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Amid a push by US airlines to get Congress to help jump-start greater production of sustainable aviation fuel, United is slated on Wednesday to fly a jet to Washington that will be partly powered by this product. Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is a key part of major airlines’ strategy for meeting their goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, a transformation the industry estimates will require an enormous financial investment of more than $1.5t. To convert just 10% of the global aviation fuel supply to SAF will require $250b in capital, United CEO Scott Kirby said Tuesday. “We don’t have $250b,” he said. “The whole industry doesn’t have $250b. It needs a government foundation to build the industry. And I am fearful for the economic reality unless there is ultimately some kind of government framework that makes it viable.” For United’s flight Wednesday from its Chicago hub to Reagan National Airport, one of the Boeing 737 Max’s two engines is expected to burn 500 gallons of the new fuel while the other engine will run on traditional jet-grade kerosene. The flight is to carry more than 100 people, including executives from Boeing, GE Aviation, Virent, a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Corp., and aviation reporters. The airline aims for the trip to highlight its campaign for lawmaker action and to demonstrate that sustainable aviation fuel works fine on existing jet engines.<br/>

United CE Scott Kirby believes Omicron – the highly mutated variant of Covid-19 recently discovered in South Africa – will be a short-term setback for airlines, but won’t stop the industry from moving toward full recovery. As coronavirus continues to mutate – and governments and pharmaceutical companies respond with better policies, vaccines and therapeutics – the airline industry’s path toward recovery will be two steps forward and one step back, Kirby says at the Airline Passenger Experience Association Expo on 30 November in Long Beach, California. “The recovery from Covid was never going to be a straight line. We never thought it was,” says Kirby. However, the recovery “continues to trend in the right direction”. The United CE says not enough is known about Omicron yet to predict with certainty its impact on business. “But my guess is, much like Delta, it will cause a short-term decline in demand,” says Kirby. “But the trough will be at a higher level than the trough was after Delta. And the next peak will again be higher. And, we’re going to continue this way.” The industry will likely continue this pattern of recovery and setback until the whole world is vaccinated, he says. In the near term, Omicron will likely reduce demand for international travel due to border restrictions and passenger concern about getting infected. Travel within the USA will likely also be impacted, but less so, Kirby says.<br/>

The first flights from Scotland to the United States are set to resume in early 2022. United Airlines confirmed they would first resume a daily non-stop service from Edinburgh Airport to New York/Newark from 5 March. Further services to Chicago and Washington DC will start from 7 May. Edinburgh Airport's CE Gordon Dewar said the move would allow loved ones to reunite and would "reopen strong tourism destinations". All transatlantic flights from Scotland were halted shortly after Covid-19 began spreading in the UK. Last year United Airlines had planned to reinstate flights between Edinburgh and New York in July but this was postponed. Meanwhile, Air Canada and WestJet flights will resume next year linking Edinburgh with Toronto. Virgin Atlantic also starts its Barbados route next week. Edinburgh Airport continued to have links during the pandemic with Doha in Qatar and Istanbul via Turkish Airlines. Emirates also restarted flights from Dubai to Glasgow Airport.<br/>

Colombian airline Avianca said Wednesday it has successfully completed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, a month after a US court approved its reorganization process. "Today the prior conditions have been completed," the airline said in a statement from Bogota. Avianca "has emerged successfully from said process." Avianca, along with rival Chile's LATAM Airlines, were the two largest carriers in the region before the coronavirus pandemic, but both were sent into bankruptcy restructuring when the virus upended air travel, amid especially strict restrictions in Latin America. Avianca had already posted several years of losses before the pandemic began, and went through a boardroom coup in 2019 led by United. The Southern District of New York approved the company's reorganization plan in early November, a day before Avianca announced it will move its domicile to Britain and its stock will no longer be traded on the Colombian stock exchange.<br/>

The managers of Scandinavia’s biggest airline SAS have lost the confidence of their staff -- and investors aren’t far behind. In the latest show of discontent, it emerged that nine in ten cabin crew members have no faith in upper management and think several should resign. As many as 94% said they had doubts about the current business model, according to a poll. The numbers, unveiled by Swedish radio program Ekot on Wednesday, show just how dire the situation has become for ChEO Anko van der Werff, who’s been in the job for less than six months. The CEO is pushing to make the airline a more flexible organization, and has called on staff to show “understanding” to the significant changes the airline needs to make.Investors are also skeptical. The carrier’s stock fell as much as 8.7% on Wednesday after analysts at HSBC on Tuesday told clients to reduce holdings. The shares have lost more than a third this year, and the company is now valued at less than $1b. Short interest in the stock has risen to almost 18% of free float after tracking above 10% for most of this year, according to data compiled by IHS Markit.<br/>

EgyptAir announced on Wednesday that it is suspending flights to Toronto, the flagship carrier’s only destination for direct flights between Egypt and Canada, starting 2 December and until further notice. The announcement comes in light of a decision by the Canadian government on Tuesday to include Egypt, Nigeria, and Malawi on its list of countries with entry prohibitions over fears of the new coronavirus variant Omicron. EgyptAir urged its customers who were scheduled to travel to or from Toronto to change their flight times by contacting customer service via phone on 1717 from inside Egypt. Customers can also contact the airline’s offices in Egypt or abroad or contact their tour agents, EgyptAir said. The Canadian government Tuesday said that the decision to expand its entry prohibition list is “based on data from ongoing surveillance efforts and the latest public health advice.” "Foreign nationals who have transited or stayed in these 10 countries cannot enter Canada if they have been in those countries in the last two weeks," Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told a press conference reported by the AFP.<br/>