When the federal mandate requiring masks to be worn on planes and other public transportation crumbled last week, it was not because of lobbying by established trade organizations, or the strident calls of Republican lawmakers, or even a determination by the CDC that masks were no longer necessary. Instead, the mask mandate’s demise was brought about by an unlikely confluence of individuals: Leslie Manookian, a former Wall Street analyst living in Idaho who had founded an anti-Covid-regulation nonprofit; two Florida women who said their anxiety prevented them from wearing masks and, therefore, traveling; and a Trump-appointed federal judge who the American Bar Association said was too inexperienced to be appointed to the bench. Within 24 hours of Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle’s ruling on April 18 that the federal government had overstepped its authority by requiring masks, which the Justice Department has since appealed, flight attendants, pilots and passengers were free to fly without masks, and public transit systems across the country were no longer requiring them. Even people who had been closely watching efforts to overturn the rule were surprised. “It was a shocking event,” said Zane Kerby, the president of the American Society of Travel Advisors, which represents more than 14,000 people who work in the travel industry. Story has more.<br/>
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The White House said Monday it is seeking expanded powers from Congress to detect and disable threatening drones, including asking for new authority to protect airports and for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other government departments. Congress in 2018 expanded the authority of the Justice Department and Homeland Security Departments to disable or destroy threatening drones, which are formally known as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), but the Biden administration says it needs more authority as the number of registered drones jumps. The legislative proposal sent to Congress this month would extend drone detection and destruction powers to agencies like the CIA and State Department to protect US facilities. The Biden administration said the CIA needs authority "to effectively respond to hostile foreign intelligence services collecting sensitive information about its personnel, facilities, and activities in the United States." The proposal would also expand detection abilities by owners of airports and other critical infrastructure like oil refineries as well as state and local law enforcement - but that would not extend authority for those entities to destroy drones. The White House released its "Domestic Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems National Action Plan" and said it would create a drone incident tracking database "to have a better understanding of the overall domestic threat." The White House said the proliferation of drones "has also introduced new risks to public safety, privacy, and homeland security. Malicious actors have increasingly used UAS domestically to commit crimes, conduct illegal surveillance and industrial espionage."<br/>
Operators of Airbus A220s are being instructed to check the emergency slides of passenger exits to ensure that safety pins are removed from escape slide inflation canisters. The urgent directive has been issued by Transport Canada. It states that inspections of two forward passenger slides of in-service aircraft found that the inflation valve safety pin was installed on the nitrogen canister. The directive says that the pins might also be installed on other aircraft – and that the aft exits on the type could similarly be affected. “Failure to remove the inflation valve safety pin can prevent the deployment of the affected escape slides during an emergency evacuation,” it states. Both the -100 and -300 variants of the A220 have six exits, including the two overwing doors. Transport Canada says the safety-pin finding could therefore potentially affect two-thirds of the passenger exits in an emergency.<br/>
Turkey has shut its airspace to Russian civil and military aircraft carrying troops from Russia to Syria, a ban that will be effective for three months. The move is said to add to the growing external pressure on Russia following its Ukraine offensive and could increase the cost of the war for Russia. However, there is no clarity on whether the decision aims to bar the possible movement of Syrian fighters to Ukraine.<br/>
UK holidaymakers should not be turned away from flights over a post-Brexit rule for entry to some countries, the European Commission has said. The problem has affected people with renewed passports that have an extended expiry date beyond the usual 10 years. Nina Gurd was told by Ryanair that her passport, which expires in February, was not valid for travel to Portugal. Despite having more than three months left before the expiry date, she said was told that was irrelevant. "The lady at Bournemouth Airport said it needs to be within 10 years of the issue date," she said. Portugal is one of 26 European countries within the Schengen Area of free movement. Prior to Brexit, travellers from the UK could travel within the area without border controls, as the country was a member of the European Union, although Britain was not part of the Schengen Agreement. Now some EU countries in the Schengen Area are insisting passports must be no more than 10 years old from the point of issue. Once the three-month expiry buffer is taken into account, a passport needs to have been issued no more than nine years and nine months ago. However, the EU's executive arm has now said a "more generous interpretation of the rules is possible".<br/>
Saudi Arabia is targeting a tenfold increase in international airline passengers transiting the kingdom by the end of the decade as it looks to triple annual passenger traffic, an official said. The government last year announced plans to become a global transportation and logistics hub by 2030 targeting passenger traffic of 330m a year, though few details have emerged. The strategy calls for 500b riyal ($133.32b) in investment and is part an economic policy to create jobs and wean the country off oil revenue. That policy, which has seen the government mandate that companies move their regional headquarters to the kingdom, puts Saudi Arabia in competition with neighbour the United Arab Emirates, where airline Emirates' main business model is transit traffic. Saudi Arabia's main aim is to increase the number of arrivals to the kingdom, said Mohammed Alkhuraisi, head of strategy at the General Authority of Civil Aviation. "We are not after the transit market," he said. The government wants direct international flights to rise to 250 for 99, in part to boost a nascent tourism sector but also to develop the kingdom into a major commercial centre. A tenfold increase would mean international transit traffic jumps to 30 million in 2030 from about 3m in 2019, or 10% of Saudi Arabia's annual passenger traffic, up from 3%.<br/>
Domestic passenger traffic at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) surged to 3.17m in the first three months of the year as travel restrictions were dialed back, according to the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA). Domestic passenger traffic — arrivals as well as departures — were significantly higher than the year-earlier total of more than one million passengers, according to an operations report posted on MIAA’s website. Domestic traffic was still running well behind the total of 4.48m posted in Q1 2020, which included the two months before the declaration of the state of emergency. International passenger traffic at NAIA increased to 1.03m in Q1 2022 from 503,331 a year earlier. In the first three months of 2020, international passengers at NAIA were at 4.35m. Fully vaccinated foreign nationals from 157 countries, who enjoy visa-free entry, were once again admitted starting Feb. 10, as coronavirus cases in the Philippines continued to decline, leading the government to ease travel restrictions in a bid to stimulate the economy. The Tourism department in March reported 47,000 visitor arrivals since the reopening of the borders.<br/>
More people are looking to travel to Singapore as the city-state eases virus rules. Travel-related searches on Google for the island destination have jumped, particularly from neighbouring Malaysia, as well as Indonesia, India and Australia, according to data tracked by economists at Maybank Investment Bank Bhd. Singapore has led other Southeast Asian nations in scrapping pandemic travel curbs after adopting a policy of living with the virus. Last week, it became one of the first major regional economies to announce it will end all testing for vaccinated travellers, starting on Tuesday. Similar moves by places like Thailand are also helping to spur a regional travel recovery, according to Catherine So, APAC managing director for Expedia Group. Bookings for travel from Singapore to Thailand nearly doubled after the latter said it will end mandatory on-arrival Covid tests from May 1. “With the easing of measures by countries in the Asia-Pacific region, especially those in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, we’re beginning to see the return of demand for intra-Asia travel,” So said. One major exception -- China, which remains committed to a Covid-Zero policy. It was Singapore’s largest source of tourists before the pandemic, accounting for almost 20% of the island’s 19.1m arrivals in 2019, Singapore Tourism Board data show.<br/>
In-flight catering giant SATS is setting the table for a transformation into a diversified food company that serves corporate clients and store customers, reducing its reliance on the aviation sector. SATS has invested 150m Singapore dollars ($109m) to build a food plant in the Jurong Innovation District, an industrial park in southern Singapore. Construction of the five-story plant on 20,000 sq. meters of land is slated to finish by 2024. The Singaporean company held a groundbreaking ceremony on April 7. Instead of producing airline food, the new hub will make ready-to-eat meals, soups, sauces for commercial use, baked sweets and other items. It will be the source of meals delivered to businesses, government agencies and health care centers, along with direct sales to restaurants and convenience stores. The plant will produce 80 tons of food a day, equivalent to 200,000 meals. "During the pandemic, we have invested a lot into our digital platform," President and CEO Kerry Mok told Nikkei in an interview. "The next thing we're going to go for is more analytics and a more data-driven way of driving business growth." SATS was established in 1972 as a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines. SATS went public on the Singapore Exchange in 2000, and the company dissolved its capital relationship with the city-state's flag carrier in 2009. Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings owns 40% of SATS and 55% of Singapore Airlines. The two companies are considered "brothers" under the same parent, but the airline is still seen as the older sibling because SATS depends heavily on the flag carrier. SATS not only supplies in-flight meals, but also provides cabin-cleaning services and handles boarding procedures and cargo.<br/>