general

Airlines are owed almost $1b across 20 countries as governments seek to hang on to hard currency, depriving the industry of vital cash at a time when travel has been devastated by the coronavirus crisis. Figures published by the IATA show that Venezuela is withholding a further $4b that’s been outstanding for years and may be permanently lost to carriers. Lebanon, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are the worst offenders among other states, accounting for 60% of the $963m deficit, according to IATA. While the total is down on previous years, it is higher as a proportion of overall sales after the pandemic limited flying. “Airlines will not be able to provide reliable connectivity if they cannot rely on local revenues to support operations,” IATA DG Willie Walsh said. “Now is not the time to score an own goal by putting vital air connectivity at risk.” While blocked remittances have dogged aviation for years, they emerged as a major issue in 2013 when Venezuela tightened currency controls, leading several carriers to terminate or reduce flights there. Angola owed almost $500 million in 2018 amid a persistent shortage of foreign-currency reserves, before IATA negotiated a release of funds.<br/>

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has ordered six commercial airlines to provide passenger jets to help with the growing US military operation evacuating Americans and Afghan allies from Kabul, the Afghan capital, the Pentagon said on Sunday. Austin activated Stage 1 of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, created in 1952 after the Berlin airlift, to provide 18 airliners to help ferry passengers arriving at bases in the Middle East from Afghanistan, John F. Kirby, said the Pentagon spokesman. The current activation is for 18 planes: four from United Airlines; three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines and Omni Air; and two from Hawaiian Airlines. The Pentagon does not anticipate a major impact to commercial flights, Kirby said. Capt. John Perkins, a spokesman for the military’s Transportation Command, said on Sunday that the commercial airliners would begin service on Monday or Tuesday and that they would fly evacuees both from the Middle East to Europe and from Europe to the United States. Captain Perkins said in a telephone interview that the military had requested wide-bodied, long-haul aircraft capable of carrying several hundred passengers. He said that discussions started with the airlines last week and that some carriers had volunteered planes for the evacuation. But, he added, the demand was great enough for Mr. Austin to order more airlines to honor their obligations under the reserve fleet program. Civilian planes would not fly into or out of Kabul, where a rapidly deteriorating security situation has hampered evacuation flights. Instead, commercial airline pilots and crews would help transport thousands of Afghans who are arriving at US bases in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The commercial airlines would ease the burden on those bases, which are filling up rapidly as the Biden administration rushes to increase the number of flights for thousands of Afghans fearing reprisals from Taliban fighters.<br/>

A panicked crush of people trying to enter Kabul’s international airport killed seven Afghan civilians in the crowds, the British military said Sunday, showing the danger still posed to those trying to flee the Taliban’s takeover of the country. The deaths come as a group of fighters opposing the Taliban’s rule battle the insurgents in the mountains and valleys to the north of Kabul, capturing several rural districts. While details of the fighting remain unclear, it marks the first organized resistance to rise up against the Taliban since they blitzed across the country in under a week to seize the majority of the country and its capital. The Taliban deployed fighters Sunday to launch a possible offensive there. Kabul’s airport, now one of the few ways out of the country for the millions in the city, has seen days of chaos since the Taliban entered the capital on Aug. 15. Thousands rushed the airport last Monday in chaos that saw the US try to clear off the runway with low-flying attack helicopters. Several Afghans plunged to their deaths while hanging off the side of a US military cargo plane, some of the seven killed that day alone. In chaotic scenes Saturday, British and Western troops in full combat gear tried to control crowds big enough to be seen in satellite photos pressing into the airport. They carried away some who were sweating and pale. With temperatures reaching 34 degree Celsius, the soldiers sprayed water from a hose on those gathered or gave them bottled water to pour over their heads. The British military on Sunday acknowledged the seven deaths of civilians in the crowds. There have been other stampedes and crushing injuries in the crowds, especially as Taliban fighters fire into the air to drive away those desperate to get on any flight out of the country. “Conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging but we are doing everything we can to manage the situation as safely and securely as possible,” the Defense Ministry said.<br/>

As lethal mayhem persisted outside Kabul airport, with thousands of terrified Afghans trying to flee, the Taliban have reached out to a former Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, and to Russia in an attempt to fulfill their pledge to form an “inclusive” government and defeat holdouts against their rule. Little in the Taliban’s history suggests readiness to compromise on their harsh Islamist principles or to share power, but the United States has warned the militant group that going it alone will result in continuous conflict and isolation. In this context, Karzai, who led the county between 2001 and 2014, appears to have emerged as a possible mediator. Karzai, 63, a wily maneuverer who as president fell out with the United States over American drone attacks, corruption allegations and other issues, has stepped into the void left by the flight a week ago of President Ashraf Ghani. Chaos still engulfed the nation’s capital, a fiasco whose political fallout President Biden is struggling to contain. In an afternoon news conference at the White House, Biden defended the administration’s widely criticized evacuation effort. “Altogether, we lifted approximately 11,000 people out of Kabul in less than 36 hours,” he said. “It’s an incredible operation.” The president seemed to suggest that the US forces defending the Kabul airport were extending the security perimeter, saying that the military has made “tactical changes” to increase security. Biden also said that the Aug. 31 deadline for removing all American troops could be extended if necessary.<br/>

Air travelers’ complaints to the federal government jumped nearly 18% in June from a month earlier as flight cancellations and other disruptions rose, the Department of Transportation said Friday. The DOT received 4,176 complaints about air service in June, more than 55% of them involving refunds. It also received one compliment but did not immediately say which airline or topic it was about. Airlines struggled with staffing shortages this summer, the result of a surge in air travel demand that exceeded their expectations. Earlier in the pandemic the airlines had urged thousands of employees to take retirement or leaves to cut costs. Ten US airlines canceled 1.6% of the 573,779 domestic flights they scheduled in June, almost four times the rate compared with May, the DOT said. The on-time rate fell to 74.6% from 86.2% a month earlier. Hawaiian Airlines, Delta and Alaska Airlines had the best on-time rates in June at 87.7%, 86.8% and 80.7%, respectively. Allegiant Air had the lowest on-time arrival rate of the 10 airlines at 56.6%, followed by Southwest at 62.4% and JetBlue at 65.1%. American Airlines came in fourth place in on-time arrivals at 74.3%, with Spirit Airlines at 74.1%, United at 73.9%, and Frontier Airlines at 69.5%. Southwest had a pair of technology failures in June that contributed to flight cancellations and delays.<br/>

The US East Coast braced on Saturday to take a direct hit from Hurricane Henri as it threatened to pound the region with fierce winds and heavy rains that could cause "life-threatening" storm surge and flooding, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. As of Saturday afternoon, the storm was gathering strength, packing 120 kph winds while it moved north about 240 miles northeast of North Carolina. On its current track, Henri was expected to make landfall in Long Island, New York, or southern New England on Sunday, the center said in an advisory. More than 42m people in the region were under a hurricane or tropical storm warning on Saturday, the NHC said. Parts of Long Island and New Haven, Connecticut, were under hurricane and storm surge warnings. Other parts of New England, such as Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, were under surge and tropical storm watches and warnings. "This is a life-threatening situation. Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions," the NHC said. New York City, the largest city in the United States, was under a tropical storm warning. Several airlines issued travel alerts and were offering vouchers for flights in and out of the region over the weekend. <br/>

The United States on Friday extended the closure of its land borders with Canada and Mexico to non-essential travel such as tourism through Sept. 21 despite Ottawa's decision to open its border to vaccinated Americans. The latest 30-day extension by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), came after Canada said in July it would start allowing in fully vaccinated U.S. visitors starting Aug. 9 for non-essential travel after the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a lengthy ban that many businesses have called crippling. "In coordination with public health and medical experts, DHS continues working closely with its partners across the United States and internationally to determine how to safely and sustainably resume normal travel," DHS said. The United States has continued to extend the extraordinary restrictions on Canada and Mexico on a monthly basis since March 2020, when they were imposed to address the spread of COVID-19. Reuters reported this week the extension was expected. The latest restrictions extend the prohibitions beyond the end of the busy US summer tourism season. Airline officials say it will be at least weeks and potentially months before any US travel restrictions are lifted, citing the rising number of COVID-19 cases.<br/>

Hurricane Grace pummeled Mexico with torrential rain on Saturday, causing severe flooding and mudslides that killed at least eight people after becoming one of the most powerful storms in years to hit the country's Gulf coast. Grace was blowing maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour (201 km per hour), a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, when it slammed into the coast near the resort of Tecolutla in Veracruz state in the early morning. The state government said eight people were killed, including six from a single family. All but one of the victims died in Xalapa, the state capital, including a young girl killed by a mudslide that hit her home, the government said. "The state of emergency has not ended," he added. Mexico City's international airport said some flights were canceled due to the hurricane. The Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) national power utility reported 565,000 electricity users were affected by outages.<br/>

Authorities in Shanghai have quarantined hundreds of people in an attempt to halt a fresh COVID-19 outbreak in the city after infections were detected in cargo workers at its airport, the municipal government said on Saturday. Some 120 people deemed close contacts of the infected five workers at Pudong Airport were placed into quarantine, along with hundreds of others deemed secondary contacts. Two of the cargo workers, a Chinese national and an Ethiopian national, were included among four locally transmitted cases in mainland China's tally of 20 new confirmed infections for Aug. 20, announced on Saturday. Another two local cases were found in Jiangsu and Hubei provinces. Separate, unrelated outbreaks first emerged in those regions in July. The national figure was down from 33 a day earlier, according to the National Health Commission, with locally transmitted infections steady at four. Shanghai officials said later on Saturday they had identified another three cargo workers at Pudong Airport as confirmed cases.<br/>

Airlines are pleading to restart domestic flights from Don Mueang airport in September to stem a liquidity crisis. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) is holding discussions with low-cost carriers this week to settle travel safety regulations, which CAAT must submit to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration for approval. Nok Air CE Wutthiphum Jurangkool said airlines are awaiting a decision as their domestic operations have been suspended since July 21 as the country remains under an aviation lockdown. Airlines were told to prepare for possible service resumption on Sept 1, but they may have to wait until Sept 15. "The dark red zone restrictions actually affect just Bangkok and Hat Yai, but in the past month most domestic flights have peen paralysed, which handicaps the cash flow of airlines," said Wutthiphum. Nok Air is allowed to fly limited services from U-tapao airport in Chon Buri to certain provinces, such as Phuket, Chiang Mai, Udon Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat, due to travel restrictions in many places. Potential passengers have refrained from travelling because they prefer the convenience of Don Mueang airport, he said. Additional requirements, such as negative RT-PCR test reports and vaccine certificates for passengers to some provinces, present another obstacle for air travel, said Wutthiphum. Nok Air has adjusted flight frequencies on a weekly basis as some routes might have less than 40 passengers per day from all available flights, he said. As a result, the airline's operation costs are leading to losses for each flight, said Wutthiphum.<br/>