The long-awaited travel corridor between the US and UK is unlikely to open before the end of the summer, according to reports. In June, coinciding with the G7 in Cornwall, a new transatlantic travel taskforce was set up to explore ways to reopen UK-US travel. Travel between the two nations has been frozen since March 2020, thanks to a series of presidential proclamations, while the US is on the UK’s amber list of countries, requiring a 10-day quarantine when returning to the UK and two post-arrival PCR tests. Now talks have stalled, with officials involved saying it was unlikely a conclusion would be reached by the end of next month, reports the Financial Times. Concern over the rise of Delta cases in the UK and uncertainty over the AstraZeneca vaccine are thought to be behind the delay. Talks are expected to continue into August and even September, the newspaper said. The travel industry has been heaping pressure on both governments to reopen travel between the two nations, and gave news of the new transatlantic taskforce a lukewarm welcome earlier this month. <br/>
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The US Tuesday banned ticket sales for air travel to and from Belarus, acting after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land and arrested a dissident journalist aboard. The order is Washington’s latest response to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s harsh crackdown against months of pro-democracy protests over his alleged rigging of an August 2020 election. The longtime ruler denies election fraud. The US and the EU have refused to recognize his victory and imposed sanctions against top Belarusian officials and other targets. In issuing the ban, the US DoT said the State Department had determined that limiting travel between the United States and Belarus was in Washington’s foreign policy interest following the diversion of the Ryanair flight. The order still would permit “the operation of any transportation deemed to be in the national interest of the United States, including on humanitarian or national security grounds,” according to the text. It said the order would extend to “interline” travel in which tickets are purchased through one airline that contain flights operated by multiple airlines.<br/>
European airline passenger rights, which include carriers’ legal obligation to pay refunds for cancelled flights, have not been safeguarded during the COVID-19 pandemic, an EU report released on Tuesday said. The European Court of Auditors (ECA) found that in virtually all cases airlines were able to sidestep rules requiring a cash refund for cancelled flights and offer customers vouchers for future journeys instead. The ECA, which looks after the interests of taxpayers in the 27-member European Union but does not have legal powers, said travel restrictions led to 7,000 air routes being closed in the European airport network after the pandemic began last year. Flight cancellations affected tens of millions of passengers across the bloc between March 2020 and March 2021, the ECA said. EU law grants consumers immediate cash refunds for cancelled flights, plus compensation for those scrapped with less than two weeks’ notice or for delays of over three hours. But the auditors found that 15 EU member states adopted exceptional measures to release airlines and package-tour operators from their legal obligation for refunds.<br/>
Ministers have been accused of creating “one rule for the rich and another for the rest” after an announcement that overseas business leaders will be allowed to escape quarantine on arrival in England if their work is of significant economic benefit. Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner described the move as an “offensive slap in the face” to the lowest paid workers, who she said had got the country through the coronavirus crisis. The row erupted against a backdrop of a surge in cases of the Delta variant of Covid-19 first identified in India. On Monday, the UK reported the highest daily rise in cases since 30 January. The government is already under fire over exemptions that would allow officials from European football’s ruling body, Uefa, to attend games at Wembley without following quarantine rules. Former Conservative cabinet minister Liam Fox said the move risked making Britons second-class citizens “in our own country”. Under the new rules, some senior executives will be allowed to leave self-isolation if they are undertaking business activities “likely to be of significant economic benefit to the UK”. Only those who receive written permission from the government before they arrive in England will be allowed to use the exemption.<br/>
Britain has published a list of the number of free UK carbon permits each aircraft operator will receive from 2021-2025 under the country’s domestic emissions trading system (ETS), the government said. The ETS is a method of charging power plants and other industrial entities for each tonne of carbon dioxide they emit. Britain launched its own market to replace the European Union’s ETS after it left the bloc. The UK’s ETS applies to energy intensive industries, the power generation sector and aviation. Under the scheme, some installations and aircraft operators can get free emissions permits to reduce the risk of businesses transferring their activities to other countries due to climate costs. The government said free permits for the 2021 scheme year will be allocated to operator holding accounts in the UK ETS registry in the coming weeks, following administrator approvals.<br/>
The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) has renewed calls for “additional government support” for the airline industry, as it says the region’s international passenger traffic remains “largely stagnated” with no improvement seen for over a year. The airline bloc’s director-general Subhas Menon adds that fresh coronavirus outbreaks, as well as an uneven pace of vaccination in the region — as with other parts of the world — is further exacerbating airlines’ woes. In traffic results for May, international travel demand remained significantly lower compared to pre-pandemic levels, though there was year-on-year improvement. Cargo traffic, meanwhile, continued its strong recovery for the month — helped by strong business and consumer demand. AAPA adds that cargo volumes have largely recovered to pre-pandemic levels. For the month, the association’s member airlines carried 1.3m international passengers, more than triple the numbers reported in May 2020. However, compared to 2019, this still represents a decline of nearly 96%. Capacity more than doubled year on year, but was 87% lower than pre-pandemic levels. <br/>
New Zealand has extended the suspension of quarantine-free travel arrangements with neighbouring Australia for another five days, and will require all incoming travellers to be tested for the coronavirus before arrival. New Zealand Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins says the pause — first announced on 26 June following a spike in cases in various parts of Australia — is set to lift at 11:59pm local time on 4 July. The lifting will only apply to four Australian states and territories — Tasmania, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, as well as South Australia — which the New Zealand government has deemed to be of lower risk. Hipkins did not state when the suspension with other Australian states will lift. “The pause with Western Australia, Northern Territory, New South Wales and Queensland will remain in place so that outstanding test results can be returned and to give New Zealand time to assess next steps. This will be reviewed again on Tuesday, 6 July,” the minister adds. Hipkins notes that New South Wales, which is mostly under lockdown, is “currently seen as the most risk”, while Queensland, Western Australia and Northern Territory are at higher risk “than we are comfortable with”. <br/>