American Airlines and Southwest flight crews say they’re having problems securing hotel rooms, transportation and meals at the end of workdays, leaving them fatigued and threatening to delay flights. The problems have reached “unprecedented, unacceptable levels,” Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, told union members at American. Flight attendants have slept in airports or outside baggage-claim areas and spent hours on hold awaiting help from American’s hotel desk. Pilots at both carriers have had to search out and pay for their own rooms and meals after arriving in cities and finding that accommodations required under their contracts haven’t been secured. Their troubles are revealing stress within the US aviation system as domestic travel roars back faster than most airlines expected. Carriers are trying to fill thousands of jobs, ranging from pilots and flight attendants to workers loading bags or handling wheelchairs in airports. Some consumers are spending hours on hold to get help with reservations, and not all restaurants and stores have reopened at packed airports. “We’ve never seen the type of abuse to which they are being subjected right now,” Paul Hartshorn, a spokesman for the flight attendants union, said Wednesday. A three- or four-hour wait to get a hotel room delays the start of guaranteed minimum rest hours, potentially preventing flight attendants from being able to make an early flight the next day. “That’s affecting the whole operation,” Hartshorn said.<br/>
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Russian private airline S7 plans to launch a new low-cost carrier next year in a market battered by the coronavirus pandemic, betting on flights between Russian regions bypassing Moscow and St. Petersburg, the airline said on Wednesday. S7 plans to order 24 new A320 Neo Airbus aircraft for the new carrier by 2024 and deliver a total passenger traffic from 2022 to 2024 of more than 7 million people, it said. It will lease planes with 186 passenger seats, four of which have already been contracted, while a contract for another four is being prepared, said Tatiana Fileva, chairman of S7’s board of directors. “People’s incomes are falling, and especially during the pandemic ... there is definitely a niche in Russia for increasing the number of seats on low-cost carriers,” she said. Russia currently has one low-cost airline, Pobeda, which is owned by state carrier Aeroflot.<br/>
Qantas has confirmed it will roll out a digital health pass for international flights, which will confirm passengers have clearance to fly. Qantas and Jetstar use the IATA Travel Pass, which will allow passengers to prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or have had a negative test result before their flight. The Travel Pass will also check the passenger's health information against the specific requirements for their flight, including the entry requirements of the country they are travelling to. Qantas said that final development work is under way to ensure the health pass app is ready for use on Qantas and Jetstar flights when international travel resumes. The statement noted that many countries where Qantas and Jetstar had flown to before the pandemic now required either proof of vaccination or a negative test result in order to enter without undergoing quarantine. These include the UK, the US and Canada. "We want to get our international flights back in the air and our people back to work and a digital health pass will be a key part of that," said Qantas Group chief customer officer, Stephanie Tully. "Many governments are already requiring proof of vaccine or a negative COVID test result for international travel. Even if it wasn't a government requirement, Qantas has always been a leader in safety and we have a responsibility to our customers and crew."<br/>
Qantas has called on all states to make COVID vaccines mandatory for aviation workers in Australia. The business said on Wednesday that while it’s encouraging NSW and SA have made jabs a requirement for international aviation employees, a national approach is needed to avoid a “patchwork of rules between the borders”. It comes after a survey by the TWU earlier this month found that just one-third of aviation workers had been fully innoculated with two doses. “Ever since a COVID-19 vaccine was approved the Qantas Group has strongly encouraged our people to get vaccinated and are offering paid time off to get the jab,” said the airline. “We’ve also lobbied government for priority access to the vaccine for aviation workers. We’ve done this not just because vaccinations are the only way to end the cycle of lockdowns and border closures, but because they are proven to be one of the strongest layers of protection against the potentially serious heath impact of this virus. While all the data shows that the risk of COVID transmission onboard aircraft remains very low, and there are many safeguards at airports, nothing reduces the risk to health like the vaccines approved for use in Australia. That’s critical for our frontline teams, who come into contact with thousands of people each day."<br/>