Global airlines are bracing for more volatility due to the Omicron coronavirus variant that could force them to juggle schedules and destinations at short notice and rely more on domestic markets where possible, analysts say. Many travellers have already booked trips for the Christmas period, a peak season for airlines, but since news of the variant last week, there are growing industry concerns over a pause in future bookings and further delays to the already slow recovery in business travel. On Wednesday, United CEO Scott Kirby said the new variant will have a near-term impact on bookings. Fitch Ratings has lowered its global passenger traffic forecasts for 2021 and 2022, saying the emergence of new variants like Omicron highlight the likelihood that conditions would remain volatile for airlines. "It feels a little bit like we are back to where we were a year ago and that's not a great prospect for the industry and beyond," Deirdre Fulton, a partner at consultancy MIDAS Aviation, said at an industry webinar. The ICAO called for a "more measured and evidence-based" response, saying "the costs of significantly restricted global air mobility affect all countries". Airlines have been blaming a lack of consistent and stable health protocols as well as border restrictions for depressed international travel demand. <br/>
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Federal health officials have directed airlines to provide the CDC with the names and contact information of all passengers who boarded flights bound for the United States since Nov. 29 and who had been in southern Africa during the prior two weeks. The directive, issued Wednesday, applies to passengers who spent time in Botswana, the Kingdoms of Eswatini and Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa in the two weeks before flying to the United States. The airlines were directed to provide their names, addresses while in the United States, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth and flight information, including seat numbers. “CDC is issuing this directive to prevent the importation and spread of a communicable disease of public health importance,” a statement from the agency said, an apparent reference to the new Omicron variant of the virus that causes Covid. Last week, the White House announced a ban on travel from eight countries in southern Africa. And late Tuesday night, the CDC said it planned to toughen virus testing and screening of people flying to the United States by requiring all international passengers to provide a negative result from a test taken within 24 hours of departure. The new directive was issued under an Oct. 25 order that instructed airlines and aircraft operators to collect specific information from all passengers before boarding, retain the information for 30 days, and transmit it to CDC within 24 hours if requested to do so.<br/>
The Omicron coronavirus variant was reported in the United States for the first time on Wednesday in a traveler who had been in South Africa, as scientists around the world study whether the variant is more transmissible or virulent than its predecessors. The patient, a resident of San Francisco, is in isolation, and aggressive contact tracing is underway, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement. The person was fully vaccinated, though without a booster shot, and was displaying mild symptoms that were improving, the agency said. The discovery prompted the Biden administration to renew calls for everyone to get fully vaccinated and, if eligible, receive a booster. California health officials said the state was increasing coronavirus testing at airports, focusing on arrivals from countries identified by the CDC as potential sources of the variant. Gov. Gavin Newsom said that California would not be intensifying public health restrictions, at least in the short term, but that “we should assume that it’s in other states as well.” On Thursday, President Biden is expected to announce ways the government will ramp up its fight against the virus during the winter months, including tougher international travel restrictions and efforts to accelerate vaccine and booster availability.<br/>
President Joe Biden’s administration will extend requirements for travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and train stations through mid-March, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters, amid concerns about a new Covid-19 variant. A formal announcement extending the requirements through March 18 is expected on Thursday, the sources said. The White House and the TSA declined to comment. The TSA in August extended the transportation mask order through Jan. 18. Biden plans to discuss the US strategy for fighting Covid-19 this winter on Thursday and the transit mask extension is expected to be part of his remarks. The White House also plans to announce stricter testing rules for international visitors. The CDC confirmed late on Tuesday it is working to impose stricter Covid-19 testing rules for air travelers entering the United States amid concerns about the Omicron variant. The current CDC order, which has been in place since soon after Biden took office in January, requires masks to be worn by all travelers on airplanes, ships, trains, subways, buses, taxis and ride-shares and at transportation hubs such as airports, bus or ferry terminals, train and subway stations, and seaports.<br/>
The European Union recommended Wednesday that member states review essential travel restrictions on a daily basis and coordinate their actions in response to the omicron variant. The daily assessment is needed to determine whether the temporary restrictions need to be applied to additional countries, as well as what kind of testing or quarantine of essential travelers is required, according to an EU official. The aim is to adapt the measures, or lift them as more evidence becomes available, the official added. A group representing the airline industry said it hoped the European Commission’s approach would counter the divergent response it’s seen so far from European governments when it comes to travel rules and the omicron variant. “We welcome the commission’s continued efforts to coordinate member states’ strategy to limit the spread of the omicron variant,” Agnes Leroux, the policy director for Airlines for Europe (A4E) said in a statement. “With further scientific updates expected in the coming days on the severity of infection linked to omicron, reviewing measures on a daily basis is a good approach in order to amend travel restrictions as needed.” EU nations have implemented restrictions on travel to southern Africa and some have added in additional testing requirements.<br/>
Airline customers are waiting longer to purchase tickets, making it harder for carriers in Europe to gauge near-term demand in light of new travel barriers. Rapid rule changes have led passengers to spend more time assessing whether a trip will be allowed, Wizz Air Holdings Plc President Robert Carey said Wednesday. The trend, which took hold earlier in the Covid-19 pandemic, has been heightened by the emergence of the omicron variant over the past week, according to Carey and EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren. “Customers are booking closer and closer in,” Carey said Wednesday. “Every week it feels like it gets one day closer to departure.” EasyJet and others said they’re seeing a softening of demand through year-end, throwing a steady travel recovery before omicron into question. U.K. searches for international flights dropped by more than a quarter last weekend after Covid testing requirements were toughened, according to travel site Kayak. “The latest round of government restrictions across the world have been uncoordinated and inconsistent, and that’s made Christmas travel more complicated for both airlines and passengers,” said former British Airways CEO Alex Cruz. While carriers “can quickly adapt to knee-jerk reactions, it is still a blow to the recovery which was just getting underway.”<br/>
Oman’s government has initialed a comprehensive air transport pact with the European Union, aiming for a five-year implementation which will eventually lead to a full ‘open skies’ arrangement. The Middle Eastern sultanate has bilateral third- and fourth-freedom rights with a number of EU countries – among them France, Germany and Italy – but is keen to liberalise its air transport accords with the region. Under the new agreement, negotiated over two years, Oman Air and SalamAir will be able to increase frequencies and expand their European networks, while EU carriers will be able to operate to all Omani airports. “Greater economic development through increased air traffic is just one of many benefits of an open skies agreement,” says Oman Civil Aviation Authority president Naif Bin Ali Al Abri. “We are extremely confident that the inherent opportunities for tourism and an entire eco-system of interconnected industries will flourish.”<br/>
Airline passengers arriving to Denmark from Doha or Dubai must take a mandatory COVID-19 test, a move aimed at delaying the spread of the new Omicron variant, Danish health minister Magnus Heunicke said on Wednesday. “People who land from Dubai and Doha must have a test before they leave the airport,” Heunicke told a news briefing.<br/>
Nigeria on Wednesday confirmed its first cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in air passenger arrivals, but amended an earlier statement to say the travellers had arrived in Nigeria only over the past week. Initially, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said that retrospective sequencing of previously confirmed COVID cases among travellers to Nigeria had identified the Omicron variant among a sample collected in October. An amended statement from the NCDC did not mention the October sample and a spokesman said that sample contained the Delta variant, not Omicron. First reported in southern Africa a week ago, Omicron has highlighted the disparity between massive vaccination programs in rich nations and sparse inoculation in the developing world. The NCDC said Omicron was detected in "three persons with a history of travel to South Africa".<br/>
Ghana's health ministry detected the country's first cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant on passengers who arrived at Accra international airport following sequencing carried out on Nov. 21, the head of the Ghana Health Service said on Wednesday. Officials have so far declined to specify how many positive cases were detected when the samples were sequenced on Nov. 21. Health Service director general Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said that the case originated from Nigeria and South Africa. "The good thing is that among the community tests we've done so far, we haven't seen any Omicron within the community of Ghana," Kuma-Aboagye said during a vaccination awareness event on Wednesday. "The danger is if someone has Omicron and is incubating, it would not be found at the airport, so we still have to be extremely careful," he added.<br/>
Heathrow has reopened a terminal dedicated to processing passengers flying into London from countries on the UK’s Covid red list. Britain’s biggest airport has again turned Terminal 4 into a red-list facility to separate travellers from high-risk destinations amid concerns over the newly identified Omicron Covid variant. The government reactivated its red list last week with 10 countries from southern Africa now included, meaning passengers coming from those locations must go into officially managed hotel quarantine for 11 nights. The west London airport ran a separate arrivals terminal, which was initially T3 and later T4, for red-list travel between June and the start of November, before travel restrictions were briefly relaxed. T4 was then mothballed until its reopening on Wednesday to process red-list flights. The move was prompted by concerns over passengers from different destinations mixing, especially with long waits at border control as volumes of passengers rise, carrying increased documentation. Tougher travel rules have been reintroduced by the government since the discovery of the Omicron variant, including the requirement for fully vaccinated people entering the UK to self-isolate until they receive a negative result from a PCR test. The move has punctured optimism in the travel sector, with demand having been briefly rekindled when restrictions were eased to allow returning vaccinated travellers to use cheaper lateral flow tests without self-isolation until any positive test results. Heathrow‘s COO, Emma Gilthorpe, said: “We are supportive of measures that protect public health and prevent the spread of Covid. The rapid introduction of restrictions for international travel will nonetheless be a further significant blow for British exporters and those wanting to visit friends and relatives. Keeping the changes under constant review, and a government commitment to the removal of red-list countries as soon as it is safe to do so, will help.”<br/>
The Japanese government said Thursday it has withdrawn its request for airlines to completely stop taking reservations for inbound international flights this month in the wake of criticism the measure against the omicron variant of the coronavirus goes too far. PM Fumio Kishida admitted the transport ministry's announcement the previous day had caused public confusion, telling reporters he instructed officials to "adequately take into account" people's wishes to travel home. Under the measure, Japanese citizens and foreign residents would not have been able to return until next year unless they already had reservations. The government's top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, told a press conference the ministry has withdrawn the request. Following the move, ANA and JAL said that they are preparing to take some new reservations for Japan-bound flights. Wednesday's request to airlines had come as Japan also lowered its daily cap for people arriving from overseas to 3,500 from 5,000. Kishida has moved swiftly to prevent the omicron variant from entering Japan, banning new entries of foreigners and beefing up quarantine rules on Japanese citizens and foreign residents returning from countries feared to have outbreaks, including South Africa, which first reported the discovery of the strain last week. But the measures have also been criticized as going too far or for being discriminatory. The WHO has urged countries not to impose blanket travel bans, saying they are ineffective in preventing the coronavirus from spreading and place a heavy burden on people's lives.<br/>
Vietnam will suspend flights to and from seven African countries over concerns about the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, state media reported on Wednesday. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has approved the suspension, Lao Dong Newspaper reported, without saying when the move will come into effect. The health ministry on Sunday asked relevant authorities to suspend all flights to and from these countries, including South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho and Mozambique. First reported in southern Africa a week ago, Omicron has spread to more than a dozen countries, spooking financial markets. Governments have responded by reintroducing some travel restrictions. Vietnam has not detected any cases of Omicron, but is seeing a steady rise in daily infections in a Delta-driven outbreak. <br/>
Airbus and Boeing will launch all-new successors to their best-selling single-aisle jets powered by hydrogen from around the middle of next decade, the head of a U.S. company that champions the fuel told Reuters. The prediction by Paul Eremenko, chief executive of Universal Hydrogen, counters assertions by Boeing that it is too early to think about hydrogen for a future 737 successor, while Airbus strongly backs hydrogen but initially for smaller planes. Eremenko, who spoke as part of the Reuters Next conference, is a former chief technology officer for Airbus and United Technologies, now part of Raytheon Technologies (RTX.N). He co-founded Universal Hydrogen last year with plans to speed up the introduction of hydrogen, initially for 40-60-seat regional airplanes, based on fuel cells. But Eremenko has also set his sights on breaking in to the busiest part of the aviation market, the 150-seat-plus single-aisles dominated by the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320neo. "I think there will be a new airplane in that class from both aircraft manufacturers probably around the mid-2030s, which means they would need to make a decision on that by the late 2020s," Eremenko said. "We want to make sure that the decision is to make that a hydrogen airplane."<br/>
Engine maker Pratt & Whitney is set to announce an improved version of its geared turbofan engine used by Airbus’ strong-selling A320neo jet family, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The update of Pratt’s GTF engine will boost fuel efficiency by 1% and deliver 4% higher thrust when it starts to roll out in 2024. Pratt, owned by Raytheon Technologies Corp, is banking on the combination of improvements to help win orders, with the higher thrust an advantage for Airbus’ long-range narrow-body jet, the A321XLR. The XLR is expected to enter service in 2023. The 1% improvement is a slender increase, but airlines are eager for any savings at a time of stressed balance sheets and oil prices, which had been creeping up until the recent spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. The first update of the GTF engine since its introduction in 2016 is expected to be announced by Pratt on Thursday at a media event. Pratt declined comment on the update, which already has been quietly marketed to certain airlines, said the sources, who spoke anonymously to discuss the matter ahead of the event. Pratt faces rival CFM International, co-owned by France’s Safran, and US-based General Electric, whose engines power almost 60% of the A320 program’s ordered jets. The upgrade comes as airlines are under pressure to slash emissions with engine makers eying longer-term advances like hybrid-electric propulsion to improve fuel efficiency. CFM has unveiled plans to test-build an open-bladed jet engine able to reduce fuel use and emissions by 20%. The “RISE” engine, could enter service by the mid-2030s.<br/>
A consortium of Turkey's TAV Airports and Germany's Fraport (FRAG.DE) made the best bid of E7.25b in a tender for the expansion of Antalya Airport's capacity and its operating rights for 25 years, they said on Wednesday. The statement said they would invest some 765 million euros in expanding the capacity of the airport, in Turkey's tourism hub on its southern coast, to 80 million passengers a year. Shares in TAV surged 9.7% after the announcement.<br/>