WestJet says it is not seeking financial aid from the federal government after months of talks between Ottawa and the airline. It says each party has agreed to shift focus to restarting the travel and tourism sector, given encouraging vaccination rates. WestJet’s overall passenger volumes in 2020 were down nearly 90 per cent from the year before, and the airline was forced to reduce its employee head count from 14,000 prior to the pandemic to a low of 4,000. But the airline has said it expects travel demand to rebound this summer as restrictions ease and COVID-19 case counts fall. WestJet has already restored service to all of the airports it served before the pandemic. The federal government announced Monday that as of Aug. 9, fully vaccinated US citizens and permanent residents will be allowed to enter the country, with the rest of the world to follow in September.<br/>
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Viva Air submitted a new request to Aerocivil to operate five national and six international routes. In this new petition, the company would seek to have the routes approved by the Colombian aeronautical regulator for future expansion. The requested international routes are from Medellín / José María Córdova (MDE) to Santiago de Chile (SCL); São Paulo / Guarulhos (GRU) and Rio de Janeiro / Galeao (GIG) in Brazil and San José in Costa Rica. And also from Bogotá (BOG) to Santiago de Chile and San Pablo. With regard to domestic flights, the company seeks to expand the offer in Cartagena (CTG) and San Andrés (ADZ) with flights to Barranquilla (BAQ), Bucaramanga (BGA) and Cúcuta (CUC), demonstrating a focus on eastern Colombia.<br/>
EasyJet has warned UK customers are being left behind because of travel restrictions as it increased the number of flights it operates over the late summer in response to a surge in bookings from continental Europe. The low-cost carrier on Tuesday said it expected to operate 60 per cent of its 2019 schedule between July and September, up from just 17% in the previous quarter. EasyJet CE Johan Lundgren said: “You can definitely see Europe is leading the way out of this, and the UK unfortunately is falling behind.” While easyJet’s business is normally split evenly between the UK and Europe, at present two-thirds of its bookings come from continental Europe. From the start of this month, passengers from the EU can use a digital Covid-19 pass to cross borders, while the UK government has complex and sometimes rapidly changing rules on foreign travel. Lundgren questioned UK travel restrictions, which are based on a traffic-light system that classifies countries by Covid-19 risk. “You have to suspect there is a different approach and different risk willingness when it comes to travel compared to reopening the domestic economy,” Lundgren said. “You can go into a nightclub with no restrictions whatsoever, but you can’t travel to a low-risk destination to go to the beach without having to take expensive testing, it just doesn’t make any sense.” <br/>
Thai Airways International’s regional subsidiary Thai Smile will temporarily suspend all of its scheduled domestic commercial flight operations from 21 July until 3 August. The airline is making the move “in support of the [Covid-19] containment efforts by the government of Thailand”, Thai Airways says in a 19 July filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). Thai Airways itself had already announced the suspension of several domestic routes from the capital Bangkok until September, also in compliance with tightened movement restrictions by the country’s Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) said in an 18 July statement that it would require local airlines to suspend commercial passenger flights to and from “dark red” zones, which are provinces classified as having the highest infection risk, starting 21 July, in line with travel restrictions imposed on these provinces. Thai Smile and its parent will continue to evaluate the situation closely and reinstate services as soon as the situation improves, the 19 July SET filing adds.<br/>