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The US TSA said Thursday it has recently ramped up proposed fines for travelers failing to wear masks at airports and in other transit modes. The TSA said it has proposed $85,990 fines for 190 mask violators through Monday after more than 5,000 reported incidents since February 2 and issued warnings to more than 2,200. On Monday, two US lawmakers in the House of Representatives disclosed TSA had issued just $2,350 in total fines to 10 passengers through mid-September, despite thousands of reports of airport travelers failing to comply. House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson and Bonnie Watson Coleman, who chairs the House transportation subcommittee, said despite 4,102 reports of mask-related incidents TSA had issued just 10 fines through Sept. 13. "We urge you to implement these enhanced penalties to curb the rising number of mask-related disruptive passenger incidents," the lawmakers wrote. The TSA said Thursday it has "taken steps to make enforcement and compliance more meaningful, including by increasing the penalties, reducing the processing time from receipt of incident reports to the issuance of enforcement actions and frequent and routine interaction with air carriers to improve incident reporting."<br/>

A trade group representing major US passenger and cargo carriers has asked the State Department to "act urgently" to address the needs of airlines to secure rights to overfly Russian airspace, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Airlines for America in an Oct. 14 letter asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his intervention, warning that without action they could be forced to halt some flights. "Many US airlines urgently need additional rights to overfly Russian airspace to meet market demands," the letter said, adding without additional rights "US airlines will be forced to operate on alternate, inefficient routes resulting in time penalties, technical stops, excess CO2 emissions and loss of historic slot rights." The Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. The airline group did not comment. The State Department confirmed it received the letter and said "Russia approved US carriers’ applications for overflights last week. The Department of State continues to engage with the relevant Russian authorities to secure expanded air services opportunities for US carriers." Sources said the US government has held extensive interagency discussions on the issue.<br/>

The UK removed all seven remaining countries from its Covid-19 red list, effectively ending a mandatory hotel quarantine requirement for any arriving travelers. The highest-risk category will remain notionally in place to protect public health, and UK officials are prepared to add countries back if necessary, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Thursday on Twitter. The seven countries -- Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Haiti, Panama, Ecuador and Peru -- will be removed on Nov. 1. The UK will also recognize vaccine certification from over 30 more countries and territories. Hotel quarantine measures were first set in place in February as the UK sought to slow the import of new coronavirus variants after an outbreak last winter. The changes to the red list will give people confidence to book trips, said Karen Dee, the chief executive officer of the Airport Operators Association. Accepting vaccination certification from more countries is a vital step toward restarting tourism to the UK, she said. The UK will now accept vaccination certificates from countries including Peru and Uganda, expanding the total to over 135, Shapps said. The nation was earlier criticized for its refusal to recognize vaccine certifications issued in a number of nations. The 10-day stay at government-selected lodgings was required for all arrivals from red-list countries, regardless of vaccination status. As of Sept. 29, 203,360 people had gone through hotel isolation, which currently costs 2,285 pounds ($3,153) per person. <br/>

Rishi Sunak has defended cutting domestic flight taxes in the run-up to next week’s Cop26 summit, after being accused of going “headlong in the wrong direction” about tackling climate emergency at a pivotal point for Britain. Labour said it was an “astonishing” announcement from the chancellor in Wednesday’s budget, given the UK government will urge many world leaders, set to arrive in Scotland within days, to speed up decarbonisation plans in their own countries. Sunak halved the tax on domestic flights, which are already far cheaper and more polluting than train journeys. Air passenger duty was increased by GBP4 on “ultra-long” flights of more than 5,550 miles, from GBP87 to GBP91. Overall, the changes were a tax giveaway of GBP30m a year. After criticism from environmental groups, the chancellor batted away claims it could lead to 400,000 more domestic flights every year. “What we’re doing on air-passenger duty is going back to a system we used to have, which means we don’t essentially double-tax people for flying inside the UK – so in that sense it’s a pro-union policy,” Sunak said. He said the new ultra long-haul band was fair because it meant “the further you’re flying, the more emissions, then you will pay a higher rate”. Sunak was asked why he did not simply increase the levy for longer haul flights and leave domestic air-passenger duty at its current level, instead of cutting it significantly. “We could have done, but we wanted to deliver on a previous commitment to reform air-passenger duty to return to the system that we used to have so people flying within the UK are not taxed twice, which we never thought was right,” the chancellor said.<br/>

From engineers to pilots, Thailand's aviation industry is gearing up for a grand reopening on Monday when the tourism-reliant country will welcome vaccinated arrivals without quarantine, ending nearly 19 months of strict entry rules. "It's something everybody's waiting for," said Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, president of the Thai airline association, which has seven members, including Thai Smile Airways, Thai AirAsia, and Thai VietJet Air. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announced this month that vaccinated arrivals from 46 countries would be allowed entry without quarantine from November. Airlines have responded quickly, bringing back jets from hibernation, or long-term parking, where they have been kept with their engines covered for protection and systems wound down. "It is in our DNA, it's easy to come back and reinstate," said Thai AirAsia Head of Engineering Banyat Hansakul, referring to the routine of preparing the planes. "It's like riding a bicycle." Already, Thai AirAsia had been using 10 jets from its fleet of 60, while Bangkok Airways (BA.BK) was flying 13 planes of a total 38, mostly for domestic travel after a pilot project that reopened Phuket and Samui islands in July. Both airlines expect to use more planes in the months ahead anticipating greater travel with passengers from neighbouring Cambodia, Singapore and Malaysia as restrictions ease. Thai Airways International has rolled out a winter schedule with Bangkok routes to London, Munich, Sydney and Tokyo.<br/>

Most international airlines who fly into Australia are likely to accept only vaccinated passengers, with larger carriers now considering whether it is logistically and commercially viable to sell tickets to unvaccinated travellers. Some carriers have had their allocation of unvaccinated passengers capped at zero. From Monday, when New South Wales and Victoria reopen for international travel and quarantine-free arrival for fully vaccinated Australians, the states will drastically scale back their hotel quarantine capacities for unvaccinated passengers. NSW will accept 210 unvaccinated passengers a week, and Victoria 250. Airlines have announced tens of thousands of extra seats on new services into Australia since the states announced an end to quarantine, but many carriers are yet to decide how or if they will comply with the new rules for unvaccinated passengers. It is understood that the new unvaccinated passenger caps will be managed in a similar way to the broader passenger cap system that has been in place since July 2020, in which states set their own hotel quarantine limits, and the commonwealth – which is responsible for international border management – communicates passenger allowances to individual airlines for each service. Some airlines have been given unvaccinated passenger caps of zero.<br/>

Airbus overcame new snags in its global supply chain to maintain a widely watched forecast for 600 jet deliveries this year, pushing its shares higher despite signs of labour shortages as the economy exits COVID-19 “hibernation”. The world’s largest planemaker lifted full-year profit and cash targets after profits held up better than expected in the third quarter, and refused to bow to industry critics who have questioned its bullish forecasts for jet production. Airbus shares opened up around 3%, ignoring a retreat in global stocks after a series of supply chain warnings, before easing back to stand 1% higher. CE Guillaume Faury said the recovery towards pre-crisis output levels was under way after 15 months in which the European group kept its foot on the brake to avoid adding to a glut of aircraft during the airline industry’s worst crisis. “We observe labour shortages around the world impacting all sectors,” Faury told reporters. “We are now in the ramp-up and we see all the difficulties of going from a sort of hibernation, and back to business in a world where many commodities and sectors are ramping up again.” Airbus said it was facing some problems in receiving parts on time, leading to rework on jets and contributing to a recent flattening of deliveries, but said none appeared systemic. “We think these can be managed in the last months of the year,” Faury said. Analysts said that after years of turmoil in aerospace, with Boeing in particular still facing industrial problems, the decision to maintain deliveries provided a boost. “It’s essentially back to ‘deliver, make profit, repeat,’ said Agency Partners analyst Sash Tusa.<br/>

Travel company TUI Group has successfully completed a capital increase that raised about E1.1b to reduce pandemic-related debt, it said Thursday. TUI said the group’s share capital will increase nominally by around E523.5m to just under E1.623b as a result of the rights issue. It said 97.7% of the subscription rights were exercised with its largest shareholder, the Mordashov family, increasing its stake by around one percentage point to around 33%. The company will use the proceeds to repay part of more than E4b of government loans that it took out to stay afloat after COVID-19 stopped holidays in Europe for much of last year and the beginning of this year. A return of holiday travel within Europe this summer gave TUI the confidence to proceed with an equity raise, which it had said would leave it better placed to take advantage of the recovery.<br/>

Montreal airframer Bombardier lost $377m in Q3 2021 but saw a 17% bump in business jet revenue amid surging demand for private aircraft. The company reported its results for the quarter on 28 October. It says it made significant progress in clearing its debt obligations for the next several years. The $377m Q3 loss compares to a $192m profit in the same period of 2020. But in January Bombardier divested its train business for proceeds valued at $6.3b, leaving it purely a business jet manufacturer. Revenue for the period stood at $1.4b, 17% higher than revenue from Bombardier’s business jet operation in the same period of 2020. Revenue from aircraft services also jumped 33% year on year to $310m. “This is mainly due to increased fleet flight hours having now surpassed 2019 levels, a clear signal that the industry is on a strong recovery path from the global shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Bombardier says. “Confidence levels within the industry are at a new all-time high, indicative of the rising vaccination levels and eased travel restrictions.”<br/>