Lufthansa said Tuesday it was seeing a surge in demand for flights to the United States and to European destinations following a loosening of German travel restrictions as coronavirus case numbers decline. Demand for summer flights to New York, Miami and Los Angeles has increased by up to 300%, the German airline group said, adding it would lay on extra flights from June and has restarted services to Orlando and Atlanta. “Because of the great significance of transatlantic air travel for the global economy, we now need a clear perspective on how travel between the USA and Europe can return on a larger scale,” executive board member Harry Hohmeister said. Falling infection rates and a rising number of vaccinations should allow for a cautious increase in transatlantic air travel, Hohmeister added in a statement, urging Germany to come up with a clear plan to make this possible. The government in Berlin said earlier this month it wanted to lift quarantine restrictions on Germans who have been fully vaccinated re-entering the country. But plans for a European Union-wide digital health pass that would provide proof of immunity for travellers are still in the works and it is not expected to be rolled out until late June. It’s also not yet clear how travellers visiting from outside the EU would be covered under the scheme.<br/>
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Ethiopian Airlines announced on Monday evening that it has been vaccinating its employees against COVID-19. The vaccination, which began on May 14, is being carried out in its temporary vaccination center at Ethiopian Aviation Academy, the Africa's leading airline said. Stating that priority will be given to frontline employees with direct contact with customers and partners, the airline said all employees would get the second dose of the vaccine four weeks after receiving the first one. "I am happy to announce that we have imported COVID-19 vaccination for our group employees," said Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO of the Ethiopian Airlines. "Vaccination of employees will increase passengers' confidence to fly with us. We will continue to implement all mandated safety measures and the vaccination will supplement those preventive measures," he added.<br/>
There were tears, singing and applause as the first travel-bubble flight from New Zealand landed in Rarotonga on Tuesday. Passengers on board Air New Zealand flight NZ940 didn’t let the bad weather in the Cook Islands deter their excitement as they broke into applause when the pilot announced the arrival on the tarmac. It was the first time visitors were allowed in Cook Islands in 15 months, since the coronavirus pandemic which forced border closures. At Rarotonga Airport, passengers were greeted with applause and cheers as they disembarked from the aircraft, from locals who had gathered. But the applause and excitement was also for the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, which arrived on the same flight. It’s the first Pacific travel bubble for New Zealand, and the first travel bubble for the Cook Islands after more than a year of border closures due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Cook Islands is one of only 14 countries in the world, and nine in the Pacific, to remain virus-free.<br/>