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Two European airlines had to cancel flights to Moscow after Russian authorities failed to approve new routes that avoided Belarus’s airspace in response to Minsk’s interception of a passenger jet. Air France and Austrian Airlines sought to reroute flights that would normally fly over Belarus when EU governments demanded their airlines avoid the country’s airspace. The EU was acting in response to the interception of Ryanair flight 4978 by Belarusian authorities on Sunday in order to detain an opposition activist. Air France and Austrian Airlines said Russian aviation authorities had not approved the new routes, leading to the cancellation of a flight from Paris to Moscow on Wednesday, and from Vienna to Moscow on Thursday. An Air France flight to Russia on Friday was still awaiting permission to use a new route avoiding Belarus. “The Russian reaction is absolutely incomprehensible to us,” Austria’s foreign ministry was quoted as saying by Reuters on Thursday. Several other European carriers, including KLM and a British Airways cargo flight, have been allowed to land in Russia using new routes, however. Willie Walsh, head of the International Air Transport Association, has said it is “disturbing” to see a commercial flight diverted “for clearly bogus reasons”. “I would like to think this does not set a precedent. It’s important we build on public and united condemnation . . . to ensure we don’t see a repeat of this behaviour,” he told a media conference on Wednesday.<br/>

Airline SAS reported on Thursday yet another deep quarterly loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic but said vaccinations provided some hope for looser travel restrictions and higher demand heading into the summer season. The pandemic has seen air travel collapse, plunging the industry into crisis. SAS, whose biggest owners are the states of Sweden and Denmark, in 2020 agreed a 14b Swedish crown ($1.7b) recapitalisation plan to help keep it going. SAS’ fiscal second-quarter loss before tax was 2.36b crowns ($284m) against a year-earlier 3.72b loss. Costs were 54% lower than a year ago, limiting the loss as sales tumbled to 1.93b crowns from 5.26b. “Infection, delayed vaccinations and continued stringent travel restrictions have led to a slower than hoped for recovery,” acting CE Karl Sandlund said. “However, SAS is ready to welcome our customers back on board as travel restrictions ease ahead of the important summer season.” SAS said that for the summer it was opening 180 direct routes and increasing capacity on domestic routes in Scandinavia. “The uncertainty around the pandemic means many customers book their tickets with shorter notice, which makes it a bit harder for us to predict the summer. But we do see higher forward bookings than we did earlier in the spring,” Sandlund said. The company on Wednesday said it had secured loan guarantees totalling 3 billion crowns from Sweden and Denmark as a liquidity buffer complementing ongoing activities to lower costs and strengthen liquidity.<br/>

The first group of foreign tourists in more than a year touched down in Israel on Thursday after the government began opening its borders following a steep drop in COVID-19 infections. Small groups of vaccinated foreign tourists - up to 30 people - have been allowed to enter as of last Sunday and the Tourism Ministry expects 20 such groups to come from countries, including the United States, Britain and Germany, under a pilot programme until June 15. The ministry then hopes to expand the number of groups and, in July, allow individual tourists. Shortly after 4 pm (1300 GMT), United flight 90 from Newark, New Jersey landed with 12 Christian pilgrims, men and women of varying ages, studying theology at the Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. They were welcomed by Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hakohen, who said: "You are the first of what I am sure will be many tourists returning to the Holy Land." Led by Pastor Tom Zelt of the Prince of Peace Church, the group plans to visit Jerusalem, Nazareth, national parks and Christian sites, the Tourism Ministry said. "Israel is ... healthy and vaccinated. Everything is now safely open," Farkash-Hakohen told the group. The country had closed its borders to foreigners at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. <br/>

Eight Singaporean flight attendants who were part of the United Airlines' team based in Tokyo's Narita Airport are suing the airline in Japan over the termination of their employment last year. They are among a group of 83 flight attendants who filed papers in February alleging unfair dismissal, a claim the American airline has reportedly asked the court to dismiss. The group is seeking to be reinstated as employees of the airline, and want to be backpaid their salaries from the date they were "separated" - a term used by UA when notifying them of their dismissal last year. The lawsuit comes after UA closed three of its international bases - one each in Germany, Japan and Hong Kong - in Oct 1 last year as part of its efforts to cut costs amid the Covid-19 pandemic. It currently has only one international base, which is in London. UA said during the announcement of the closures in June last year that over 800 jobs in the three bases would be affected. While some crew members could relocate to the United States as they were eligible to work there, over 600 flight attendants found themselves at risk of losing their jobs.<br/>