Germany will require all unvaccinated travellers arriving in the country from Sunday to present a negative COVID-19 test result, stepping up health checks on returning holidaymakers amid concern over rising case loads in holiday destinations. Previously, only airline passengers were required to produce a negative test if they were not vaccinated and had not recovered from COVID-19 in the previous six months. People entering by road, rail or sea were not required to do so. The move, announced by the government on Friday, comes amid growing concern over travellers bringing back infections from their summer holidays as the Delta variant of the coronavirus spreads across tourist hot spots. Children under the age of 12 are exempt from the new testing requirement, the government said. As many as one in five new coronavirus infections detected in Germany last week were contracted abroad, with travellers from Spain and Turkey accounting for nearly 500 cases, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.<br/>
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Britain's Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has pressed for an easing of travel restrictions to offer respite to the tourism sector amid concerns that the country is not reaping the benefit of its vaccination programme, the Sunday Times reported. Sunak had written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning of the impact that Britain's strict border controls were having ahead a meeting of ministers on Thursday to consider changes, the newspaper said, citing a source familiar with the letter. The Treasury declined to comment. England last month lifted the requirement for fully vaccinated Britons returning from medium-risk countries to have to quarantine. Visitors from the EU and United States with the same status will also be exempt from Monday. However, travellers still have to take expensive tests before departure and shortly after arrival. Separately, the bosses of Britain's biggest airlines and travel companies urged Transport Minister Grant Shapps to add more countries to the "green list" that have fewer restrictions. They said green status should increasingly become a default, given that nearly 90% of British adults had been given one vaccine and more than 70% had two, and domestic restrictions had eased. "On this basis there is no reason why, and it is essential, that much of Europe including the key volume markets, the U.S., Caribbean and other major markets, cannot turn green next week in time for the remainder of the summer peak," bosses of Virgin Atlantic, easyJet, British Airways, Jet2.com, Loganair, Ryanair and TUI UK & Ireland said in a letter shared with media. They said a continued requirement for expensive COVID-19 tests would have a huge impact on aviation.<br/>
Airlines have cancelled flights in and out of the Chinese city of Nanjing, the epicentre of a fast-growing coronavirus cluster which has spread to capital Beijing and five other provinces. Checks on Nanjing Lukou international airport’s website showed no flights in and out of the city on 29 and 30 July. Typically, more than 300 passenger and cargo flights — most of them domestic — fly in and out of the airport, according to flight tracking data. The source of the latest wave of infections — dubbed “the most extensive domestic contagion after Wuhan” by state media Global Times — is believed to have been airport staff who were “inadequately protected” while cleaning aircraft operating international flights. Wuhan is where Covid-19 was first detected. The city was placed under strict lockdown in early 2020, but has since reopened. On 29 July, China reported 49 new coronavirus infections, the bulk of them from Jiangsu province, of which Nanjing is the provincial capital. A day earlier, the country saw 86 cases. <br/>
Japanese engineering company JGC Holdings and petroleum wholesaler Cosmo Oil are commercializing jet biofuel in Japan for the first time, targeting aviation companies that are under pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to meet green credentials, Nikkei has learned. Biofuels, also called sustainable aviation fuel, are made from waste plastics or biomass such as algae and wood chips. JGC and Cosmo are planning to use waste cooking oil collected by Kyoto-based Revo International from restaurants and food factories. The companies are planning to start production in 2025 in Osaka. Total carbon dioxide emissions from raw materials procurement through burning in jet engines is estimated to be as much as 80-90% lower compared to traditional jet fuel. Major airlines Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have both already started using SAF, and are set to expand usage in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. SAF does not reduce emissions to zero, but is widely adopted in Europe and other regions. Commercialization of technologies such as electric airplanes, which emit no carbon dioxide, is expected to take some time. JGC and others are investing billions of yen to build a factory at Cosmo's oil plant in Osaka's Sakai city to produce up to 30,000 kiloliters of jet biofuel per year. The companies are to get subsidies from the government-backed New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. Story has more.<br/>
David Calhoun, CE of Boeing, has access to company aircraft as part of his job. Even so, he told an interviewer that he didn’t expect to fly nearly as much for internal company meetings after the pandemic. Calhoun, like some of his peers, found that video calls were remarkably effective for checking in with colleagues, allowing him to pack in more meetings and schedule them with minimal advance notice, according to an account in “Leading at a Distance,” a recent book by James M. Citrin and Darleen DeRosa. “I will do as much or more customer travel, because that’s still the most important way to build relationships,” Calhoun told the authors. “But most travel when leading big companies is visiting your own teams. I won’t be doing that nearly as much.” There’s broad consensus that how often we fly for work and what we travel for will shift significantly post-pandemic. Who is traveling may be different as well. That, in turn, will prompt changes in what the travel industry provides to business people, a source of nearly a third of its revenue before the pandemic. A year and a half of forgoing virtually all travel and doing business by video conference has led many business people to conclude that a lot of their previous travel wasn’t worth the time and toll on their bodies and mental state, on their families and the environment. That’s even before considering the role that travel played in transmitting the virus across continents. There’s a popular meme: “This meeting could have been an email.” Those of us who have traveled long distances for a single work meeting know that we could often just as easily say, “This business trip could have been a Zoom call.” Story has more.<br/>
A rift between Airbus and engine makers over plans for higher jet output blotted strong aerospace earnings this week, with worries over the supply chain's industrial capacity masking a deeper tug of war over contrasting business strategies. With travel demand snapping back in key US and Chinese markets, Airbus wants to almost double jet production in a few years as it capitalises on a bulging order book for new jets and the recent woes of embattled Boeing. In May, it issued a mix of firm targets and scenarios that could lift narrowbody output to 75 jets a month by 2025 from 40 now, and 60 before the COVID pandemic. That has rattled engine makers and others who fear the world's largest planemaker will upset their own recovery by flooding markets with new jets too quickly, forcing existing ones straight into retirement rather than their repair shops. "The engine makers look at the production plans and see them displacing older airplanes that are still profitable for them," said Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia. The standoff could accelerate efforts by engine makers to adapt their service-dependent business models by charging more upfront for their engines, Aboulafia said. Doing so is potentially risky since planemakers also eye a bigger slice of their suppliers' service revenues. Public differences over production can unsettle the whole supply chain, reducing the appetite for risk, suppliers say. Few quibble with a smooth return towards pre-crisis levels for in-demand narrowbody jets, through Boeing remains more cautious as it emerges from a separate crisis over its 737 MAX. <br/>
Colombia’s Juan Carlos Salazar has commenced his mandate as the secretary-general of ICAO. “It is a great honour to be assuming this role at this time, and to have the opportunity to help governments and ICAO play an important part in how this sector builds back better and recovers from the global pandemic,” says Salazar. “We are still facing some tremendous challenges to the restoration of global air connectivity today, and with many regions and populations all over the world facing prolonged economic, social, and emotional hardship as a result.” Formerly the director-general of Civil Aviation for Colombia, Salazar replaces China’s Fang Liu in the role heading the UN’s aviation agency. <br/>