The US DoT said Tuesday it had approved the bid of China Eastern Airlines Corp to temporarily move New York-to-Shanghai flights over COVID-19 measures to a different Chinese airport. The department granted China Eastern's request starting March 31 to move existing twice weekly Shanghai westbound passenger flights from New York to China's Fuzhou Change International Airport in Fuji province through the end of April. The Chinese airline said earlier because of "evolving coronavirus pandemic control measures in the Shanghai region, China Eastern has been instructed" by Chinese aviation officials "to divert Shanghai-bound passenger flights arriving from the US to certain alternate airports in China." China's aviation regulator said earlier this month it would divert 106 international flights scheduled to arrive in Shanghai to other domestic cities from March 21 to May 1 due to COVID-19. The affected flights include those operated by Air China, China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, Juneau Air and Spring Airlines, the CAAC said. On Tuesday, China’s most populous city tightened the first phase of a two-stage COVID lockdown, asking some residents to stay indoors unless they are getting tested as the number of new daily cases exceeded 4,400. The financial hub of Shanghai, home to 26 million people, is in its second day of a lockdown authorities are imposing by dividing the city roughly along the Huangpu River, splitting the historic center from the eastern financial and industrial district of Pudding to allow for staggered testing.<br/>
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Kenya Airways more than halved pretax losses last year to 16.03 billion shillings ($139.63m), it said on Tuesday, helped by growth in revenue and some cost savings. Like other airlines around the world, the carrier was pummeled by the closure of airspace in 2020, as governments tried to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Things started to turn around last year, Kenya Airways said, boosting revenue by a third to 70.22b shillings. “We have seen a lot of markets opening,” Hellen Mathuka, the airline’s CFO, told an investor briefing. Total costs edged down 3.6%, she said, partly helped by the renegotiation of plane leasing contracts with leasing firms, which led to significant savings.<br/>