Summer getaways are testing the limits of the country’s air travel system as airlines and airports try to restore operations that were decimated by the pandemic. Nearly 10,000 flights were delayed in the United States on Sunday, as travel surged and airlines contended with bad weather and other disruptions. Among the nation’s largest airlines, Southwest Airlines had the most delays, with 30% of flights running late, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service. At American Airlines, 25% of flights were delayed, compared with 23% for United Airlines and 21% for Delta. The slowdowns occurred as travel reached new pandemic heights: The TSA screened 2.1m people at its airport security checkpoints on Sunday, the most since early March 2020. Several airlines, including Southwest, blamed bad weather for the delays. Thunderstorms affected operations at Delta’s hub airports in Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Detroit and complicated efforts to get flight crews in place, a spokesman said. At American, the problems had been building since earlier in the month. “The first few weeks of June have brought unprecedented weather to our largest hubs, heavily impacting our operation and causing delays, canceled flights, and disruptions to crew member schedules and our customers’ plans,” American said. Each of the nation’s major airlines faced significant delays on Sunday, but only American also had substantial cancellations, which affected about 6% of flights, according to FlightAware. <br/>
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As the Covid pandemic recedes dramatically in the West, Europe is opening its doors to Americans -- but the reverse is not holding true, with the United States not budging on restrictions imposed 15 months ago. President Joe Biden has hailed progress on vaccination, with a goal of reaching 70 percent of Americans with at least one dose by July 4, and health authorities have eased recommendations on masks, but the language on travel restrictions has remained constant. "We look forward to the resumption of transatlantic travel as soon as the science permits," State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday. "I'm not able to put a specific timeframe on it, only because it will depend in large part on the course of the epidemiology, on the response to the virus around the world, and developments, including the impact and the presence of variants," he said. Biden has vowed to restore alliances after Donald Trump's turbulent presidency, last week courting European allies on his first foreign trip. But he has made clear he is not in a hurry on travel, with his administration again renewing through July 21 the closing of the land borders with Canada and Mexico. The United States during the pandemic has also banned travel on most visitors coming from the European Union as well as Britain, along with Brazil, China, India, Iran and South Africa. Biden, however, has allowed a growing number of exemptions, with journalists, students and others able to travel despite the restrictions on ordinary tourists. By contrast, the European Union has decided to reopen its borders to Americans on condition they are vaccinated or present test results that show they are negative.<br/>
Airline ticket sales fell a little in May after rising steadily in the first four months of the year, according to a firm that tracks bookings, suggesting that demand for tickets for summer travel might not be quite as strong as airlines had hoped. Consumers spent more than $5b for flights within the US in May, a 4% drop from April and 20% lower than the same month in 2019, according to an analysis based on the Adobe Digital Economy Index. The estimates are drawn from website tracking data from six of the top 10 US airlines. The airlines sold more than $21b in domestic tickets from January through May. It is not clear why bookings were lower in May and whether the trend has continued into June. But analysts and airline executives have expressed optimism in recent weeks that demand for travel is strong. The number of people flying has risen relatively steadily since January, according to the TSA. Other countries are increasingly opening up, too. United Airlines said it set booking records each of the past three weeks for flights across the Atlantic Ocean, and the EU urged its member states on Friday to lift a ban on nonessential travel for Americans.<br/>
A coalition of airline trade and labor groups on Monday wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FAA Administrator Steve Dickson asking that the Justice Department handle the most heinous cases of unruly passengers. "We respectfully request that the FAA refer abhorrent cases to the Department of Justice (DOJ) so that the federal government may fully, swiftly and publicly prosecute criminal acts to the fullest extent of the law and deter this dangerous and concerning behavior," wrote Nick Calio, CEO of Airlines For America. The FAA said in a Monday statement that the zero-tolerance policy remains in place "and we will continue to work with local law enforcement and the DOJ to make it clear that unsafe and unruly behavior simply does not fly." Authorities have received more than 3,000 reports of unruly airplane passengers so far this year, and the majority of those involve face mask rules, the FAA said last week. The sharp spike in misbehaving and even violent passengers includes 2,300 reports that passengers refused to comply with the federal requirement to wear face masks on airplanes. <br/>
The Biden administration slapped a slew of sanctions against Belarus on Monday amid Western fury over the forced diversion of a Ryanair flight to arrest an opposition journalist. Last month, a passenger plane flying from Greece to Lithuania was suddenly diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus. The Ryanair flight was escorted to Minsk by a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet. Upon landing, authorities arrested opposition journalist Roman Protasevich. The extraordinary diversion of a commercial airliner was described by some European Union leaders as a “hijacking.” The 27-nation bloc swiftly imposed sanctions against Belarus that included banning its airlines from using airspace and airports within the EU. The State Department has now followed suit, imposing sanctions on 46 Belarusian officials for their involvement in the arrest of Protasevich. In addition, the Treasury announced sanctions on 16 individuals aFnd five entities.<br/>
Thousands of federal engineers, inspectors and other aviation workers have a new channel through which to report safety concerns without fear of retaliation in an action spurred by the two fatal crashes on the Boeing 737 Max. The US FAA on Monday unveiled what it calls the Voluntary Safety Reporting Program. The 7,400 people working at FAA’s Aviation Safety division can make reports through their unions or individually, and the information will be analyzed for safety trends. “We can never be satisfied with the status quo when it comes to safety, and the free exchange of vital information is a cornerstone of safety and continual improvement,” FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said. “We want our employees to know that when they speak up, they can be sure someone is listening.” The FAA’s action means its own safety inspectors are receiving the same encouragement to bring concerns to the surface that others in the aviation industry, such as airline pilots, have had for decades. It also addresses a requirement contained in a sweeping aviation safety law passed by Congress in December. Story has more background. The new reporting system was endorsed by both the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents FAA engineers who evaluate aircraft designs, and the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, whose members include various inspectors and other technicians. “The more we can continue to encourage people to report, the more we can influence the safety in the system,” NATCA President Paul Rinaldi said.<br/>
The Canadian government will loosen Covid-19 travel restrictions for fully vaccinated people amid warnings that a return to a completely open border will take awhile longer. Canadian citizens and residents who’ve received two shots will be exempt from a 14-day quarantine on arrival to the country, PM Justin Trudeau’s government said Monday. Travelers will still need to show they’ve tested negative for Covid-19 before they cross into Canada and take a second test at the border. Those arriving by air, who are currently expected to do the first three days of their quarantine in a hotel, will be exempt from that requirement. The changes -- effective July 5 -- are a first, incremental step toward easing restrictions as the government faces mounting impatience to permit more freedom of movement between the US and Canada. A fuller reopening that allows tourist travel to resume won’t happen until 75% of Canadians are fully vaccinated, Trudeau’s border chief said Sunday.<br/>
The recovery in Europe’s air traffic has hit a new milestone as people take to the skies again for summer vacations. Aside from a brief pickup around Christmas, Europe’s air traffic is at its highest compared with pre-Covid levels since March last year, when the continent’s lockdowns really began to affect demand. On Sunday it rose just above 50% of 2019 levels based on a seven-day moving average, data from Eurocontrol show. The revival offers some hope to the continent’s airlines, but also its oil refiners who’ve seen demand for aviation fuel collapse. The pandemic-driven slump in flying saw them divert production of normally valuable jet fuel into other oil products, like diesel and naphtha. Jet fuel’s price differential to diesel -- an important metric for traders -- has been slowly recovering from the lows of 2020. In April, consumption of jet fuel and kerosene in OECD Europe was 690,000 barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency. That’s an increase of 74% compared with a year earlier. Europe’s air traffic has generally been on an upward trend since about mid-May, according to data from Eurocontrol. There could also be an influx of tourists from America in the coming months, with the EU lifting travel restrictions for US residents.<br/>
Britain’s surging coronavirus infection rate is widening a rift between airlines and health authorities over the government’s decision to maintain some of the tightest rules on travel in Europe. Travel industry officials plan to hold events on Wednesday in London, Edinburgh and Belfast to draw attention to some 195,000 jobs they say are at risk from restrictions on overseas trips. An adviser from Public Health England meanwhile warned that a fourth national lockdown may be needed this year to control the virus. Those conflicting priorities are fraying the political consensus Boris Johnson has enjoyed on handling the pandemic, sharpening the focus on an industry that employs 860,000 people and has been brought to a halt by government rules. It has put the prime minister on a collision course with members of Parliament increasingly concerned about damage to the economy. “The UK aviation industry is the hardest hit in Europe,” said Brian Strutton, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association, said Sunday. “Hapless ministers give all the appearance of deliberately attacking aviation and tormenting the public with their mixed messages over summer holidays.” Under current rules, travelers who arrive in the UK must quarantine unless they’re coming from 11 green-listed jurisdictions, none of which are mainstream tourist destinations. On Monday, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng suggested that’s unlikely to change soon. Asked about data reported in the Times newspaper showing that just 1 in 200 incoming travelers from amber-listed countries are testing positive, he said the figures “don’t tell the full picture.”<br/>
The past week has seen three new companies – in the UK, Italy and Vietnam – reveal plans to enter the all-cargo market as prices and availability of capacity make the sector an attractive prospect. Last week, Italian firm Aliscargo was preparing for the arrival of its first aircraft – a B777-200ER set up in a preighter configuration – with a second soon to follow. The company is aiming to eventually launch services connecting Italy with Asia-Pacific and North America and has two well-known industry names amongst its management team: chief executive Francesco Rebaudo and chief commercial officer Ulrich Ogiermann. In the UK, ZFG Air is preparing to launch operations from Newcastle in the northeast of the UK later this month. The company will offer flights from Newcastle International to Hong Kong via Dubai twice per week. ZFG will initially utilise an A330-200 passenger aircraft that has been converted to a preighter configuration. In Vietnam, billionaire businessman and chairman of luxury goods retail firm Imex Pan Pacific Group (IPPG), Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, has announced plans to establish a domestic and international cargo airline with an investment of $100 million.<br/>