The US Senate Commerce Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing for President Joe Biden’s nominee to chair the NTSB on June 24, sources said on Thursday. Reuters reported the planned nomination of current NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy to serve as the board chair on April 22. Homendy has served on the board since 2018 and previously was a senior legislative staffer working on transportation issues. NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt has said he will step down on June 30.<br/>
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Breeze Airways fired back against unions and defended its controversial flight attendant hiring plans in the latest salvo of a war of words waged in the dockets between the startup airline and organized labor. In a filing this week, Breeze asked the DOT to dismiss unions’ claims that its plans to hire college students violate federal law. Breeze defended its plan to offer tuition reimbursement to Utah Valley University students who work as flight attendants for the airline as just one pathway to a career at the company. The company won’t use students alone to fill its flight attendant ranks and also will hire full-time and part-time professional flight attendants, it said in its answer to the unions’ complaint. But the plan to hire students will help the startup compete in the labor market against larger carriers for flight attendants. “As a startup airline that will compete with the largest legacy airlines across the country, Breeze needed a portion of its flight attendants to be part of a flexible workforce that quickly could be deployed to new start-up cities as it grew its operation,” the airline said. “Breeze argues that federal regulators have no business asking about its plans to follow labor and civil rights law,” AFA President Sara Nelson said. “We fundamentally disagree.” Story has more.<br/>
Better protections for the rights of air travellers, immediate refunds for customers and more monetary relief for airlines and airports are some of the recommendations in a parliamentary committee’s report on the air industry’s recovery from the global pandemic. However, the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities said Wednesday that any financial support from the government should be on the condition that airlines immediately refund Canadian travellers for pandemic related cancellations and restore regional routes in the country. Airlines dropped multiple routes in regions like Atlantic Canada during the pandemic, as passenger volume plummeted with COVID-19 restrictions.The report acknowledged the air transport industry will need extended financial relief that outlasts existing government subsidies, and that programs like wage subsidies and rent relief must continue past the summer for airlines and airports. “There is no doubt that the air transport sector is critical to Canada's economic recovery and to the connectivity of the entire country,” said Vance Badawey, chair of the committee and Liberal MP. He said the committee's recommendations are "aimed at maintaining the sector's competitiveness, protecting jobs and ensuring the health and safety of workers, passengers and the Canadian public.” Air Passenger Rights, an advocacy group, said the report’s recommendations to require airlines to provide refunds were good to see.<br/>
Britain is considering easing travel rules for double vaccinated people, a move that would placate airlines which have launched legal action against the government’s curbs on trips abroad. Airlines are desperate for restrictions to be relaxed in time for July and the peak season when they make most profits, while Britain has for now stuck to quarantine rules that deter travel. Europe’s biggest airline Ryanair teamed up with Manchester Airports Group to launch legal action against Britain over its travel policy. Other airlines could join. The pair filed papers for judicial review at England's High Court at about 1200 GMT on Thursday, a spokesman for MAG said. But Britain has indicated a possible relaxation, with the Department for Transport saying on Thursday it was considering how vaccinations could be used for inbound travel. More than half of British adults have received both doses of COVID-19 vaccine, putting it far ahead of Europe. The Daily Telegraph reported Britain was looking to follow the European Union’s move to allow fully vaccinated tourists to avoid COVID-19 tests and quarantine from July. "We have commenced work to consider the role of vaccinations in shaping a different set of health and testing measures for inbound travel," a government spokesperson said on Thursday.<br/>
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic and British Airways have joined a legal challenge against the Government labelling the decision making behind its “traffic light” system as an opaque “black box”. Court papers filed on Thursday reveal the two airlines as interested parties alongside Ryanair in a Judicial Review against Boris Johnson’s administration. The owner of Stansted and Manchester airports is leading the court action. The Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that Ryanair was suing the Government after being incensed over its handling of a system that was supposed to control Britain’s borders based on data about the virus. In court papers, a challenge to the legality of the first review of the traffic light system is set out. The review, announced by Grant Shapps on June 3, removed Portugal from the Government’s “green list”. The filing continues: “The decision-making process, the thresholds applied to each traffic light band, and the reasons for the decisions taken in respect of almost all countries and territories are undisclosed and the decision-making process lacks transparency in a fundamental way. The decision-making process is akin to a 'black box', rather than the transparent, risk-based approach.” The airport owner and airlines want a judge to decide whether the Government’s decision to revise the traffic light list was against the law. They also want a commitment from ministers to review the need to impose restrictions on travellers returning from amber countries, and for any advice that ministers rely on to change the system to be published.<br/>
Ramping up vaccination rates for Covid-19 will help boost the recovery in the travel and tourism industry, a panel of experts said. Vaccination is the only comprehensive way to fight the impact of the coronavirus, Ritesh Agarwal, CEO and founder of Indian budget hotel chain start-up Oyo, told Nancy Hungerford said Wednesday. Global travel and tourism took a massive hit last year and many airlines are still struggling to stay afloat. The coronavirus pandemic shut down borders and suspended most international travel. With vaccination rates picking up, especially in the West, many countries are slowly opening up their economies and borders. “I believe travel is here to stay. Domestic travel will lead the recovery but vaccination is the only comprehensive and conclusive way of resolution,” Agarwal said. Oyo, a SoftBank-backed start-up, saw its daily bookings for the summer season more than double in Europe where the vaccination rate is relatively high, according to the CEO. Travelers tend to book rooms in hotels where the staff have been inoculated, he said, adding that Oyo provides certificates to show their staff have been vaccinated, Agarwal said. Where vaccination rates are concerned, some of the more populous countries in Asia have comparatively fallen behind their counterparts in Europe and the United States. Information collated by scientific online publication, Our World In Data, showed that as of June 15, 40% of North Americans have received at least one dose of Covid vaccine and 36% in Europe. In comparison, only 21% received at least one shot in Asia, though the pace of vaccination is picking up in the region. AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes said he remains very optimistic about vaccination rates, especially in Southeast Asia.<br/>
Britain’s Rolls-Royce, which makes engines for planes and ships, outlined plans to reach net zero emissions by 2050 through investing more in decarbonising technologies and, in the short term, using more sustainable aviation fuel. Major companies are under increasing pressure from investors and climate change activists to report the emissions that result when customers use their products. Rolls-Royce CE Warren East said that made decarbonising a particularly “challenging task” for the company given the current use of fossil fuels in its products and the increasing demand for power globally. But he said it was also a commercial opportunity as Rolls-Royce outlined plans for all its new products to be compatible with net zero targets by 2030, en route to achieving net zero by 2050 at the latest. To ensure it reaches that target, the company said it will lift its research and development spending on low carbon and net zero technologies to 75% of its total budget by 2025 from about 50% now. The company spends over 1 billion pounds annually on R&D, although that fell in 2020 from 2019 as the pandemic strained Rolls-Royce’s finances. East said that figure would grow as aviation recovered. In the aviation sector, its biggest business, Rolls-Royce plans to make all its commercial engines compatible to run on 100% sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), which produces up to 70% less carbon than conventional fuel, by 2023.<br/>