There were moments in the spring and early summer when US airlines saw a chance for domestic leisure air traffic to recover to 2019 levels by the end of this year — and for a significant pickup in both business and international travel. However, thanks to Covid-19's Delta variant, hospitalizations are once again approaching peak pandemic numbers in several parts of the United States, and those hopeful moments have been quashed for now. Even though the Delta variant has inconsistently affected various regions, it has managed to introduce an element of uncertainty that looks to reverse the comeback of business and international travel, and at least stall the growth in the domestic leisure market. After a busy summer season, US leisure travelers began hunkering down again last month, likely because of rising Covid cases. More than two million passed through TSA checkpoints each day for much of June and July, but the volume dropped well below the two million mark in the second half of August and almost every day in September so far. Airlines, meanwhile, are seeing an increase in cancellations and a decline in bookings. Earlier this month, major US carriers warned investors that third-quarter results would not be as upbeat as anticipated, blaming the weakness on a general deceleration in demand connected to the Delta variant and Hurricane Ida. And while children's return to school has always tended to shrink leisure travel demand, the industry would normally expect some of that to be offset by an uptick in domestic and international business travel. That's not happening this year. Story has more. <br/>
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Officials on the Spanish island of La Palma have ordered more evacuations on the sixth consecutive day of eruptions from the Cumbre Vieja volcano. Flights to and from the island have been canceled because of volcanic ash. Emergency services for the Canary Islands ordered the evacuation of two towns, and part of a third town that had not yet been evacuated. Several flights to and from La Palma on Friday afternoon were canceled, according to the website of Spain's airport operator, AENA. Binter airlines, which serves the Canary Islands, tweeted that it had canceled flights to La Palma and to the nearby island of La Gomera due to the volcanic ash. It was the sixth straight day of volcanic eruptions on La Palma, one of the smallest islands in Spain's Canary Islands archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.<br/>
The Taliban government in Afghanistan appealed on Sunday for international flights to be resumed, promising full cooperation with airlines and saying that problems at Kabul airport had been resolved. The statement from the foreign affairs ministry comes as the new administration has stepped up efforts to open up the country and gain international acceptance following the collapse of the Western-backed government last month. A limited number of aid and passenger flights have been operating from the airport. But normal commercial services have yet to resume since it was closed in the wake of the chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of foreigners and vulnerable Afghans that followed the Taliban’s seizure of the capital. The airport, which was damaged during the evacuation, has since been reopened with the assistance of technical teams from Qatar and Turkey. While some airlines including Pakistan International Airlines have been offering limited services and some people have been able to get places on flights, prices have been reported to be many times higher than normal. Foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said the suspension of international flights had left many Afghans stranded abroad and also prevented people from travelling for work or study.<br/>
Hundreds of striking air workers blocked the highway to Rome's main airport on Friday as they called on the government to avoid job losses in the transition between Alitalia and a new carrier dubbed ITA. The protesters sat down in the middle of the road linking Fiumicino airport to the capital as police with shields looked on. The strike action forced Alitalia and other airlines to cancel more than 130 flights, officials said. Demonstrators also brought a fake coffin draped with European flags on a truck and left it in front of the airport, in a complaint against EU constraints on the hiring of Alitalia workers by ITA. Negotiations between ITA - which stands for Italia Trasporto Aereo - and the unions are currently stalled but the new company is set to become operational and replace the old carrier from Oct. 15. Unions say that only 2,800 out of a total of nearly 11,000 employees of Alitalia will be immediately re-hired by ITA and that the labour contract offered by ITA will be less generous than the one of Alitalia. "The government has so far been silent in this negotiation. For us it is essential to safeguard jobs," a unions joint statement said. ITA will initially operate a fleet of 52 planes, seven of which are wide-body, used for longer-haul routes. The number is expected to increase progressively to 105 aircraft in 2025. Between 2,750 and 2,950 Alitalia staff members will be employed in the ITA's aviation unit this year, rising to 5,550-5,700 in 2025.<br/>
Things were looking up for the aviation sector in Asia in the middle of this year. As soon as the number of Covid-19 infections started to stabilise against rising vaccination rates, South Korea announced it would seek to create travel bubbles with other countries in a bid to revive tourism. Airlines and booking sites expected a surge in demand from vaccinated travellers, and duty-free shops prepared to reopen. South Korean officials said the plans could be rolled out as early as July, They were just as eager to see foreign tourist arrivals bounce back to pre-pandemic levels of nearly 3 million a month - up from just 127,090 in June. Budget carrier Jeju Air announced the resumption of flights to Saipan and Guam, both of which were popular destinations for beach vacationers. But all hope for air travel in South Korea was dashed as quickly as it was raised as Covid-19 returned with a vengeance, with a new wave involving the more infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus. The surge in infections came amid a shortage of vaccines. The same scenario was repeated elsewhere in Asia, with air hubs pushing back reopening plans as governments struggled to contain the virus just as things were getting better. Tourist arrivals tumbled to record lows everywhere and only cargo volumes helped lift some air hubs. Reopening, many realised, was not just about reviving flights, but also accepting that there is a trade-off - restoring connectivity comes with the prospect of rising case numbers, although vaccination mitigates the risk of serious infections. Story has more.<br/>
Amsterdam Schiphol airport’s operator is to carry out a bird-control trial which centres on the use of pigs. It will take place on a plot of land, with an area of about 2ha, situated between runways 18R and 18C. This plot was used to harvest sugar beets. But crop residue attracts birds, says the airport operator, and the trial will involve allowing 20 pigs to forage on the land in order to deter bird activity. “In the coming weeks, bird activity in the area with the pigs will be compared to a reference plot without pigs,” it adds. “Success of the project will be measured using a special bird radar, which will map the areas at Schiphol and its surroundings that are frequented most by birds, along with visual observations.”<br/>
Hydrogen’s moment is fast approaching, according to Airbus. Talked about as the fuel of the future for years, Guillaume Faury, the planemaker’s CE, says the company is ready to start building a hydrogen-powered commercial airliner before the end of the decade. Europe’s aerospace champion is increasingly confident that 2035 is a “fair and realistic perspective” for a hydrogen plane to enter service, despite scepticism among other industry leaders about how quickly the gas can make an impact on aviation emissions. “We don’t need to change the laws of physics to go with hydrogen. Hydrogen has an energy density three times that of kerosene — [technically it] is made for aviation,” Faury said. Faury’s comments signal Airbus’s growing confidence that the company will be able to tackle the complex engineering and safety challenges needed to make hydrogen-powered aircraft work. Faury warned, however, that government and regulatory support would be needed. Airbus, said Faury, needed to have a “degree of certainty” of the regulatory environment and the availability of the fuel by 2027/28, when the company will have to decide whether or not to invest billions in a new hydrogen plane programme. “This [decarbonisation] challenge is not only about an aeroplane, it’s about having the right fuels — hydrogen — at the right time, at the right place, at the right price and that is not something that aviation can manage alone,” he said. Faury’s remarks underline the increasing urgency in the aviation industry as it strives to meet zero-emission targets by 2050. <br/>
China's C919 jetliner - a no-show at the country's biggest air show this week – has found it harder to meet certification and production targets amid tough US export rules, according to three people with knowledge of the programme. The state-owned manufacturer, Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC), has been unable to get timely help from suppliers and has run out of some spare parts, those people said. As of December 2020, the US has required special licenses to export parts and technology assistance to any company with ties to the Chinese military. That has thrown a monkey wrench into the C919 programme, which has been in development for 13 years - one of the longest such periods in aviation. US-linked suppliers are gradually receiving the licences, but the hiccup has slowed down Chinese certification, and months-long delays threaten to affect early production, said the people, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. COMAC has 815 provisional orders, but only China Eastern Airlines (600115.SS) placed a firm order for five jets.<br/>