going to be around 2023, and for the widebody planes around 2024, 2025: We don’t really know,” Faury said. “There is more uncertainty on how fast and how strongly the international traffic will recover,” he added.<br/>

Airbus will buttress its moonshot plan to build a hydrogen aircraft by the middle of the next decade with an effort to power conventional jets with sustainable fuels. CEO Guillaume Faury said Tuesday that he’s confident the European planemaker can bring a hydrogen plane into service by 2035. In the meantime, Airbus will work to increase the amount of sustainable aviation fuel that can be used in its engines, with a goal of reaching 100% from the current 50%. “I’d like to correct a misunderstanding,” Faury said. “We’re not saying it’s hydrogen and its not sustainable fuels. It’s both, and on the contrary, in the very short term, sustainable aviation fuels will definitely play a very important role.” Faury’s comments bring Airbus closer to the stance of rival Boeing, whose CEO Dave Calhoun has dismissed the potential for hydrogen power to be used at scale in commercial aviation for decades. The US manufacturer is targeting certifying its aircraft lineup to fly on 100% sustainable fuels by 2030. The debate plays into the high-stakes chess-game over which aircraft designs get greenlighted in coming years. <br/>