After 18 months of gloom over prospects for long-distance flights, airlines are finally striking a more optimistic tone about some of the world’s most lucrative travel markets. The partial reopening of key routes across the North Atlantic and vital transfer hubs in the Middle East is stirring predictions that inter-continental journeys are on their way back from the devastating slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Lufthansa was the latest to predict a pickup alongside the loosening of Covid-19 curbs and a mounting vaccine take-up. The carrier said Thursday that North America could open from late summer, with Asia following at the end of the year. On a conference call following second-quarter results, CEO Carsten Spohr said he’s encouraged by high levels of interest where travel is allowed. “While we are waiting for the transatlantic to reopen for Europeans, the U.S. point of sale shows very high demand, leading the recovery of our long-haul business,” Spohr said. He cited visible acceleration in routes to Africa and Central and South America, as well as progress fighting the pandemic in Asia. “Our bilateral talks with governments are going well -- even India is going well.” In a positive development for long-distance travel, the UK on Wednesday announced a further easing of its border curbs. India, the UAE and Qatar moved to medium-risk status from high risk, meaning arrivals will no longer require a hotel quarantine. India, with deep ties to the UK, is a major driver for international flights, while the Gulf territories are home to major carriers including Dubai’s Emirates, the world’s biggest long-haul airline prior to the coronavirus outbreak. Emirates said interest in travel picked up overnight, while rival Qatar Airways said it expects a surge of bookings over coming days.<br/>
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The nation’s top aviation regulator is suggesting that local police around the country should file charges more often against unruly airline passengers and that airports should clamp down on alcohol sales. FAA chief Stephen Dickson said that every week, police are asked to be there when a flight lands after an incident involving passengers, including cases in which they assault flight attendants. “Nevertheless, many of these passengers were interviewed by local police and released without criminal charges of any kind,” Dickson said in letters to airport officials. “When this occurs, we miss a key opportunity to hold unruly passengers accountable for their unacceptable and dangerous behavior.” Dickson noted in the letters dated Wednesday that the FAA has proposed civil fines against dozens of passengers in recent months, but the agency has no authority to file criminal charges.<br/>
The FAA Thursday issued a new safety directive for all Boeing 737 Max airplanes and some other 737 planes to address a potential issue with reduced fire suppression capabilities. The FAA said planes may have a failed electronic flow control of the air conditioning packs that vent air into the cargo hold from other areas of the plane. The directive prohibits operators from transporting cargo in the cargo hold if airplanes are operating with this condition unless they can verify items are nonflammable and noncombustible. The airworthiness directive impacts 663 airplanes registered in the United States and approximately 2,204 worldwide.<br/>
UK airlines are warning that thousands of jobs could be lost if the government fails to offer the industry an extension of the furlough program, as ever-changing travel restrictions and expensive tests wipe out a second summer season. Carriers have asked the government for a short-term, sector-specific jobs support plan to tide it through the usually lean winter months, Tim Alderslade, the chief executive officer of trade group Airlines UK, said Thursday. The British Airline Pilots Association separately called for a furlough extension, saying the sector is still effectively stuck in lockdown. “It’s a picture of contradictions,” said Alderslade, whose organization represents firms including BA and EasyJet. “The aviation industry is still effectively closed and the various, constantly changing travel rules in place are putting people off flying. On the other hand, the government is saying that things are open again and is pulling the plug on support.” The UK’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which supports 1.9m people, is due to end on Sept. 30 following the lifting of almost all pandemic restrictions last month. Yet the government policy of adding and removing countries from its so-called traffic-light system that determines quarantine requirements has kept demand for air travel below levels in Europe.<br/>
The Hanoi-HCMC route ranked second among the world's five busiest domestic air routes last year, experiencing the biggest jump in passenger numbers amid Covid-19 turbulence. South Korea's Jeju-Seoul route was the busiest domestic air route with 10.2m passengers last year, followed by the Hanoi-HCMC route with 5.9m, according to an IATA report released Tuesday. The two-hour Hanoi-HCMC route saw the biggest year-on-year jump of 54% in passengers from 2019, the report said. Three of the five most traveled domestic air routes for 2020 were in China, which became the world’s largest domestic market for the first time on record last year. The Shanghai-Shenzhen route was third busiest in the world with 3.7m passengers, followed by Beijing-Shanghai and Guangzhou-Shanghai. The IATA report said last year was the worst ever in the history of the aviation industry as the pandemic ravaged global travel.<br/>
Boeing said on Thursday it plans to spin off its venture capital arm, HorizonX, to forge a broader external investment fund, in a deal said by sources to value the unit at several hundred million dollars. Under the deal, AE Industrial Partners, a specialist private equity firm, will add fresh capital to the portfolio born out of Boeing’s decision to set up its own venture fund in 2017. “The partnership with AEI and future partners broadens our investor base, enables HorizonX to invest at a rapid pace and gives Boeing access to more outside innovation than ever through this investment collaboration,” Boeing Chief Strategy Officer Marc Allen said. The move accelerates efforts by Boeing to deepen the pipeline of technology available to the US aerospace giant, and will ease the burden of supporting future growth of HorizonX, which has invested in more than a dozen companies. HorizonX “needs to go faster and needs a bigger capital pile to invest in more companies,” a person familiar with the deal said. Boeing will remain a strategic investor with a “significant majority” stake in the initial fund to be created from the spinoff, which is expected to be named AE HorizonX, the person said. It will continue to hold smaller stakes in any follow-on funds bringing in more entrepreneurial capital. Under the deal, Boeing will contribute the HorizonX portfolio, valued by industry sources at several hundred million dollars. It will also provide a specialist industrial perspective and receive preferential access to innovations developed by portfolio companies.<br/>
Bombardier raised its full-year estimates for revenue and aircraft deliveries on Thursday, helped by higher business jet traffic and demand for planes after the pandemic sapped orders last year. The planemaker also said it would use less free cash in 2021 than previously expected, after beating analysts' estimates for quarterly revenues on higher deliveries and demand for aftermarket services. According to FlightAware data, business jet flights were up 23% in the week-beginning July 21 over 2019 levels in the United States, the world's largest market for corporate aviation. Rivals Textron and General Dynamics Corp's Gulfstream Aerospace are raising production to meet higher demand. Free cash flow usage for 2021, a metric closely watched by investors, is now expected to be better than $300 million, compared with $500m. Bombardier is forecasting 120 business jet deliveries in 2021, up from 110. Full-year revenue is expected to exceed $5.8b, up from more than $5.6b. Business jet revenue for the three months ending June 30 jumped 50% to $1.5b, compared with the $1.3b that analysts were expecting, according to Refinitiv. But Montreal-based Bombardier posted an adjusted net loss of $137m, or 6 cents per share, for Q2, compared with a loss of $248m, or 11 cents, a year earlier. Bombardier also disclosed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would join a global investigation into suspected bribery related to decade-old sales of company jets to Garuda Indonesia.<br/>