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A trade group representing major US passenger and cargo airlines and others on Tuesday asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to take emergency action to address fuel shortages at Reno-Tahoe Airport in Nevada through August. Airlines for America and World Fuel Services said some airlines and cargo carriers have been without access to fuel since July 23. The group petitioned FERC to give priority in transportation to jet fuel and provide an additional 20,000 barrels of jet fuel capacity, or 541 barrels per day (bpd)through Sept. 6. The supplies were needed “to prevent disruptions to air travel, critical air freight transportation — including medical personnel and supplies essential to fighting the next wave of COVID-19 infections threatened by the Delta variant — and firefighting efforts,” it said. FERC issued a notice asking for comment on the request by 5 p.m. EDT Tuesday (2100 GMT) and asked some questions “how much of the jet fuel demand at (Reno) in August 2021 will be used to transport medical personnel and supplies and support firefighting efforts.” Fuel prices have been on the rise for several months as demand for gasoline and diesel has snapped back after the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. Refiners have ramped up processing in the last several months to respond to the recovery in fuel demand, but logistics companies have complained of a lack of available drivers.<br/>

Airline passengers who apply for access to expedited security screening should be aware of fraudulent websites that appear to be associated with the TSA PreCheck Application Program, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said Tuesday. When searching for information about the program online, fraudulent websites may appear that claim to allow consumers to register and pay for the precheck. The websites will prompt consumers to enter their personal information and will request payment in order to process the application, the office said. Consumers applying for TSA PreCheck for the first time cannot pay online, but only in person at a TSA enrollment center.<br/>

Analysts have raised their European carbon market average price forecasts after the European Commission unveiled a package of policies to implement its climate targets, including reforms to limit the number of carbon permits available. EU Allowances (EUAs) are expected to average E52.01 a tonne in 2021 and E62.26 in 2022, a Reuters survey of eight analysts showed. That is up 12.4% and 11.8% respectively from forecasts made in April. The average forecast for prices in 2023 was 61.49 euros a tonne, representing a 9.4% increase. The EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), which forces manufacturers, power companies and airlines to pay for each tonne of carbon dioxide they emit, is central to EU efforts to cut net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030. To help meet the target the EC earlier this month proposed to widen the ETS to include shipping, curb the number of permits given to industry for free and reduce the number of permits in circulation each year at a faster rate than currently. The proposal would also strengthen the ETS “market stability reserve,” which removes excess permits from the market to try to prevent them depressing prices.<br/>

The government is on Wednesday expected to approve the reopening of England’s doors to double-vaccinated tourists from the EU and the US, in a move that will bring relief to the country’s leisure sector. Whitehall officials said UK ministers, led by chancellor Rishi Sunak, had argued it was safe to start readmitting foreign tourists without the need for quarantine if they had received two jabs. Sunak was particularly concerned that tourist destinations like London would lose out to locations like Paris and Rome now that the EU had decided to admit US visitors. “It could take effect from as early as next week,” said one Whitehall official briefed on the ministerial discussions. “Rishi has been leading the way on this.” Falling coronavirus case numbers in the UK made the decision easier. Grant Shapps, transport secretary, and Oliver Dowden, culture secretary, have both also argued for a resumption of travel into England. Arrivals from the EU and US would have to take a test pre-departure and repeat the process on day two of their stay. The decision to reopen England to EU tourists was made easier after the bloc started issuing citizens with a digital health pass from the start of this month. Opening up to double-vaccinated US travellers is more complicated since the American system of proof is paper-based and organised at a state level. But government officials said ministers were confident that US travellers with an American passport and a paper certificate would provide the reassurance needed.<br/>

So-called “Freedom Day” in Britain, which last Monday marked the government’s lifting of all remaining coronavirus requirements, was a far cry from the blithe liberty that many locked-down British residents had dreamed of for the past year. Nearly 40,000 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the 24 hours before the anticipated day, while hundreds of thousands of people received a notification on a government tracing app, asking them to self-isolate for 10 days because of possible exposure to the virus. On the same day, vaccinated Britons who had escaped across the English Channel to France, to enjoy new privileges of quarantine-free travel, were abruptly informed that they would have to self-isolate when they returned home, regardless of their vaccination status. It was the second time British authorities had swiftly reversed course: In June, just weeks after letting British travelers freely travel to Portugal without quarantining upon their return, they changed the rules because of concerns about the prevalence of the Delta variant. Thousands of British residents rushed to Portuguese airports trying to get back home before the quarantine rule went back into effect. Now the chaos of the past week has left many people in Britain feeling anxious, overwhelmed and confused over how to spend the rest of their summer. Travel operators and industry professionals are also exasperated at the constant uncertainty after more than a year of unprecedented job and revenue losses. Story has more. <br/>

Kuwait on Tuesday said only citizens who have been vaccinated for the coronavirus will be allowed to travel abroad starting on Aug. 1. A government statement said the rule excepted children under age of 16, those with a health ministry certificate saying they cannot be vaccinated, and pregnant women who have a pregnancy proof certificate from authorities. Also on Tuesday, the civil aviation authority said that all arrivals in Kuwait must have a negative COVID-19 PCR test before they board their flights and must not be showing any symptoms. All arrivals will have to be home quarantined for seven days unless they take a COVID-19 PCR test inside Kuwait that comes out negative.<br/>

The Australian city of Sydney extended a lockdown by four weeks on Wednesday after an already protracted stay-at-home order failed to douse a COVID-19 outbreak, with the authorities warning of tougher policing to stamp out non-compliance. Far from a planned exit from lockdown in three days, the city of 5m people and neighbouring regional centres spanning 200 km of coastline were told to stay home until Aug. 28 following persistently high case numbers since a flare-up of the virulent Delta variant began last month. The state of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, reported 177 new cases for Tuesday, from 172 on Monday. That is the biggest increase since an unmasked, unvaccinated airport driver was said to have sparked the current outbreak. The state also reported the death of a woman in her 90s, the 11th death of the outbreak. Of particular concern, at least 46 of the new cases were people active in the community before being diagnosed, raising the likelihood of transmission, said the authorities, who have cautioned that active community transmission must be near zero before relaxing the rules. The extension turns what was initially intended to be a "snap" lockdown of Australia's most populous city into one of the country's longest since the start of the pandemic.<br/>

European authorities have formally approved a hike in the Airbus A220-300’s maximum seating to 149 passengers, contingent on an overwing exit slide modification. The aircraft had previously been limited to 145 seats. Air France is planning to introduce its first A220-300 with a layout of 148 seats, due to be delivered to the carrier in September. Introduction of an over-performing Type III exit, with a dual-lane overwing slide replacing the single-lane slide, enables the carriage of additional passengers, says the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. EASA also points out that separate airworthiness approval is needed for the installation of the individual customised cabin layout as well as the necessary cabin adaptations up to 149 seats.<br/>

General Electric CEO Larry Culp said Tuesday he believes global air travel will continue to recover from its pandemic-induced slowdown, leading to a positive outlook for the industrial giant’s critical aviation unit. “Clearly, lots of things that we all have our eyes on including the delta variant. But that said, it looks like the leisure traveler is back and business travelers are not that far behind, hopefully,” Culp said. “I think on balance, that’s what gives us the optimism and the confidence about our aviation business.” Shares of GE finished up 1.24% Tuesday, slightly below their highs of the day, after the Boston-based company posted Q2 results. GE also reported free cash flow of $388m for Q2, surprising Wall Street analysts who were looking for outflows. The aviation unit, which manufactures and services engines, saw orders jump 47% in the quarter on a year-over-year basis. In the second quarter of 2020, the company was in the throes of the Covid crisis, suffering along with airlines from the dramatic decline in air travel. All of GE’s industrial segments — aviation, health care, renewable energy and power — reported increased profit margin in the most-recent quarter. The aviation unit saw the largest jump, rising 1,930 basis points year over year. One basis point is equal to 0.01%. Taking a global view, Culp said GE’s aviation unit is seeing improvement in its markets, including the U.S., Europe and China. “We see Europe, slowly, gradually, coming back here as of late, as well. China is just off single digits from where they were in 2019,” Culp said. <br/>

Commercial jets delivered by Boeing last year will account on average for emissions equivalent to 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each over their 20-year-plus lifespans, a new report from the planemaker shows. Boeing is the latest company to report so-called Scope 3 emissions that result when customers use their products, amid pressure from investors and climate activists for data on how companies are performing on limiting their environmental impact. The report sheds further light on the task facing global aviation as it faces calls by environmental groups for curbs to air travel and growing political pressure to cut emissions, after Europe's Airbus issued similar data in February. Together, the world's two largest planemakers in 2020 delivered jets estimated to be responsible for total emissions equivalent to 600m tonnes of CO2 over their lifetimes, a figure dampened by lower deliveries during the pandemic. Aviation produces up to 3% of man-made CO2 emissions and 12% of CO2 from transport, the industry says. It has pledged to reduce net carbon emissions to 50% of 2005 levels by 2050, but is moving towards a tougher target of eliminating net emissions. Boeing aims to "significantly reduce our environmental impact during every stage of a product’s life cycle," CE Dave Calhoun said introducing the Chicago-based company's first-ever sustainability report on Monday. Calhoun reiterated that its jets would fly on 100% sustainable aviation fuels by 2030. Jet engines are currently certified to run on up to 50% of the fuel. In the report, Boeing said commercial airplanes it delivered in 2020 would be responsible for emissions equivalent to 158 million tonnes of CO2, or MtCO2e, over their lifespan. That consists of 136 million tonnes of emissions directly linked to their operation by airlines, and 22 million tonnes related to the production by energy companies of the fuel used in flight.<br/>

Canada’s largest private sector union said on Tuesday that a strike is underway by Toronto members working for Bombardier Inc and De Havilland Aircraft of Canada (DHC) although contract talks continue. Negotiations between the companies and Unifor come during a rebound in U.S. business jet flights, as more wealthy travelers look to fly on private aircraft during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bombardier shares were down 2.08% in midday trading. Unifor said it is bargaining for a combined 2,200 workers at the same Toronto manufacturing site for Bombardier’s Global large-cabin business jets and De Havilland’s Dash 8-400 turboprop aircraft. “We will remain at the bargaining table with both companies as the strike action is ongoing,” said Unifor national President Jerry Dias. De Havilland announced in February it would no longer make Dash 8-400 aircraft at the Downsview site beyond confirmed orders due to weaker demand because of COVID-19.<br/>