For months, airline travel has been steadily rebounding, and Sunday was the busiest travel day at US airports since February 2020. But the discovery of the Omicron coronavirus variant threatens to derail the industry’s recovery, as the Delta variant did this summer. Several nations, including the United States, have barred visitors from South Africa and a handful of neighboring countries. Japan, Morocco and Israel have barred all incoming foreign visitors, while the Philippines has banned visitors from southern Africa and several European countries. The tightening of restrictions has drawn criticism from the travel sector. In a statement last week, Willie Walsh, the head of the IATA, called for “safe alternatives to border closures and quarantine.” Over the weekend, the US Travel Association urged the Biden administration to rethink its ban. “Covid variants are of concern, but closed borders have not prevented their presence in the United States while vaccinations have proven incredibly durable,” Tori Emerson Barnes, executive vice president for public affairs and policy, said in a statement. “With a vaccine and testing requirement in place to enter the U.S., we continue to believe that assessing an individual’s risk and health status is the best way to welcome qualified global travelers into the United States.” For US airlines, the rebound in international travel has been slower than that for travel within the United States. But President Biden’s decision to ease longstanding restrictions on foreign travelers this month promised to stimulate that recovery. It isn’t yet clear whether or how the Omicron variant will affect travel demand, but if travel bans proliferate and concerns over the variant continue to spread, hopes for an accelerated international rebound could be dashed again.<br/>
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US airlines over Thanksgiving week had some of their busiest days since before the coronavirus was declared a pandemic as travelers returned in droves to reunite with family after a subdued holiday last year. The TSA screened nearly 2.5m people on Sunday, the most since Feb. 15, 2020. That was about 15% below the number of people the TSA screened two years earlier. From Nov. 22 through Sunday 14.4m people passed through TSA, more than double the 6.4m a year ago but down from 16.4m in 2019. Airports, planes and parking lots were packed but travelers and airlines lucked out with mostly good weather and small numbers of cancellations, unlike the mass disruptions that affected hundreds of thousands of passengers during several episodes since this summer. Airlines including Southwest and American had offered flight attendants and other staff extra pay or bonuses for working holiday trips and meeting attendance goals. American, which offered flight attendants up to triple pay for peak-day trips, said it flew 5.6m passengers from Nov. 19 through Sunday. “And while we’re proud of these numbers and what they represent for American and the industry, it’s the way we operated this holiday travel season that is even more impressive,” COO David Seymour said in a staff note on Monday. American flew 1,500 flights a day more than its “major competitors,” he said. It canceled fewer than 0.5% of its mainline and regional flights and 85% were on time, slightly better than the airline’s goal, Seymour wrote. Despite the surge in air travel over the holiday, airlines are now facing a new challenge as more countries report cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, just as international travel was rebounding as more nations loosened travel rules. Airline executives said bookings surged when travel restrictions that barred international tourism from more than 30 countries in the US were lifted on Nov. 8. International travel is key to carriers’ financial recovery from the pandemic.<br/>
A $377m rental car center with room for 4,500 vehicles is scheduled to open at Honolulu’s airport this week. The five-story facility will allow rental car companies to house their operations in the same centrally located, covered airport structure directly across from airline terminals, said Ross Higashi, the deputy director of the state Department of Transportation’s airports division. Higashi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the project will make it easier for car rental companies to control and maintain their inventory. Companies will have room to store, rent, fuel, wash and repair cars. Many customers will be able to walk to the center from the terminals, eliminating the need for rental car companies to run pickup shuttles on a constant loop. A consolidated busing system will transport remaining customers. Higashi said the project was built with revenue from a $4.50 daily fee applied to car rentals. Planning for the facility began in 2012 and construction started in 2016. Gov. David Ige and officials from the department are scheduled to dedicate the center at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on Tuesday. It will open for business on Wednesday.<br/>
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) on Monday urged the government to establish a "winter resilience fund" to support the ailing aviation industry, after some travel curbs were brought back to contain the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. "The latest changes have shattered the fledgling confidence in air travel including for Christmas and new year bookings," said BALPA in a statement. Britain, which has so far reported 11 cases of the variant, has said arrivals from all countries would have to self-isolate until they receive a negative result from a PCR test and that face masks must be worn in retail settings. The government has also added about 10 African countries to the red list over the last few days after Omicron was first detected in South Africa. BALPA also asked the government to enforce restrictions based only on sufficient data. "We call again on government to act with the data and to support a vital UK industry. This includes government funding the expensive PCR tests and actually sequencing traveller's tests so we can have an effective and data driven policy," BALPA said.<br/>
India will make on-arrival COVID-19 testing mandatory for flyers from more than a dozen countries, including South Africa and Britain where the Omicron variant has been detected, the health ministry said on Monday. The decision will be effective from Dec. 1 and comes after a man who recently returned from South Africa tested positive for COVID-19, though it is not yet clear which strain of the coronavirus he contracted. Further investigations are ongoing, an official said. "The patient is currently under observation and is displaying mild symptoms," said Pradeep Awate, a senior health official in Maharashtra state where the man is isolating. "Still, we are monitoring him out of abundant caution." The federal health ministry said all arrivals from Europe, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel will be tested at the airport using the RT-PCR method. Additionally, 5% of all travellers from other countries will be randomly tested, the ministry added. PM Narendra Modi has already asked officials to review a decision to resume all scheduled international flights from Dec. 15. Currently only special flights as per bilateral or other agreements are flying. <br/>
Singapore and Malaysia opened land and air lanes for vaccinated travelers on Monday -- a landmark moment for citizens separated from loved ones but overshadowed by fears of a new coronavirus strain that emerged last week. To mark the occasion, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob made his first official visit to the city-state, with counterpart Lee Hsien Loong welcoming him. Footage on Lee's Facebook page shows the two masked leaders posing in front of a bus. But just as the scheme was getting off the ground, global concerns over the highly mutated but little understood omicron variant prompted officials to adjust. On Sunday, Singapore announced that all travelers would have to take antigen rapid tests on arrival at their own expense, and wait for the results. This appeared to be on top of showing a negative test result from the last 48 hours. The additional testing was ordered "in view of recent reports of a potentially more contagious variant of the COVID-19 virus," authorities said, saying it would allow expansion of the travel program "in a safe and calibrated manner." The "vaccinated travel lane" system includes flights between the city-state and Kuala Lumpur, allowing people with proof of full inoculation against COVID-19 to fly without quarantining. But the opening of the land border under the same initiative has been especially anticipated: Before the pandemic, thousands would make the trip every day across the bridge and causeway that connect the countries. "Malaysia is our closest neighbor and we have an important land link, which has really been, you know, pre-COVID, one of the busiest around the world," Singapore's Transport Minister S. Iswaran said on Friday, noting high "interest and desire" for crossings. Earlier, on Sunday, Singapore had also announced it was deferring plans to establish vaccinated travel lanes with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates due to the new strain. Lee had said his government was tracking omicron "very closely," and that it might force the city-state to "take a few steps back, before we can take more steps forward."<br/>
A dispute between Airbus and Qatar Airways over paint and surface flaws on A350 jets stretches beyond the Gulf, with at least five other airlines raising concerns since the high-tech model entered service, according to documents seen by Reuters and several people with direct knowledge of the matter. Qatar's national carrier has grounded 20 of its 53 A350s, saying it is acting on orders from its local regulator, until reasons for what witnesses describe as the blistered and pock-marked appearance of some of its A350s can be confirmed. Airbus says there is no risk to the A350's safety - a point echoed by the other airlines, which have not grounded any jets and describe the issue as "cosmetic." The planemaker said in response to queries from Reuters there had been some problems with "early surface wear" that in some cases had made visible a sub-layer of mesh designed to absorb lightning, which it is working to fix. Three people with direct knowledge of the situation said that at Qatar Airways and at least one other airline the mesh had in some instances itself developed gaps, leaving the carbon-fibre fuselage exposed to possible weather or other damage. The A350, in service since 2015, is designed with ample protection to resist storms and is deployed around the world with high reliability, Airbus said in an emailed statement. Asked about gaps in the mesh, it said some airlines were subject to higher swings in temperatures than others, apparently referring, for example, to desert conditions in Qatar.<br/>
Airbus needs to accelerate jetliner deliveries in December if it’s to reach a goal of shipping 600 planes this year, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The European manufacturer’s 2021 delivery tally reached 500 aircraft as of Friday, according to the people, who asked not to be named before official numbers are published. That leaves Airbus about 100 short of its target, with five weeks left in the year. An Airbus spokesman declined to comment. While a year-end push is a normal part of Airbus’s operations, supply-chain issues at parts makers struggling to lift shipments after Covid lockdowns have held back output this year. There’s also a risk that the spread of the omicron strain of the virus could prompt airlines to review short-term fleet requirements. Deliveries at Toulouse, France-based Airbus slipped to 36 in October and stood at 40 in each of the previous two months. The total as of Friday suggests a modest rise from those levels is possible for November. Airbus handed over 89 planes in December 2020 with the industry reeling from the spread of the pandemic. In previous two years, the tally for the month was comfortably higher, above 125 planes. Airbus is readying its supply chain for build rates as high as 75 a month for its top-selling A320 single-aisle series by 2025 as it looks to extend its delivery lead over Boeing.<br/>
In-flight emissions tests of an Airbus A350 powered by 100% sustainable aviation fuel indicate that the fuel releases fewer particulates than kerosene, while analysis points to lower density but higher energy content per unit weight. The tests have involved an A350-900 – powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines – chased by a Dassault Falcon 20, from the German DLR aerospace research institute, at in-trail distances down to 100m. Airbus says the A350 conducted three flights over the Mediterranean to measure the emissions of Neste’s sustainable fuel based on hydro-processed esters and fatty acids. “The team also carried out compliance tests using 100% [sustainable fuel] and no operational issues were experienced during these initial test flights,” the airframer adds. Current certification standards only permit a 50% blend of sustainable and conventional fuel. Airbus new energy programme manager Steven Le Moing says: “Engines and fuel systems can be tested on the ground but the only way to gather the full set of emissions data necessary for this programme to be successful is to fly an aircraft in real conditions.” Testing resumed this month with a second series of flight using both 100% sustainable fuel power and a blend of the sustainable fuel mixed with Jet A1. Rolls-Royce says there is “no engineering obstacle” to running its engines on 100% sustainable fuel.<br/>
Three US House Democrats on Monday asked the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide more details of the agency's oversight of Boeing's 737 MAX and questioned whether the planemaker had been held fully accountable. The best-selling, single-aisle airplane, which was grounded for 20 months after two crashes killed 346 people in the space of five months, returned to service in late 2020. The lawmakers, including House Transportation and Infrastructure chairman Peter DeFazio, asked FAA Administrator Steve Dickson in a letter Monday what the agency had done, if anything to hold Boeing employees responsible for various transgressions. It asks for a response by Dec. 13. The letter said these included Boeing's apparent violation of its approved 737 MAX type design, as well as evidence of an internal plan to downplay the significance of a key safety system called MCAS tied to both fatal crashes. An FAA spokeswoman said the agency would respond directly to the committee. Boeing did not immediately comment. The letter said the lawmakers were "deeply troubled by the absence of rigorous accountability for Boeing's past transgressions related to the 737 MAX and the FAA's failure to hold those who violated the public's trust accountable".<br/>