Southwest said Monday that its 56,000-person workforce must be vaccinated against Covid-19 by Dec. 8 to continue working at the airline because of new federal rules, joining other carriers who made similar announcements last week. The Biden administration last month said staff of federal contractors must be vaccinated, unless they are granted a religious or medical exemption. Southwest and other major airlines are federal contractors since they fly government employees, cargo and provide other service, such as flights for Afghanistan evacuees in August. The new federal guidelines for government contractors are stricter than those in President Joe Biden’s plan to increase vaccinations among companies with more than 100 employees by requiring inoculations or regular Covid testing. “Southwest Airlines is a federal contractor and we have no viable choice but to comply with the US government mandate for Employees to be vaccinated, and — like other airlines — we’re taking steps to comply,” Gary Kelly, CEO of the Dallas-based airline, told staff on Monday.<br/>
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Hungarian low cost airline Wizz Air said on Monday its September passenger numbers were 91% higher and it flew 57% more seats compared to the same month last year, when pandemic restrictions were still having a much bigger impact on travel. Wizz said it carried almost 3m passengers in September with its planes flying at about 78.4% full.<br/>
Emirates President Tim Clark and other global airline CEOs expect a full business travel recovery, a bullish outlook that has replaced the bearish views many held just months ago. “I believe business travel will come bouncing back by the end of next year,” Clark said on Monday in one of the most optimistic international business travel recovery outlooks to date. He added that Emirates anticipates “very strong” business demand in 2023 and 2024 as well. Clark’s comments at the IATA Annual General Meeting in Boston carry extra weight as Emirates relies nearly entirely on international travelers, a market that most other executives have said will come back slower than domestic demand due to border restrictions. He did not elaborate on whether certain international business markets would return before others. Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr and United CEO Scott Kirby agreed with Clark’s forecast, especially when looking two- to three-years out.<br/>
The president of Emirates Airline is warning the airline industry to not make carbon-reduction promises it cannot deliver. “People are expecting us… by the end of this decade, to take out 40% of our emissions… We are in la la land if you think we are going to do this,” Tim Clark says on 4 October. He made his comments in Boston on the opening day of IATA’s 2021 World Air Transport Summit. Earlier the same day, at its Annual General Meeting, IATA adopted a resolution calling for the airline industry to achieve “net-zero carbon emissions by 2050”. “If you create the expectation we are going to have electric A380s flying… We have to do something about that,” Clark says, adding that the industry must “bring people back to reality”. Much discussion on the event’s first day involved carbon reduction. Executives at airframers and airlines pledged their support for carbon-cutting goals, saying the world is emerging from the pandemic with renewed dedication to cleaner power. But exactly how the industry intends to achieve such change remains largely unclear. Executives laid out several potential paths – and accompanying hurdles. “Sustainable aviation fuel – that will [be] a step-function change in the very near term,” says Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal. “We have planes… that are already certified for [burning] 50%” sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), adds Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury.<br/>
The Israeli airline will launch the new routes in April 2022. El Al has announced that it will launch direct flights between Tel Aviv and Tokyo's Narita airport and between Tel Aviv and Chicago from April 2022. El Al has planned to inaugurate both routes in 2020 but the plans were put on hold due to the Covid pandemic. According to El Al's website, returns fares on the Tel Aviv - Tokyo route will start from $1,000 for a basic ticket (without baggage). Return fares with up to 23 kilograms baggage, choice of seats and options to change the flight date will cost $1,200. This compared with $1,070 for connection flights on Turkish Airlines via Istanbul or Etihad Airways via Abu Dhabi, which allow up to 30 kilograms baggage.<br/>