Airlines and tourist destinations are expecting monster crowds this summer as travel restrictions ease and pandemic fatigue overcomes lingering fear of contracting COVID-19 during travel. Many forecasters believe the number of travelers will match or even exceed levels in the good-old, pre-pandemic days. However, airlines have thousands fewer employees than they did in 2019, and that has at times contributed to widespread flight cancellations. People who are only now booking travel for the summer are experiencing the sticker shock. Domestic airline fares for summer are averaging more than $400 a round trip, 24% higher than this time in 2019, before the pandemic, and a whopping 45% higher than a year ago, according to travel-data firm Hopper. “The time to have gotten cheap summer flights was probably three or four months ago,” says Scott Keyes, who runs the Scott’s Cheap Flights site. Internationally, fares are also up from 2019, but only 10%. Prices to Europe are about 5% cheaper than before the pandemic — $868 for the average round trip, according to Hopper. Keyes said Europe is the best travel bargain out there. Although many countries have eased rules for travel, there are still restrictions in place that add to the hassle factor. Notably, the United States still requires a negative COVID-19 test within a day of flying to the country. Online spending on US flights eased in April after a torrid March, but it’s still up 23% from spring 2019 mostly because of higher prices, according to Adobe Analytics. Airlines blame the steeper fares on jet fuel roughly doubling in price over 2019. It’s more than that, however. The number of flights has not returned to pre-pandemic levels even though demand for travel is surging. “We have more travelers looking to book fewer seats, and each of those seats is going to be more expensive for airlines to fly this summer because of jet fuel,” says Hopper economist Hayley Berg. <br/>
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Flight disruptions continued Sunday but eased from the rocky start to Memorial Day weekend, a test for carriers as they gear up for a busy summer travel season after more than two years of the Covid pandemic. Delta led cancellations, disruptions it attributed to bad weather and “air traffic control actions” on Saturday. Hundreds of flights operated by Republic Airways, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways and American Airlines were also delayed Saturday. Delta canceled 254 mainline flights, or 9% of its Saturday schedule, and 530 were delayed, almost a fifth of its schedule, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. On Sunday, it canceled 159 flights, or 6%, while its delayed flights totaled 203, or 7% of the schedule. Delta said that 87% of customers were rebooked on flights that departed within around 11 hours of their original time. <br/>
Holidaymakers are facing flight cancellations and the prospect of delays on the road as half-term starts and the UK gears up for an extended bank holiday weekend. The June half-term traditionally heralds the start of the summer tourist season, and this year comes amid rebounding consumer demand for leisure breaks following the relaxation of UK Covid travel restrictions. At the start of the busiest period for travel since the pandemic, the weekend saw travellers stuck in hour-long queues at several airports, and strings of flights cancelled by airlines including easyJet and Tui. At Manchester airport, where earlier in the spring many passengers missed their flights after waiting hours to pass through security amid staffing shortages, there were fresh problems. The airport, which along with much of the aviation industry has struggled to recruit staff after making redundancies during the pandemic, warned on its official Twitter page that there were delays at check-in and baggage reclaim. The airport tweeted that it was “aware of challenges being faced by a number of airlines and handling agents” and, apologising for the situation, urged passengers to contact their airline. Matthew Ashton, vice-president of design at toymaker Lego, was one of the passengers to share the problems at Manchester airport on Sunday. He tweeted that this Ryanair flight had been “sat on the runway yet again for about an hour”, unable to take off, because luggage from the previous flight had not yet been unloaded. Dublin airport also warned passengers on Sunday that they might miss their flights because of “significant queues” inside the terminal for check-in, bag drop and security. About 50,000 passengers were due to depart from the airport during the day. Airline passengers who had expected to jet off with travel company Tui over the weekend also complained of the late cancellation of multiple flights that had been scheduled to take off from UK airports.<br/>
China has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Solomon Islands on civil air transport, laying a foundation for airlines of both countries to open air routes, China's aviation regulator said on Friday. The MOU was signed when China's foreign minister Wang Yi was visiting the Pacific Island country. <br/>
HONG Kong will relax some Covid-19 testing requirements for incoming air passengers as the city takes small steps towards easing travel restrictions. While travellers still need a PCR test within 48 hours of the scheduled departure of their flight to the financial hub, they will no longer have to give documentary proof of lab accreditation, the Hong Kong government said Sunday. The city will also drop requirements for transit passengers to have a pre-flight PCR test. The changes will take effect from June 1, it said. The government also announced an easing of the flight-suspension mechanism for airlines that carry Covid-positive travellers. From June 1, airlines that trigger the mechanism over a 10-day period will receive a warning and a HK$20,000 (S$3,500) penalty. If the carrier again breaches the terms within 10 days, it will be prohibited from flying that route into Hong Kong for 5 days. <br/>
Ten months after a Boeing 737-200 freighter ditched in the sea off Hawaii, US regulators are alleging a series of serious safety violations by operator Rhoades Aviation and are poised to cancel its air carrier certificate. But Rhoades Aviation is disputing the FAA’s proposed action and has requested meeting with the authority to discuss the matter. Rhoades was the operator of the Transair-branded 737 which broke up and sank after ditching as its crew attempted to return to Honolulu on 2 July last year. Both pilots survived. The US FAA believes Rhoades committed “numerous violations” in relation to its compulsory safety-management system including failing to ensure it was properly implemented and performing across the organisation. It has accused Rhoades of conducting “improper” maintenance on engine compressor fan blades and failing to document the work correctly. The regulator alleges the carrier operated over 30 flights with a 737 which was not airworthy, because it was fitted with fan blades which did not meet the manufacturer’s standard. While the investigation is continuing, the National Transportation Safety Board has previously stated that the pilots reported anomalies in both Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines shortly after take-off. The FAA has outlined a series of alleged flaws in Rhoades’ safety-management system, including problems with record-keeping, discrepancies in manuals for aircraft loading and balance, and provision of documentation to the FAA. It adds that two 737s were operated more than 900 times after the carrier failed to add the aircraft to its maintenance and inspection programme. The FAA – which grounded Rhoades Aviation days after the Hawaiian accident – is proposing to revoke the airline’s air carrier certificate, and has given it 15 days to respond to the allegations and its enforcement notice.<br/>
Airbus is launching a UK-based facility focused on hydrogen technologies, a move which represents the firm’s latest attempt to support the design of its next generation of aircraft. In a statement Wednesday, Airbus said the Zero Emission Development Centre in Filton, Bristol, had already begun working on the development of the tech. One of the site’s main goals will center around work on what Airbus called a “cost-competitive cryogenic fuel system” that its ZEROe aircraft will need. Details of three zero-emission, “hybrid-hydrogen” concept planes under the ZEROe moniker were released back in Sept. 2020. Airbus has said it wants to develop “zero-emission commercial aircraft” by the year 2035. The ZEDC in the U.K. will join other similar sites in Spain, Germany and France. “All Airbus ZEDCs are expected to be fully operational and ready for ground testing with the first fully functional cryogenic hydrogen tank during 2023, and with flight testing starting in 2026,” the company said. The environmental footprint of aviation is significant, with the World Wildlife Fund describing it as “one of the fastest-growing sources of the greenhouse gas emissions driving global climate change.” The WWF also says air travel is “currently the most carbon intensive activity an individual can make.”<br/>