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Rising jet-fuel prices will make it harder for airlines to reach cash-positive positions in the coming months, according to industry body IATA. Speaking during a briefing Wednesday, the association’s chief economist, Brian Pearce, explained that the recovery in overall economic activity around the world is causing energy costs to rise. “Economists are actually increasingly positive about the wider economy,” Pearce states. “We’ve seen this V-shaped recovery in global industrial production.” While that is “pulling up [air] cargo demand” to the benefit of some airlines, jet-fuel costs are tracking the rise in crude oil prices. With average load factors of less than 50% on the international passenger flights that are possible today, “you can now see that airlines are having to pay more than $70 a barrel for jet fuel, which is almost as expensive as it was before the crisis”, Pearce says.<br/>

Airlines are bracing for challenges to tax breaks they receive from U.S. states as a result of wading in to a political debate over voting rights, rekindling a domestic tug of war between politics and profits. A Republican backlash faced by Delta in its home state of Georgia after it called new restrictions unacceptable is spreading to Texas as some corporations clash with Republican lawmakers there. Democrats say the tighter regulations are undemocratic and will hurt Black voters in particular. American Airlines and United Airlines have spoken out against measures that restrict voting access, sparking a furious response from Republicans who say the bills counter fraud. After Delta blasted Georgia’s Republican-backed voting bill last week, some lawmakers attempted to end its jet-fuel tax breaks. Story has more.<br/>

Pilot union Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) has called on the US government to help diversify the pilot ranks by making it easier for under-represented groups such as women and minorities to access flight training. The group said Thursday that it believes there are critical areas that the government can “break down barriers to foster a more-diverse and inclusive aviation workforce”. Currently, more than 90% of certificated commercial airline cockpit crew in the USA are white men, and the industry continues to struggle to find qualified female candidates and people of colour enter the field. “As we work to expand and diversify our industry’s highly skilled, trained and experienced pilot workforce, ALPA is also committed to furthering the dignity of work by insisting on an inclusive workplace for aviation employees irrespective of race, gender, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or other diversity traits,” says ALPA president Joe DePete. The union’s suggestions include additional scholarship, subsidised loans and loan cancellation programmes, in addition to federal support for institutions that help minorities and other under-represented candidates become airline pilots. <br/>

Albania’s sole airport, in the capital, Tirana, reopened for essential and emergency flights on Thursday after a strike by air traffic controllers, with commercial flights expected to resume on Friday, a government official said. About 70 air traffic controllers went on strike on Wednesday after their monthly wages were halved to around $2,490 due to a 57% reduction in air traffic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the strike, the government took over the control tower. A Reuters reporter saw armoured vehicles and police there. Infrastructure Minister Belinda Balluku announced a resumption of emergency flights for Thursday, and commercial flights for Friday morning.<br/>

Britain will confirm in early May whether it will allow international travel to resume from May 17 and which countries will fall into the red, amber or green categories in a new traffic light system based on COVID-19 risks. Giving new details of how it hopes to allow people to travel this summer, the government’s Global Travel Taskforce also said work was ongoing to develop a certification system, sometimes called “vaccine passports”, for inbound and outbound travel. Britain is gradually emerging from a strict winter lockdown prompted by a huge surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths. As things stand, international travel is banned except under specific circumstances defined by the government. Case numbers have dropped dramatically since the January peak, and one of the government’s top priorities is to avoid undermining the success of the national COVID-19 vaccination programme by importing vaccine-resistant variants from overseas. “The framework announced today will help allow us to reopen travel safely and sustainably, ensure we protect our hard-won achievements on the vaccine rollout and offer peace of mind to both passengers and industry as we begin to take trips abroad once again,” said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.<br/>

Airlines are urging the government to shut down domestic travel during the Songkran holiday period to prevent a third wave of Covid-19, or else Thailand's tourism will risk losing more over the long run. With the fresh outbreak starting to spread from entertainment hubs in Bangkok to 20 provinces, the contagion must be nipped in the bud as the long holiday next week will see a mass exodus, particularly of people returning to their hometowns and holidaymakers, said Tassapon Bijleveld, executive chairman of Asia Aviation, the largest shareholder of Thai AirAsia (TAA). The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration on Thursday announced that there will be no lockdown during the traditional New Year celebrations as millions of people have already planned their trips. However, each province still has the authority to impose its own travel restrictions, such as mandatory quarantine for inter-provincial travellers, if there are risks of virus exposure.<br/>

Airbus handed over 72 aircraft last month, stepping up deliveries even as coronavirus flare-ups delayed a recovery in air travel. The surge in handovers reported Thursday confirmed an earlier Bloomberg report and marked the best performance so far this year for the European planemaker. Its quarterly total of 125 surpassed the 122 aircraft delivered in the year-ago period, largely before the pandemic took hold. The uptick will ease concerns about Airbus’s inventory of undelivered aircraft, which stood at about 100 in mid-February. Matching deliveries with build rates is vital for the manufacturer as it seeks to ramp up output of its flagship A320 family of aircraft during the third quarter. The European planemaker had 8 cancellations in March, according to figures released Thursday. It saw 28 orders, taking the net order total this year to minus 61 aircraft after Norwegian Air Shuttle canceled a slew of jets in February. While increasing handovers is good news for the manufacturer, the outlook for travel in Europe and Asia remains gloomy, putting pressure on the finances of key Airbus customers. <br/>