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The US State Department said Monday it will boost its “Do Not Travel” guidance to about 80% of countries worldwide, citing “unprecedented risk to travelers” from the Covid-19 pandemic. “This update will result in a significant increase in the number of countries at Level 4: Do Not Travel, to approximately 80% of countries worldwide,” the department said. The State Department already listed 34 out of about 200 countries as “Level 4: Do Not Travel,” including places like Chad, Kosovo, Kenya, Brazil, Argentina, Haiti, Mozambique, Russia and Tanzania. Getting to 80% would imply adding nearly 130 countries. The State Department said the move does not imply a reassessment of current health situations in some countries, but rather “reflects an adjustment in the State Department’s Travel Advisory system to rely more on (CDC’s) existing epidemiological assessments.” Most Americans were already prevented from traveling to much of Europe because of Covid-19 restrictions. Washington has barred nearly all non-US citizens who have recently been in most of Europe, China, Brazil, Iran and South Africa. The White House has given no timeline for when it might ease those restrictions. <br/>

The US FAA Monday urged airlines to exercise “extreme caution” when flying near the Ukraine-Russian border, citing potential flight safety risks. In a notice to US carriers on Saturday, the US agency noted “escalating regional tensions between Russia and Ukraine, which could potentially result in no-notice cross-border skirmishes, increased military activities and/or conflict.” Since 2014, the FAA has prohibited US civil aviation operations in regions around the Ukraine-Russian border. The notice also said airlines must provide at least 72 hours notice to the FAA of planned flights in the region. The FAA and other air regulators are concerned about the potential for a civil airplane to be downed during a conflict because it was misidentified.<br/>

A testing and quarantine free travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand launched with lopsided demand, according to airlines and data firms, with an unusually high number of the travellers departing from Australia. The initial results from Asia’s first restriction-free travel bubble since the pandemic hit, which opened on Monday, showed that travel patterns can depart from their norms after such a long closure and may take time to return to normal. “Right now, it’s one-way traffic, with almost three times as much travel going to New Zealand as in the opposite direction,” said Olivier Ponti, vice president insights at travel data firm ForwardKeys. Before the pandemic hit, travel between the countries was relatively equal despite Australia having a population around five times as large as New Zealand.<br/>

A fully-vaccinated border worker, who works at Auckland Airport, has returned a positive test result for COVID-19. The usual protocol of isolating the case, interviewing them and tracing their contacts and movements has begun, the New Zealand Ministry of Health said on Tuesday. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the worker has a “very clear link at this stage to cases that are high-risk” and boards aircraft to clean them after they’ve arrived carrying passengers from countries considered COVID-19 “red zones”. “This was someone who was fully vaccinated quite early on in the campaign,” she said, noting the worker was routinely tested on April 12 and April 19, returning a positive result to the latter test. Ardern said she had not yet spoken to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison but health ministers and officials from both countries are “directly communicating” about the new case.<br/>

Investigators are recommending that the UK Civil Aviation Authority require that passenger seat designs minimise the possibility of portable electronic devices being crushed, after a fire incident on board a BA Boeing 787-9 operating to Heathrow. But the Air Accidents Investigation Branch acknowledges difficulties in eliminating entirely the risk of such events. “There are currently no seat design requirements to prevent electronic devices from becoming trapped in seats,” it says. “Manufacturers and regulators are aware of this issue but it has proven challenging to find a workable solution.” The European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the engineering standards association SAE International have taken action to derive new design criteria and practices, but the inquiry has made a separate formal recommendation to the CAA as the UK is no longer an EASA member. Investigators state that the seat involved in the BA incident was designed about 10 years ago. Story has full details.<br/>

The US FAA is expanding to all US-registered Boeing 787s an airworthiness directive related to potential failure of decompression panels. The latest order, made public on 19 April, builds on a related AD that took effect on 8 March. Both orders respond to “reports of multiple incidents of torn decompression panels found in the bilge area” of 787s, FAA documents say. As a result, “leakage in the bilge area… could, in the event of a cargo fire, result in insufficient Halon concentrations to adequately control the fire”, the agency says. The FAA’s March AD applied only to 787s with certain decompression panels, but the new rule will apply to all 787-8s, 787-9s and 787-10s. The agency has “received new information indicating that additional airplanes may be subject to the unsafe condition”, it says. “The FAA determined that all of the decompression panel part numbers may be subject to damage (tearing) or becoming disengaged.” The latest AD takes effect in 16 days.<br/>

There will be no domestic airline flight departures after 11pm from Tuesday, as the government moves to limit travel and rein in the third-wave Covid-19 spike. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration said on Monday all domestic carriers had agreed to suspend flights from 11pm-4am, starting Tuesday. Domestic airlines normally operate nine flights after 11pm from the two Bangkok airports, Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang, to Phuket, Chiang Mai and Hat Yai. However, there were only seven flights on Sunday and three planned on Monday, as the coronavirus outbreak deterred travellers. Their decision to end late night flights followed a call by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand for all late services to be suspended.<br/>

Airlines are bracing for further turbulence as the fresh round of infections is depressing the prospect of recovery, while urging the government to step up the vaccination program to end the crisis. Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, president of Bangkok Airways, said the airline has to wait for an update on the situation which has raised more concern than the second wave late last year. In the meantime, airlines have to quickly adapt and comply with the government's guidelines. Recently, the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) announced the suspension of all domestic flights between 11pm and 4am, while asking airlines to adopt social distancing for passengers. Puttipong, who is also president of the Airlines Association of Thailand, said the urgent need is to bring many doses of vaccines as possible, whether by the government or private sector, to curb the outbreak and continue with the Phuket sandbox -- the reopening scheme for international travellers. If the government can control the latest wave within one month, the industry might not be severely impacted. "Layoffs are the last resort for airlines, because it will be more difficult to recruit new staff when air travel rebounds in the next 3-6 months," said Puttipong.<br/>