general

More than 70 airlines are at various stages of trialling the IATA Travel Pass, the mobile application developed to help smooth the processing of passengers’ travel health credentials. IATA developed the Travel Pass to help digitally manage the verification of passengers’ Covid test and vaccine status, in an effort to minimise additional processing time given the added health criteria requirements needed for travel since the pandemic. In March, the first passengers on a commercial flight were processed using the IATA Travel Pass, on a Singapore Airlines service to London Heathrow, and a string of airlines have since begun trials. Speaking at an IATA media briefing on 7 July, IATA VP operations, safety and security, Nick Careen, said: ”We have 74 airlines that are trialling it at various stages. Some are in the middle of the trial, some are just starting them, some are expanding them.” The trials cover around 170 routes. Careen would not be drawn on when the Travel Pass will formally be launched with an airline. ”We are in the process of negotiations with one major carrier which will see the expansion of the Travel Pass, and there are number of others in the background waiting to do the same. We are very close to a more widespread unveiling of it in one particular airline’s network, and others to come.”<br/>

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the Biden administration is not yet ready to lift restrictions on international travel to the US, even as it touts progress against Covid-19 in other areas including domestic travel. “Unfortunately it can’t be based on an arbitrary date, it has to be based on conditions,” Buttigieg said in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance” program, noting the US has working groups with the UK, the European Union, Canada and Mexico to determine when it will be appropriate to lift the bans. “A lot of this is based on what’s going on with progress in the vaccines,” Buttigieg said. “We see good news and bad news in terms of the variants. One moment, you are reading about a variant across the world, next thing you know, it’s becoming the dominant strain in the US.” In late June, some EU countries have permitted American tourists to visit again if they’ve been vaccinated or meet other conditions, such as testing negative for Covid. The UK also has plans to allow travelers from the US and other countries rated medium for Covid risks to enter without quarantine if they are inoculated. So far, the US hasn’t reciprocated and with the spread of the delta variant adding more risk, it’s unclear whether the Biden administration will act before the summer travel season is over. Buttigieg acknowledged the US travel protocols designed to prevent the spread of Covid-19 are “imperfect.”<br/>

Federal regulators said Thursday they now can better track rocket launches and space vehicles returning to Earth which could cut the amount of time that airplanes must be routed around space operations. The FAA said a new tool automates the near-instantaneous delivery of data about a space vehicle's flight path to the nation's air traffic control system. The tool, called the Space Data Integrator, will replace a system in which much of the work of giving telemetry data about space vehicles to air traffic control managers is done manually. Elon Musk's SpaceX was the first company to share flight telemetry data with the FAA and others including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin have since joined the program, according to the FAA. The FAA said the new technology was first used on June 30 for the launch of SpaceX's Transporter 2, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral Florida carrying dozens of satellites into orbit. It will be used again with the pending return of a SpaceX cargo ship from the International Space Station, the agency said. “With this capability, we will be able to safely reopen the airspace more quickly and reduce the number of aircraft and other airspace users affected by a launch or reentry,” FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson said.<br/>

Chinese aviation officials have signaled they are open to conducting flight tests on Boeing’s 737 Max, a step toward lifting the plane’s grounding in that nation after more than two years, according to people familiar with the matter. Details of a validation flight for the Max in China are still being worked out, but the discussions are a sign of possible progress in what has become a lengthy standoff over the plane, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Boeing is preparing to send a delegation of around 35 pilots and engineers to meet with regulators in late July after they undergo weeks of quarantine, one of the people said. It could still take many months after such a flight before China’s air regulators wrap up their work and lift the flying ban -- particularly if there is no break in the heightened trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. China’s regulators in March said they had “major concerns” about the plane, including design changes, new pilot training and the causes of the two Max crashes. But they have said little about why they are taking so much longer to assess the redesign and clear the plane than regulators in the US, Europe and Canada. “It’s nothing to do with aviation, safety or aviation safety,” Richard Aboulafia, a long-time watcher of the aerospace industry at the Teal Group, said in a recent interview. “It’s way above our pay grades, way above our heads. It’s geopolitics.”<br/>

Fully-vaccinated Britons returning from medium-risk amber list countries will no longer have to quarantine when they arrive home from July 19, transport secretary Grant Shapps said on Thursday. The rule change will be a huge boost to airlines and the travel industry which have been brought to their knees by 15 months of restrictions. In Britain, 65% of adults have been fully vaccinated, opening up travel for millions. “I can confirm today that from the 19th of July, UK residents who are fully vaccinated through the UK vaccine rollout will no longer have to self isolate when they return to England,” Shapps said. The need to quarantine on return had prevented a travel recovery. Under previous rules, those returning to Britain from its top destinations, Spain, France, the US and Italy, all had to self-isolate for up to 10 days. Shares in British Airways-owner IAG and easyJet both traded up 2% immediately after the news, which will also be welcomed by Southern European countries eager for UK tourist revenues. “This move means Europe is turning green for people who are fully vaccinated,” easyJet CE Johan Lundgren said. “Now millions will finally be able to reunite with family and loved ones abroad or take that long-awaited trip this summer.” The rule change only applies to amber list countries. For countries on the UK’s high-risk red list, fully-vaccinated Britons will still be required to self-isolate in a hotel.<br/>

The UK’s decision to ease travel restrictions later this month will test changes to a border-control apparatus that failed to keep up with surging passenger volumes during an initial reopening in May. The government said Thursday that it would lift a quarantine requirement on vaccinated residents returning from medium-risk destinations starting July 19, including most of Europe and the US. The long-awaited move promises to spur airline travel, as British tourists gain confidence they can plan trips without holing up at home for 10 days when they get back. While welcome for travelers, the move puts the spotlight on border systems that were stressed by a dramatic increase in people passing through when the country first lifted a ban on most overseas travel. Backups reached several hours as border guards took time to inspect Covid-19 test documents, while faster e-gates were sidelined and social distancing requirements limited the number of desks that could be open at one time. “Border Force have assured us that they can manage an increase in demand and it’s up to them to deliver,” said Weston Macklem, a spokesman for London Heathrow airport. “It’s not going to look great for them if over the summer people get these new freedoms but have to wait in massive queues.” Since May, the agency has increased staffing at airports, partly by bringing people back from retirement and reallocating other tasks, said Lucy Moreton, a spokeswoman for the Immigration Services Union, which represents border agents. It’s also set to remove the social-distancing requirements for staff from July 19, opening up more kiosks.<br/>

Airlines on Thursday reported a surge in flight bookings from the UK after the government announced that fully vaccinated passengers and their children could return from amber-listed countries without quarantine after 19 July. EasyJet said that bookings to destinations rated as amber for coronavirus rose by 400%, and holiday bookings increased by 440 week-on-week in the hours since the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, confirmed the change in policy on Thursday morning. BA said website traffic almost doubled after the announcement, with Spanish and US amber destinations becoming the most searched destinations, alongside the the Balearic and Caribbean islands, which were listed as green. Spain, Greece and Portugal topped the amber list countries for flights and holidays, according to the airline easyJet, which added an extra 145,000 seats for the summer. Johan Lundgren, CE of easyJet, said: “We have been delighted with the customer response to the removal of amber list quarantine for the fully vaccinated, so Europe has now turned green for the double jabbed.” However, consumer groups said Britons should remain wary of booking since many destinations, such as the US, still barred UK arrivals, and there was potential confusion with Foreign Office travel advice, affecting insurance policies.<br/>

President Vladimir Putin scrapped Russia's ban on charter flights to Egypt on Thursday, six years after suspending them for national security seasons in the aftermath of a plane crash. The flights were stopped after a Metrojet plane taking Russian holidaymakers back from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg broke up over the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015, killing 224 people. Russia concluded the plane was destroyed by a bomb. A group affiliated with Islamic State militants claimed responsibility. Putin's decree lifting the ban will be a boon for Egypt's year-round resorts in Sharm al-Sheikh and Hurghada which attracted large numbers of Russians in the past. Egypt later on Thursday welcomed the decision in a foreign ministry statement saying that it looks forward to the quick return of Russian tourists.<br/>

The FAA seeks to subject hundreds of additional Boeing 737NGs to inspections following more reports of cracks in aft pressure bulkheads. The agency has issued a proposed airworthiness directive that expands on a 2005 order that addressed the same issue, but in a smaller number of 737NGs. The 2005 order responded to the risk of bulkhead cracks in 737NGs with manufacturing line numbers between one and 1,166. Specifically, cracks were “found during fatigue testing at several of the fastener rows in the web lap splices at the dome apex of the aft pressure bulkhead”, FAA documents say. The agency required airlines address the risk by completing eddy-current inspections. After the issue was discovered, Boeing sought to address the risk by adopting a “revised fastener pattern” when producing 737NGs. That pattern was used on 737NGs with line numbers from 1,167 to 1,755.<br/>

The commercial aerospace industry will struggle to make a profit this year despite recent news of big orders for jets and announcements that production rates are rising, according to a new report. Jetliner manufacturers, parts suppliers and lessors at best will barely break even this year, consulting firm AlixPartners said in a report released Thursday that blamed pricing pressures, a weakened supply chain and depressed output of wide-body aircraft production. The industry posted a loss of $18.4b before interest and taxes last year and won’t return to its pre-pandemic peak –– a $45.6b profit in 2018 -- until the latter half of the decade, the firm said. Air travel within the US has been around pre-pandemic levels, according to the TSA, leading to renewed airline demand for planes. Airbus and Boeing reported strong deliveries for June, and United agreed to purchase 270 planes from the companies. International and business travel has been slow to return, however, forcing manufacturers and lessors to hold inventories that are outpacing demand. That oversupply is driving down prices for jets, leading manufacturers to squeeze suppliers, according to Eric Bernardini, AlixPartners’ global co-leader of aerospace, defense and aviation. “If you want to buy aircraft, you can get very good deals,” he said. “The suppliers are going to have to adapt because otherwise, how are they going to survive?” That puts the industry as a whole at risk of posting a loss for the second consecutive year.<br/>