A study conducted earlier this year shows there may be a way to reduce the number of Covid infections on board commercial airplanes to virtually zero. Results of the study appeared in a peer-reviewed article published on Sept. 1 in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings medical journal. The article — a joint effort by Mayo Clinic, the Georgia Department of Public Health and Delta — showed that that one PCR test performed within 72 hours of flying decreased the rate of infected travelers onboard to 0.05%. That’s five people for every 10,000 passengers. At the time of the study, the rate of infection in the US was 1.1% — or about 1 in every 100 people. The findings analyzed data from Delta’s preflight testing program which ran from December 2020 to May 2021. Here’s how Delta’s testing program worked: Passengers on select flights from New York City and Atlanta could fly to Italy, without having to quarantine upon arriving, if they tested negative for Covid-19 via a PCR test within 72 hours before the flight, a rapid antigen test prior to departure, and a rapid antigen test upon landing. Of the 9,853 people who tested negative via the PCR test, four tested positive at the airport via rapid antigen tests. The diagnoses were confirmed via a rapid molecular test, and these people were not allowed to fly. Of the passengers who flew to Italy, one tested positive upon landing. This translates to one case detection per 1,970 travelers “during a time of high prevalence of active infection in the United States,” according to the article. “That’s a pretty darn low number,” said Dr. Aaron J. Tande, the lead author of the article and an infectious disease specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Story has more.<br/>
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An Air France-KLM flight returned to Beijing shortly after takeoff on Saturday after smoke filled the cabin, the airline said. The Boeing 777 connecting Beijing Airport with Paris-Charles de Gaulle suffered a technical failure linked to overpressure in one of the air conditioning pipes, which spread residue and dust in the cabin, the airline said. It landed normally at 4:03 a.m. local time, the statement said. No injuries were reported. The passengers will be rerouted to Paris later Saturday on board another Boeing 777. Maintenance will be carried out on the aircraft before it is returned to service, the airline said.<br/>
Administrators for Alitalia will tomorrow launch a tender for the Italian carrier’s brand, having set the price at E290m to participate. Alitalia has been in administration since May 2017, and Italy is in the process of winding down the carrier, in its place launching a new national operator, Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA), The latter will launch flights from 15 October, while Alitalia has stopped selling tickets for travel beyond that date. In clearing ITA to launch without being liable for €900 million in illegal state aid that it has ruled Alitalia must repay, European competition regulators made it a condition that the Alitalia brand be sold in an ”open, transparent, non-discriminatory and unconditional tender to the highest bidder”. Details of the tender were disclosed by Alitalia’s administrators today. It will formally open the tender for the Alitalia brand, which it describes as ”one of the most-significant assets of the entire operation”, on 18 September. It has set a criteria for bidders to hold an air transport operating licence or air operator’s certificate to take part in the tender. It says only binding offers for E290m or more submitted by 4 October will be considered for the second stage of the process. <br/>
China Eastern Airlines hopes to place up to 50 aircraft at its newly-established base on Hainan island, as part of broader plans to grow its presence at the up-and-coming free trade hub. The announcement comes as the carrier officially launched its Hainan operational unit — known as China Eastern Airlines Hainan — aimed at “effectively integrating” the island into the airline’s broader network. While it did not state what aircraft it was intending to base at Haikou and Sanya — Hainan’s two largest cities — it says it will “continue to increase investment in…capacity into Hainan and continuously optimise its route network”. China Eastern also did not elaborate if the latest announcement was referring to its mainline operations, or that of Sanya International Airlines, the newly-set-up unit based at Sanya. The carrier in June 2020 inked a cooperation framework agreement with four partners to establish a Sanya International.<br/>