Aer Lingus will restart flights from Dublin to Orlando, Florida from Saturday on the back of eased United States travel curbs. The airline said on Thursday that it would fly three times a-week to the destination, popular with holidaymakers, over the run up to Christmas. Bill Byrne, executive vice-president US, Aer Lingus, dubbed the news “an important step” in the resumption of the Irish carrier’s services. “We are excited to welcome guests back on board over the Thanksgiving holiday period,” he said. Passengers will need valid Covid vaccination certificates, proof of negative tests and other documents to fly. Aer Lingus is advising those travelling to the US to download the Verifly app to their mobile phones and upload the various Covid documents to check-in online. Otherwise they will have to bring the documents with them and check in at the airline’s airport desks. The carrier also says that passengers should arrive at the airport three hours before US flights.<br/>
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Easyjet has suspended all flights between France and Morocco until December due to new Covid-related entry restrictions in Morocco, French daily Le Figaro reported on Thursday, quoting the company. The paper reported that under new rules published Nov. 21, all passengers - unless they are Moroccan or foreign residents in Morocco - who are tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival would have to return to where they came from on the airline’s expense. Easyjet was not immediately available for comment.<br/>
Ukraine signed an outline deal for a mix of single-aisle and wide-body jetliners from Airbus SE as part of the government’s plan to establish a new airline. The memorandum of understanding concerns cooperation on the creation of a national carrier, including the acquisition of aircraft, the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a statement Thursday. The accord covers the purchase or lease of 18 narrow-body jets, comprising six A220s and 12 A320-family planes, together with four bigger A330 or A350 twin-aisle aircraft used on longer routes, the Interfax news service said. The pact could extend to collaboration between Airbus and Ukraine’s aerospace industry. Ukraine is pressing ahead with moves to found a state airline after Zelenskiy said the country was too reliant on private carriers in repatriating citizens at the start of the coronavirus crisis. The new operator would compete with Ukraine International Airlines, which is owned by billionaire Igor Kolomoisky and operates a fleet dominated by Boeing Co. models. Kimon Sotiropoulos, Airbus’s sales chief for central Europe, said flying from scratch with new technology means the airline will start with a low carbon footprint. The manufacturer declined to comment further on the deal.<br/>
Air Baltic has announced a codeshare with Emirates as it seeks to leverage the connectivity advantages of switching its UAE services from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. The codeshare arrangement – announced on 25 November – follows Air Baltic’s launch of four-times-weekly Dubai services in late September. That marked the end of its pre-Covid codeshare relationship with Etihad Airways, under which it had flown into Abu Dhabi with a focus on winter-only leisure travel from October 2017 until the start of the pandemic. Air Baltic CE Martin Gauss explained that “the key to this route, of course, is the connectivity provided from Dubai”, with the carrier intending “to fly this also through the summer, which would be new”. That means “we have set it up in a different way” to Air Baltic’s Abu Dhabi flights, Gauss said, with connecting passengers and leisure travellers targeted, rather than mainly the latter. Dubai is “more attractive” when it comes to its hub function and the “key points where the Baltic passengers need to go”, Gauss stated, thanks to its “onward connectivity, transit times and available frequencies”. For leisure travellers intending to holiday in the UAE, “it doesn’t matter whether they land in Dubai or Abu Dhabi”, he added.<br/>