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Frequent flyer program customers of Star Alliance member airlines will soon be able to use their biometric identity across any participating airline at any participating airport following a new agreement between the world’s largest airline alliance, NEC Corporation and SITA. The agreement announced today is aimed at accelerating the availability of biometric self-service touchpoints across Star Alliance’s member airlines while delivering a faster, touchless airport experience. Connecting to SITA‘s Smart Path solution, the Star Alliance Biometrics platform will be able to use SITA’s shared airport infrastructure already available in more than 460 airports. Together with SITA and NEC’s global presence, multiple biometric projects can be delivered in parallel, speeding up the availability of biometric passenger processing to Star Alliance’s member airlines globally. This will be vital in enabling Star Alliance to deploy biometrics faster. A further advantage is the NEC I:Delight platform – which allows passengers who have opted to use the service to be identified quickly and with a high-degree of accuracy, even on the move – can be easily integrated with SITA Smart Path. The I:Delight platform is also able to recognize passengers even when wearing a mask, an increasingly important feature for travel during the current pandemic. The platform is already in use by Star Alliance member airlines at several airports in Europe. Uniquely, passengers using Star Alliance’s Biometric platform enroll only once. Passengers then can pass through biometrically enabled touchpoints across multiple member airlines and participating airports using just their face as their boarding pass. Release has more.<br/>

To facilitate the safe restart of international travel and restore the value contributed by travel and tourism to the world’s economy, the three global airline alliances oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance are calling on G7 governments, at their upcoming leadership summit on 11-13 June, to agree on a common set of travel and health standards to enable the safe reopening of borders. COVID-19 has significantly impacted the travel and tourism sector, which has long been a key contributor to many economies. A recent estimate by the OECD showed that international tourism declined by around 80% in 2020. Prior to the pandemic, tourism contributed more than 4% of GDP for the average OECD country, with the World Travel and Tourism Council estimating up to 174m jobs at risk globally. In unison, the CEOs of the three global alliances – Kristin Colvile at SkyTeam, Rob Gurney for oneworld, and Jeffrey Goh of Star Alliance – said: “International air travel and tourism are vital to the global economy. With considerable data now available to support government decisions in managing risks, decisive action from G7 members to open borders and support clear, consistent, and data-driven measures, would remove uncertainty, particularly around testing and quarantine.”<br/>

The US DoT is seeking $25.6m in fines from Air Canada for allegedly failing to provide timely refunds to US customers after flights were canceled or significantly delayed during the coronavirus pandemic, the agency announced on Tuesday. The department’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection said that since March 1, 2020, it had received more than 6,000 complaints from consumers alleging Air Canada denied them refunds. In the complaint filed with an administrative law judge, the agency said it was seeking the civil penalty “for Air Canada’s extreme delays in providing the required refunds.” The agency said the large penalty is “intended to deter Air Canada and other carriers from committing similar violations in the future.” “When a carrier cancels or significantly changes a flight to or from the United States, the airline is responsible for providing refunds, upon request, according to US law,” the agency said. Airlines have seven days to refund passengers from the date of the request for flights purchased with a credit card and 20 days for flights purchased with cash, according to the agency. Air Canada said that it believes that the Transportation Department is trying to enforce emergency guidelines that don’t have the force of law and plans to vigorously challenge it. “As stated in the department’s own Enforcement Notice and Covid-19 Refund FAQ, these documents constitute agency guidance documents, as opposed to properly issued regulations under the Administrative Procedures Act,” the company said. “As mere guidance, they cannot overrule or supersede the Department’s well-established regulatory framework, as instituting a new regulation requires public notice and comment.” Air Canada said it has refunded more than $1.2b to eligible customers who had refundable fares for travel that was affected by the coronavirus pandemic.<br/>

Lufthansa outlined ambitious plans to permanently boost profit coming out of the coronavirus crisis by slicing back on labor and overhead costs. Europe’s biggest airline aims to pare annual expenses by E3.5b to help it achieve adjusted earnings before interest and tax equal to at least 8% of sales by 2024, according to a statement. That’s a level it achieved just once in the five years preceding the pandemic. The new targets come as Lufthansa appoints banks to refinance state bailouts. More than half of the savings will be from staff cuts that have been announced but not yet fully implemented, with 10,000 jobs yet to go in Germany alone. The airline also plans to eliminate as much as 30% of office space, renegotiate supplier contracts and trim external consulting and marketing budgets. The plan should be taken with “an ounce of caution given the high dependency on labor-cost reduction,” said Daniel Roeska, an analyst at Bernstein, pointing to the challenge of getting labor unions to agree to cuts. Clarity will come only next year with union negotiations and possible forced dismissals, he said. The airline confirmed that Germany’s WSF stabilization fund, its biggest shareholder, may participate in a planned capital raise that will help refinance a E9b state bailout. People familiar with the matter said last month that it’s aiming to garner about E3b via a rights issue. WSF is considering selling some of its subscription rights and using proceeds to purchase new shares, according to the statement late Monday, a move that would free taxpayers from committing more cash while shrinking the government’s holding, albeit to a lesser degree than if it didn’t participate.<br/>

THAI is seeking new loans to help fund operations after the court approved its plan to restructure at least 170b baht ($5.5b) of debt. The carrier has been in talks with some banks for loans of as much as 25 billion baht as part of the debt-rehabilitation program, Chief Financial Officer Chai Eamsiri told a video conference with reporters on Wednesday. The Central Bankruptcy Court today endorsed the proposal, which is backed by most creditors, the airline said. “We would like to secure new loans as soon as possible because our operating revenue can’t cover the operating costs,” said Chai. “Our existing cash and revenue now can cover operations only through the end of this year.” The airline, whose biggest shareholder is the Finance Ministry, in March proposed a three-year freeze on loan payments and a deferment of bond repayments for six years. To help it return to profitability -- it posted a record loss of 141b baht last year -- the carrier also plans to cut its workforce by half, sell property and seek 50b baht in new capital. “All related parties should go ahead and help Thai Air succeed in its rehabilitation plan,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha told a news conference after a weekly Cabinet meeting Tuesday. The approved debt plan includes some $7.4b in claims from dozens of aircraft lessors and engine-service providers. Bangkok-based Thai Air challenged that in March, saying it isn’t liable for because those claims involve future expenses and were incurred after the airline received bankruptcy protection. Thai Air has confidence in its ability to be profitable again once the coronavirus pandemic passes, CEO Chansin Treenuchagron told a press conference. <br/>

Air New Zealand will establish a temporary pilot and crew base in Brisbane Int'l, Australia until November 30, 2021, to ensure potential disruptions to the trans-Tasman travel bubble will not again affect the continuity of its services to Norfolk Island, the airline says. This follows after Air New Zealand managed to extend its agreement with the Australian government to operate flights between Norfolk Island and Australia for another two years. The island is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, around 1,400 kilometres due east of the Australian mainland. Air New Zealand will resume services to Norfolk Island from August 30, 2021, until the end of August 2023. Under the agreement, it will use an A320-200N to operate up to three flights per week from Brisbane and three flights from Sydney Kingsford Smith to Norfolk Island. Even though the island is an offshore Australian territory, it has been serviced by Air New Zealand since 2012 in terms of an agreement with the Australian government. It was the only airline operating scheduled services between Norfolk and mainland Australia during 2020.<br/>