From offering premium pay to hefty signing bonuses or poaching workers from other airlines, American carriers are scrambling to ramp up staffing for the holiday season and prevent disruptions that marred air travel this summer. After reducing headcount by thousands during the depths of the pandemic, the industry is grappling with shortages of pilots, flight attendants and customer service agents. Critics say the staff crunch is of the airline industry's own making as the deep job cuts last year, despite an infusion of $54b in federal aid to help cover payroll expenses, left it ill-equipped to handle the snapback in air travel. Airlines have said the bailouts saved thousands of jobs, prevented bankruptcy and put them in a position to support the economy's recovery from the pandemic. A Delta Air Lines spokesperson said the company had no furloughs or job losses related to the pandemic. However, the company did have about 18,000 staff departures last year in the form of retirements or voluntary separations. With willing workers in short supply across the United States and companies frantically vying for them, carriers are being forced to spend more to attract talent. "The reality is that the hiring environment has changed as a result of the pandemic," American Airlines' COO, David Seymour, told employees in a memo this month. Piedmont Airlines, American's subsidiary, is trying to lure pilots with a $180,000 bonus offer. United Airlines is offering a $5,000 signing bonus for a ramp agent position in Boston. Spirit Airlines (SAVE.N) has bumped up wages for its ramp agents by 30%. The ultra-low-cost carrier is offering a one-time graduation bonus of $1,250 and up to $4,500 a year in tuition reimbursement to flight attendants. <br/>
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The EU has published a draft law that would blacklist airlines and travel operators that fly people to countries on its borders as part of attempts to destabilise the bloc, in its latest response to the crisis at the Poland-Belarus border. The proposal does not specifically mention Belarus, whose authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, is accused of engineering the arrival of thousands of people at the Polish border, where a desperate humanitarian situation has played out in recent weeks. Companies could be banned from flying through the EU and landing and refuelling at EU airports, regardless of whether their involvement in attempts at destabilisation was intentional or not. The proposal closes a gap in EU sanctions laws, which are country-specific. The EU recently agreed to extend sanctions against Belarus, but it can only target Belarusian companies rather than foreign airlines involved in bringing people to Minsk from the Middle East. Ylva Johansson, the EU home affairs commissioner, said the law was needed in response to an unprecedented situation. She said Lukashenko was “trying to sell tickets to the EU”, charging people E10,000-20,000 for a one-way trip to Minsk and onward travel to the EU border. “We see the need to reach out directly to those travel companies which – unintentionally, most of the time – are being part of a state-sponsored smuggling scheme orchestrated by a desperate and non-democratic regime,” Johansson said. EC officials believe much of the value of the law lies in the power to deter companies from getting involved in such schemes. “Hopefully we don’t need to use it,” Johansson said, adding that it had taken airline companies “some time to understand how they are being used”. Story has more.<br/>
Earlier this month, UK climate activists demonstrated against the planned expansion of 10 airports in what was the largest anti-airport protest in British history. The UK government had recently rejected one of its own agencies’ scientific advice, which said that expanding airports in London, Glasgow, Southampton and elsewhere would conflict with the government’s net-zero climate goals. In the report, titled “Net Zero: Principles for Successful Behaviour Change Initiatives,” the agency recommended reducing demand for high-carbon activities such as air transport. UK protesters aren’t alone. Over the past couple of decades, there’s been a worldwide increase in local anti-airport movements, motivated both by global climate concerns and by local worries about issues such as water pollution and displacing poor or minority communities. They’re likely to continue. Here’s why. In April, British PM Boris Johnson’s government enacted the world’s most ambitious climate-change targets, adding to laws passed since 2019 committing the country to net-zero emissions by 2050. But the government was also pursuing goals at odds with the net-zero targets, including plans to expand airports. In October, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy posted on its website a document detailing the government’s Net Zero Strategy alongside a report of the Behavioural Insights Team, a government research unit, recommending curbing such expansion and aviation subsidies. Climate activist groups such as AirportWatch and local anti-airport groups such as the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise attacked the expansion plans. These groups have opposed airport expansion not only because “the Climate Crisis means we must all fly less,” as one group of activists put it, but also because larger airports generate more air, water and noise pollution at the local level. To dampen the criticism, the government deleted the document from its website within a few hours. That prompted the protests. Story has more.<br/>
China's civil aviation authorities will introduce comprehensive measures to facilitate further recovery of the industry. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said it will strive to boost sustainable and stable recovery of the sector with a key focus on COVID-19 prevention and control and the industry's safe operation. Civil aviation authorities will roll out policies and support measures to ensure priority tasks such as safe operation, pandemic prevention and control, exploring market potentials, enhancing the efficiency of resource allocation, operation support capabilities, among others. In order to further boost the market vitality, the CAAC encourages airlines, airports and other industry operators to introduce differentiated and tailored service products to meet diverse demands from customers. According to the CAAC, it will also adjust policies on air routes, flights, airports and resources involving key personnel to improve the efficiency of resource allocation. <br/>