US airlines, responding to lawmakers asking if $54b in pandemic aid shouldn’t have prevented widespread flight disruptions earlier this year, say the funds saved more than 735,000 jobs and kept the nation’s air-transportation network functioning. There has been no evidence that any of the federal Covid-19 relief package has been misused, and it ensured the industry remained intact after losing almost all its customers in early 2020, Nicholas Calio, president of the Airlines for America trade group, said in a letter to House lawmakers Tuesday. “The Covid-19 crisis has been the most devastating challenge the U.S. airline industry has ever faced,” Calio said in the letter. “The recovery will be longer and more difficult than the industry’s recovery after the September 11th attacks.” Widespread flight cancellations earlier this year at airlines including American Airlines and Southwest have prompted questions about how how carriers spent the federal aid -- including $35.6b in grants for payrolls at the 11 largest passenger carriers. Calio was responding to a Dec. 1 inquiry from House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, and the committee’s top Republican, Sam Graves of Missouri. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee under Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, plans to hold a hearing on the airline aid package on Dec. 15 at which several executives are expected to testify, committee spokeswoman Tricia Enright said. The flight disruptions occurred due to a variety of reasons, such as a more rapid increase in passenger demand than expected, the reluctance of some furloughed employees to return to work and the time lag required to recertify safety-critical employees such as pilots, Calio said. Weather also played a role, he said. <br/>
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Americans planning for travel during the December holidays should brace for an approximation of normality: airports teeming with passengers, just the way they were before the arrival of Covid-19. “We see a strengthening in the airline travel industry toward pre-pandemic levels,” TSA chief David Pekoske said. The agency says it screened just under 21m travelers during the 10-day Thanksgiving holiday period in November and expects volumes to remain high through the end of the year. A total of 1.85m passengers took to the air on Monday, according to data released separately by the TSA, more than doubling from a year earlier as the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines helped rekindle travel demand. While the emergence of the omicron variant triggered a fresh round of travel curbs across the globe, including in the US, MKM Partners analyst Conor Cunningham wrote that Kayak daily flight searches show domestic search trends were holding up so far. Aside from the crowds, travelers are likely to see unruly passengers. Last month, another regulator said the rate of misbehavior remains too high. <br/>
Airliners, private planes and helicopters may have to limit landings in low-visibility conditions and follow other restrictions under a government directive to ensure safe operations once a new band of 5G mobile-phone service starts in January. The FAA Tuesday issued two orders laying out potential flight restrictions that could cause severe restrictions at major airports during bad weather. “The FAA is working closely with the Federal Communications Commission and wireless companies, and has made progress toward safely implementing the 5G expansion,” the FAA said. “We are confident with ongoing collaboration we will reach this shared goal.” The agency said that it believes “the expansion of 5G and aviation will safely co-exist” and stopped short of specific restrictions. But the two airworthiness directives lay the groundwork for what could be severe limitations across the nation’s aviation system if the regulator believes the signals -- from a part of the spectrum called the “C-Band” that the mobile carriers have procured to expand their service -- threaten safety. The impact of the FAA’s directives have the potential to broadly limit flights. <br/>
A nascent recovery in Asia-Pacific international travel demand has been set back by the Omicron variant as governments tighten rules, but airline bosses say they hope any backward moves will be short-lived. International passenger traffic in Asia-Pacific was at just 5.4% of pre-pandemic levels in October, the lowest of any region globally, but some border rules were relaxed in Australia, Japan, Thailand, Singapore in November before the Omicron variant’s discovery late in the month. “We were seeing accelerating openings until Omicron,” Campbell Wilson, chief executive of Singapore Airlines budget offshoot Scoot said at a CAPA Centre for Aviation event on Tuesday. “We have seen basically a pause since then,” he said. “We haven’t seen a lot of retrograde steps, though there have been some exceptions.” Airlines have blamed a patchwork of travel rules for depressed international travel demand, which is critical for their return to profit, and Omicron appears to be worsening that problem. Japan here has banned foreigners, the United States here is requiring a COVID-19 test 24 hours before flying and travellers to Singapore now must be tested daily for seven days after arrival. The Omicrom variant’s appearance follows a downturn in travel after the Delta variant emerged in India and spread globally, but vaccination rates have since risen and health experts are gauging whether the new variant causes as severe illness as other variants. “We still haven’t figured out whether this is a spanner in the works or a fly in the ointment,” Association of Asia Pacific Airlines Director General Subhas Menon said of Omicron. “From what we see now it looks more like a fly in the ointment that is still good for using.”<br/>
In the travel hiatus caused by the pandemic, many airports, airlines, tech companies and government agencies like the TSA and United States Customs and Border Protection continued to invest in biometric advancements. The need for social distancing and contactless interactions only added to the urgency. “The technologies have gotten much more sophisticated and the accuracy rate much higher,” said Robert Tappan, the managing director for the trade group International Biometrics + Identity Association, who called the impetus to ease crowds and reduce contact through these instruments “COVID-accelerated.” Many of the latest biometric developments use facial recognition, which the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently found is at least 99.5 percent accurate, rather than iris-scanning or fingerprints. “Iris-scanning has been touted as the most foolproof,” said Sherry Stein, the head of technology in the Americas for SITA, a Switzerland-based biometrics tech company. “For biometrics to work, you have to be able to match to a known trusted source of data because you’re trying to compare it to a record on file. The face is the easiest because all the documents we use that prove your identity — driver’s licenses, passports etc. — rely on face.” Shortly after 9/11, Congress mandated an entry and exit system using biometric technology to secure US borders. Some travelers have expressed concerns about privacy, and while companies and agencies using the technology say they do not retain the images, the systems largely rely on willing travelers who agree to their use. “Privacy is a major concern, as it should be, so most of these programs are going to be opt-in, and the government is trying to grow that pre-vetted audience,” said Jason Van Sice, the vice president of aviation in the Advanced Recognition Systems Division of NEC Corporation of America, which has been working in biometrics since 1971. He added that the loss of business during the pandemic pushed airlines and airports to automate as a cost-saving measure. “That’s really driven a digital transformation that was already underway.” Story has more.<br/>
Airbus delivered 58 jets in November, setting up a busy final month of 2021 as the company aims to ship 600 aircraft this year. The tally leaves the planemaker 82 aircraft short of its annual target with just weeks to go. Bloomberg News reported last week that the company needed to accelerate jetliner deliveries in December to meet its goal. The end of 2021 presents specific challenges for Airbus beyond the usual year-end push, with the company facing supply-chain issues and customer uncertainty following the emergence of the omicron coronavirus variant. Still, November’s performance made the task easier. The manufacturer handed over 89 planes last December even as the industry reeled from a winter flare-up of Covid-19 cases. Pre-pandemic tallies were comfortably higher -- more than 125 jets in both 2018 and 2019. Airbus delivered just two A350s in the month, compared with average production rates of five. The company is currently battling big customer Qatar Airways over paint and surface degradation on the plane, issues which Reuters reported last week are also impacting several other customers. Separately, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency this week identified another potential issue with the plane. The company got 318 orders in November, including a bumper 255-jet deal with a group of four discount airlines backed by Bill Franke’s Indigo Partners at the Dubai Airshow. Airbus emerged as the clear winner from the first major industry event since the virus outbreak, with rival Boeing posting a more modest order tally.<br/>
After nearly two years of suspended international flights, with exceptions only for returning citizens and foreign experts coming to work, the Ministry of Transport has requested the resumption of regular international flights to Vietnam. The ministry had a recent meeting with representatives of Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Bamboo Airways and Pacific Airlines on the difficulties and solutions to restoring regular international routes. The airlines and airport operators have proposed the resumption of regular international flights, deputy transport minister Le Anh Tuan said. While foreign tourists can visit Vietnam at the moment under a pilot scheme, the fees are expensive and the procedure is complicated, putting Vietnamese airlines at a competitive disadvantage compared to other countries. Solutions to facilitate more arrivals include easing medical quarantine regulations and recognising “vaccine passports” for international flights. According to airport operators, airports are ready to receive international flights. All staff are vaccinated and airports have arranged areas and equipment to receive flights and passengers to ensure Covid-19 prevention and control. Representatives of the ministries and related agencies agree that the reopening of international flights is consistent with the government’s policy on safe, flexible and effective adaptation to the pandemic.<br/>