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Finnair is to augment summer capacity this year by leasing an Airbus A320 from Danish specialist DAT – having previously agreed to lease out some of its own short- and long-haul aircraft for the season. DAT will operate the twinjet on Finnair’s route from Helsinki to Copenhagen in June, and to Oulu and Lisbon during July-October. Finnair is expecting a busy summer and chief commercial officer Ole Orver says the agreement supports its aim of “ensuring stable and reliable operations”. Finnair has a fleet of 58 aircraft at the end of the first quarter, including 33 single-aisle types – comprising 17 Airbus A321s, 10 A320s and six A319s. It completed the sale of two A321s during the period and has sold another pair since. Finnair recently concluded a lease agreement under which British Airways will take four A321s for four months, to increase capacity on European routes out of London Heathrow from May and June. It has also agreed to lease three Airbus A350s – again for the summer season – to Lufthansa Group’s long-haul leisure carrier Eurowings Discover, which will use them on transatlantic routes from Frankfurt and Munich. Although Finnair expected overall summer capacity still to be 30% down on pre-crisis levels, Finnair is having to recruit its own additional short-haul resources, through the DAT lease, to cope with the seasonal demand. “Airline traffic planning is always a complex puzzle, and summer 2022 has been even more challenging than usual,” says the carrier. “Travel is picking up, but the closing of Russian airspace forced us to make changes to our summer traffic plan. This agreement is about having enough resources to ensure operational stability. We want to operate both our own flights and our wet-lease commitments in a reliable manner.” <br/>

Cathay Pacific Airways flight crew have been told to use a newly created app to record all their activities during the first seven days of their two-week medical surveillance period in order to comply with the Hong Kong government’s pandemic requirements. The move, which came into effect last week, was in response to the government’s call last month for airlines to introduce “robust” mechanisms to ensure that aircrew fully complied with the requirements of the medical surveillance period upon returning to Hong Kong. The city earlier this month eased Covid-19 restrictions for flight crew, who were required to log their movements in the seven-day period after arrival in Hong Kong. An internal memo sent to Cathay staff last week and seen by the Post on Wednesday informed employees that they would have to log their activities on the “Crew Activity Log” app created by the airline. Crew were required to upload details of their latest flight into Hong Kong and all out-of-home activities, including supporting documentation such as screenshots of the “Leave Home Safe” risk-exposure app, over the first seven days of medical surveillance. Staff were told non-compliance could result in serious consequences and enforcement action by the government. “Please note, this is a legal declaration, you should keep your responses concise, professional and to the point,” General Manager of Operations Mark Hoey wrote in the memo. “I understand and appreciate that this involves further work for you all and for that I am sorry.”<br/>

Australia's Qantas Airways signalled changes to domestic capacity and fares on Thursday to counter surging fuel prices, saying that it expected strong demand for air travel, sending its shares up nearly 3%. The Australian flag carrier lowered domestic flying levels for July and August from 107% of pre-COVID-19 levels to 103% but it did not provide further clarity on fares, adding that the adjustments were not expected to materially impact customers. "In practical terms, these changes will generally lead to a higher seat factor on flights across the Group," Qantas said. The airline said its international operations were seeing continued demand heading on to the northern summer period, as more governments remove pandemic-imposed travel restrictions. International capacity climbed to over 70% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of Q1 fiscal year 2023, compared with 50% at the end of the previous quarter, Qantas said.<br/>

Qantas Airways’ pilots union has warned of looming risks to flight safety -- from crew fatigue to looser landing rules in Australia -- as a travel rebound stretches an industry still fragile from the pandemic. With domestic travel restrictions eased, passenger demand in Australia exceeds 2019 levels and Qantas and smaller rival Virgin Australia are ordering new planes for a post-Covid era. But there are concerns some proposals to handle the faster-than-expected recovery may be too much for a global workforce decimated by layoffs and bereft of its most experienced pilots. A proposal by Brisbane Airport, for example, to breach international protocol and allow planes to land with stronger tailwinds in order to accommodate more air traffic raises the chance of a mistake, particularly by foreign airline crew, said Tony Lucas, president of Qantas union, the Australian & International Pilots Association. Normal practice is to take off and land against the wind. The union represents more than 7,100 commercial pilots. Lucas, a Qantas A330 captain who joined the airline in 1995, said he’s also concerned that long-range Airbus SE A321XLR jets, due to arrive at the airline in late 2024, will compromise safety by lacking proper rest areas for pilots on long Asian routes. Aviation’s recovery from its worst-ever crisis is highlighting stress points on infrastructure and workers that have essentially laid fallow for two years. Worldwide, airports and airlines that lost thousands of staff have been swamped by returning passengers, and some pilots are just getting used to being back at the controls.<br/>

Qantas has unveiled upgraded airport kiosks at Sydney Airport, designed to make the check-in process four times faster. The new technology will be introduced over a week at Sydney's Terminal 3 from Thursday, before rolling out to other Qantas terminals across Australia. A total of 240 kiosks will be installed at major domestic airports by September, replacing all existing kiosks used to check in and print luggage tags. The new kiosks will primarily be used for printing bag tags, with the airline noting a shift towards digitals services and the number of passengers checking in online increasing by almost 40 per cent in the last two years. Stephanie Tully, Qantas group chief customer officer, said the existing kiosks were instrumental in reducing queues at airport counters when they were introduced over a decade ago. "These new kiosks will match the latest technology with customer preferences," she said. "Understandably, our customers want to move through the airport and get to the lounge or boarding gate as seamlessly as possible, and the new kiosks will help speed things up. Qantas' executive manager for product and service Philip Capps said the new technology has the ability to slash check-in times by up to 90% for some customers. "[Printing baggage tags] used to take around two to three minutes at the old traditional kiosks, whereas now it's come down to around 15 to 20 seconds," said Capps. "In that time, the kiosk will identify you, print your tag and you're ready to go."<br/>