Airlines are piling on more debt as surging coronavirus cases force travelers to cancel plans and stay home. The industry’s outstanding debt has jumped 23% since 2020 to $340b, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. So far this year, global air carriers have sold $63b in bonds and loans. It’s more evidence that the industry faces a bumpy road ahead, with many border restrictions still in place and the high-season of summer vacations in the US and Europe coming to an end. EasyJet and JAL announced new fundraising plans this month to help them weather the prolonged pandemic. “The spread of the Delta variant may lead to other countries imposing tougher quarantine rules on visitors,” said Susannah Streeter, a senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. Many carriers are returning to the bond market after last year’s dash-for-cash when the pandemic first struck. The big sales show that investors are still ready and willing to give ample funding to the industry. <br/>
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Flight attendants enforcing mask mandates onboard are worried about physical attacks from travelers, Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said Monday. The TSA announced Thursday it would double fines for passengers who refuse to comply with the federal mask mandate for air travel. The union president said the TSA’s updated policy could help address more mask-related conflicts in the airport, thereby reducing issues for flight attendants to handle on the plane. “We’re concerned every single day when we go to work and put that uniform on, are we the target and going to be punched in the face today,” Nelson said. Flight attendants have long been tasked with policing safety rules and regulations in flight, Nelson said, but they’ve experienced an uptick in conflicts stemming from mask mandates. The Federal Aviation Administration said July 7 that mask requirements comprised 75% of its unruly passenger complaints since the start of 2021. Under the TSA’s revised fee structure for those who disobey mask mandates, first offenders will face a $500 fine. The agency will levy a $3,000 penalty on anyone who violates the mandate more than once.<br/>
The US DoT said it was offering $482.3m in aviation manufacturing assistance to 313 businesses, including up to $75.5m to Spirit AeroSystems. Congress earlier this year created a $3b aviation manufacturing payroll subsidy program that will cover up to half of eligible companies’ compensation costs for as long as six months. Ohio-based Parker-Hannifin Corp was offered up to $39.7m, Connecticut-based Hexcel Corp offered $20.9m and Astronics Corp $14.7m. Of the 313 companies receiving funds, 188 of them - 60% - had fewer than 100 employees at the end of calendar year 2020. The funds will help support as many as 22,500 jobs nationwide.<br/>
The return to the skies may take a while for US business travelers. While overall airline-passenger numbers have surged, companies look to be taking a more cautious approach. That’s one key takeaway from a survey conducted by travel analytics firm OAG. Of the US business travelers surveyed, only 62% said their company is planning air travel in the next 12 months, while 20% said their firms have no plans, and 18% said none had been specified. The delta variant is playing a role in limiting improvements, with OAG is seeing both domestic and international demand softening as the Northern Hemisphere heads into the fall. The variant has caused “a bit of a pause” on segments of business for Delta, particular business travel, CEO Ed Bastian said at a conference last week. “We were anticipating -- as we got into the post-Labor Day period -- seeing another step-up in business travel,” Bastian said. Instead, many firms have pushed business travel back into the latter part of the year or early start of 2022. “It’s probably about a 90-day plus in return to travel for that next leg-up that we were expecting to see, but it’s coming,” he said. Almost half of travelers surveyed are booking two weeks to a month in advance of flying, putting airlines in a difficult cash-flow position, OAG said. Typically, flights are booked up to 11 months before the date of travel, according to the report. <br/>
Russia will resume passenger flights with Spain, Iraq, Kenya and Slovakia from Sept. 21, the government said on Monday, and will increase the number of airports with flights to Turkey and Egypt. Russia imposed wide-ranging travel restrictions at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, many of which remain in force, but has gradually expanded the list of countries for air travel. Russia's coronavirus task force said it had decided flights could resume after it had assessed the epidemiological situation in those countries. <br/>
The travel industry has called for ministers to tear up the UK’s Covid traffic light and PCR testing rules as figures reveal their “devastating impact” on overseas flights and holiday bookings in peak season. Bookings for holidays abroad this summer were down 83% on 2019, according to data from the Travel Association (ABTA), with half of travel companies reporting no increase in bookings compared with last summer, despite the vaccination programme. ABTA said thousands of jobs in the sector were at risk, with seven in 10 companies planning to make redundancies once the furlough ends. Heathrow and Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which both reported huge falls in summer traffic, joined the calls for a simplified two-tier system for international travel. The London hub airport was the busiest in Europe but is now ranked 10th after a 71% drop in August traffic compared with pre-pandemic levels. MAG’s passenger numbers across Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports were down 68% on August 2019. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said at the weekend that he wanted to scrap PCR day two tests for fully vaccinated arrivals “as soon as I possibly can”, after reports that officials were working on plans to allow the change, potentially in time for half-term holiday bookings. However, easyJet said it had yet to see any discernible impact of Javid’s announcement on bookings. A spokesperson said the airline would continue to argue for the scrapping of all tests for vaccinated travellers visiting low-risk countries.<br/>
Britain's biggest airport Heathrow said on Monday passenger numbers were still 71% lower in August compared to the same month before the COVID-19 pandemic, as it demanded that the government change its travel rules to help the sector recover. Heathrow blamed the complicated, changing and expensive rules for those arriving in the United Kingdom for Britain's much slower travel recovery versus competitors, pushing it down to 10th busiest European airport, from its top spot in 2019. Expectations are growing that there will be a simplification of those travel rules, after Health Minister Sajid Javid said on Sunday that he wanted to "get rid of" expensive PCR tests for travellers as soon as possible. read more British PM Boris Johnson will this week set out his plans to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in the winter months. Heathrow said that it would favour a two-tier system with destination countries rated either low risk or high risk, with the latter still requiring hotel quarantine. <br/>
International air travel beyond Asia is expected to recover sooner than between countries within the region given the different Covid-19 vaccination rates and continued strict border measures imposed by governments, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. Many Asian countries have tightened measures in recent months to contain the spread of the delta variant, Subhas Menon, director general of the 14-member AAPA, said during a briefing Monday. There will be some recovery for places where vaccination is higher, he said. International air travel beyond Asia is expected to recover sooner than between countries within the region given the different Covid-19 vaccination rates and continued strict border measures imposed by governments, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. Many Asian countries have tightened measures in recent months to contain the spread of the delta variant, Subhas Menon, director general of the 14-member AAPA, said during a briefing Monday. There will be some recovery for places where vaccination is higher, he said. Some countries in Asia are shifting away from Covid-Zero strategies and adopting a policy of living with the virus, backed by widespread vaccination, as they try to revive economies that have suffered from lengthy lockdowns. Singapore is taking steps to reopen and last week started allowing short-term, vaccinated visitors from Germany and Brunei.<br/>
Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) members have joined the growing list of global carriers committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the group’s head said on Monday. AAPA members are full-service airlines based in South East Asia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. “It is a challenging goal, but we are committed to this,” AAPA Director General Subhas Menon said. He said the target could be met through fuel efficiency improvements, operations and infrastructure initiatives, carbon offsets and promoting sustainable aviation fuels. Some AAPA members including Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings had already announced plans for net zero emissions by 2050. <br/>
China's first C919 narrowbody jet to be delivered to launch customer China Eastern Airlines is about to enter final assembly, China's aviation regulator said on Monday, with delivery due before the end of the year. The C919, being built by state-owned planemaker Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC), will mark a milestone in a decade-long programme to rival aircraft made by Airbus and Boeing. The C919 programme's certification board met in Shanghai on Sept. 10 and reviewed COMAC reports on batch production of the jet, the Eastern Region Administration of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said on its social media account. COMAC hopes to obtain a type certificate, which certifies the model as airworthy, by the end of the year. The board also approved proposals to adjust the current plans for obtaining the aircraft's production certificate, which is required for mass production, the regulator said, without giving further details. The C919 is currently in the more limited batch production phase.<br/>
Australia is developing a digital border pass to show the vaccination status of travelers in a step toward further reopening its international border. The government awarded Accenture the tender to deliver the pass that will replace the current Covid-19 travel declaration form and incoming passenger card. It “will support the safe re-opening of Australia’s international borders” Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews said in a statement. “This will help us to welcome home increasing numbers of Australians, and welcome the tourists, travelers, international students, skilled workers and overseas friends and family we’ve all been missing during the pandemic.” Australia’s international border has been mostly closed to non-residents since March last year to control the spread of the coronavirus, with anyone returning forced to undergo 14 days of hotel quarantine. The government has said it aims to increase travel to and from the nation once 80% of the adult population is fully vaccinated. Currently that rate stands at about 34%, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker. <br/>
At first glance, it’s a big step forward in curbing climate change. In a deal announced Thursday, the Biden administration and the airline industry agreed to an ambitious goal of replacing all jet fuel with sustainable alternatives by 2050, a target meant to drive down flying’s environmental toll. As early as 2030, President Biden said, the United States will aim to produce three billion gallons of sustainable fuel — about 10% of current jet fuel use — from waste, plants and other organic matter, reducing aviation’s emissions of planet-warming gases by 20% and creating jobs. The airline industry has set sustainable fuel targets before. The IATA had pledged to replace 10% of the jet fuel it uses with sustainable fuels by 2017. That year has come and gone, and sustainable fuels are still stuck at far less than 1% of supply. Could it be different this time? It could. Momentum is building for action even in industries like aviation, which are particularly reliant on burning fossil fuels, because powering planes solely with batteries, especially for long-haul flights, is tricky. But there’s a twist: Depending on the type of alternative fuel, using billions of gallons of it could hurt, not help, the climate. Scientists’ concerns center on the complicated calculations that go into assessing the true climate-friendliness of biofuels, a major subset of sustainable fuels. Growing crops like corn and soy to be made into biofuels can significantly change how land is used, and trigger emissions increases — for example, if forests are cut down or grassland is dug up to make way for those crops. Story has more.<br/>
Airplanes are designed to go up after takeoff, but that’s not what happened to Lion Air Flight 610 when it left Jakarta, Indonesia, in October 2018. “You don’t see planes diving on departure,” one Indonesian aviation expert said. And yet the Boeing 737 Max jet, piloted by an experienced crew, went into an irrecoverable nosedive minutes after takeoff. All 189 people on board were killed when it crashed into the Java Sea. Four months later, 157 people died when another 737 Max, operated as Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, plummeted to the earth, ringing new alarms about the aircraft. Days later, the jet was grounded. “Boeing’s Fatal Flaw,” a new documentary by Frontline, featuring reporting by The New York Times, investigates the causes of the two crashes and how a software system that was supposed to make the plane safer played a role in the catastrophes. The Boeing 737 Max began as a success story: The plane was the company’s best selling jet ever, with hundreds of billions of dollars in advance orders from airlines around the world. But a NYT investigation shows that, early on, the tale had all the elements of a tragedy in the making. Story has link to documentary and more background.<br/>