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Rescue workers recovered 21 bodies on Monday after a daylong effort to reach the site of a plane crash in the rocky heights of the Himalayas, according to officials in Nepal. The Canadian-made De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, operated by Tara Air and carrying 19 passengers and three crew members, took off on Sunday morning from the central Nepali city of Pokhara and was headed for Jomsom, a tourist destination popular with trekkers. The flight normally takes about 30 minutes, but the plane went down in bad weather with 13 Nepalis, four Hindu pilgrims from India and two German trekkers on board. Officials said they did not expect to find any survivors. “We recovered 21 dead bodies,” said Netra Prasad Sharma, the chief administrator of Mustang District, where the crash occurred. “One is still missing.” Sharma said rescue work had been halted in the late afternoon because of bad weather. Earlier on Monday, rainfall and fog made it difficult for rescuers to reach the site. Helicopters deployed on Sunday by the Nepali Army and private companies were diverted to Kathmandu, the capital, and Pokhara because of low visibility. After conditions improved on Monday morning, a helicopter carrying a senior army official, a police inspector and a guide reached the location, at an elevation of 14,500 feet near the village of Thasang. A total of 15 rescuers had reached the spot by noon, the authorities said. “No one is alive,” said Narendra Shahi, an international mountain guide, who was sent to the crash site as part of the rescue operation. “The plane has crashed into pieces. It’s so heartbreaking.”<br/>

Norwegian Air has agreed to buy 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and secured options for a further 30 of the planes at an undisclosed price, ending a contract dispute between the two firms, the budget carrier said on Monday. The deal is a boost for Boeing, anchoring long-standing customer Norwegian to the US plane maker after the Oslo-based airline earlier this year said it would consider switching to rival Airbus. For Norwegian the deal marks a return to aircraft ownership after it was forced to resort to leasing deals during bankruptcy proceedings that rescued the company last year. The deal includes compensation to Norwegian as settlement for previous disputes over MAX and Dreamliner aircraft deliveries and technical issues, triggering a financial gain of 2b Norwegian crowns ($212.2m), the airline said. The conflict with Boeing was the sole issue that had not been resolved during last year's restructuring of the airline, Norwegian Air CE Geir Karlsen said. "This was the final piece of the puzzle ... it will terminate the lawsuits," Karlsen said. The financial gain will be booked as soon as a deal is signed, expected by the end of June, boosting the airline's equity.<br/>

Ryanair this summer will operate 15 routes to/from Pescara this summer, making it its largest-ever operation from the Italian Adriatic coast city. The Irish budget carrier, in a statement, announced it would station one aircraft at Pescara in summer 2022 to operate 100 weekly flights, 20 more than before the pandemic. This would include two new routes to Manchester Int'l in northern England, and Memmingen in Germany. Pointing out that it supported the post-pandemic recovery in Italy, the airline again requested the Italian government to eliminate Italy's "tourism tax" (municipal surcharge) on all air travel from 2022 to 2025. "The tax is affecting the competitiveness of Italian airports compared to other European ones," commented Ryanair's Country Manager Italy, Mauro Bolla. Abruzzo Region President Marco Marsilio said Pescara's Abruzzo Airport was heavily impacted by the pandemic. It had recorded a 72.9% decrease in passengers at the end of September 2020. Still, the region continued to invest in the airport, including a runway extension which opened the opportunity for intercontinental flights.<br/>

Airline passengers are facing higher ticket prices after jet fuel costs surged to a level an industry executive says is "way above" what carriers can manage. Adnan Kazim, CCO of Emirates, said airlines had to respond after fuel prices doubled in a year. The increases pose a new change to an aviation industry stricken by the pandemic, threatening to overshadow a recovery in travel demand. "The current cost of jet fuel is way above what any airline can manage," Kazim told Nikkei Asia in an interview. The average price for 2022 stands at $135.70 per barrel, according to IATA's jet fuel price monitor. Last week, the price was $146.53, up 105% from a year ago. "In our industry, a cost of $50 to $70 is what an airline can cope with," Kazim said. Emirates is working to limit ticket price increases by cutting costs, but is implementing a "fuel-fare charge, which is only taking a bit of cost and pushing it into the ticket." The Points Guy, which tracks airline rewards programs, highlighted two increases in fuel surcharges by Emirates within weeks of each other this year. These added first $250 and then another $180 to business class flights from Washington to Dubai that are purchased with rewards points. A table of fuel surcharges on Emirates' website shows flights to and from Japan will incur surcharges of at least 33,800 yen ($266) from June 1. Some airlines cut fuel surcharges to zero during the pandemic but they have crept back -- and up -- this year. In Malaysia, AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines reintroduced surcharges in March. South Korean carriers have hiked surcharges to record levels, local media report. The industry regulator in the Philippines is allowing carriers to impose record surcharges from next month. Fuel prices have risen with increased demand as the pandemic eases, and spiked further in March after Russia's invasion of Ukraine disrupted oil supplies.<br/>

The United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated four North Korean entities for support provided to Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programme, and the country's sanctioned flag carrier Air Koryo. The list of newly sanctioned entities includes Air Koryo Trading Corporation (AKTC), the commercial arm of Air Koryo. However, the sanction on AKTC are not related directly to air transport but rather to "providing, or attempting to provide, financial, material, technological or other support for, or goods or services in support of, Ministry of Rocket Industry (MoRI)". OFAC alleges that AKTC was used as a front for the acquisition of various dual-use goods outside of North Korea and then shipped them back to the country, where they were used for the ballistic missile programme. AKTC was also allegedly involved in acquiring luxury goods subject to export sanctions for North Korean elites. In turn, the Far Eastern Bank was sanctioned for the provision of financial services to Air Koryo and other North Korean state-owned companies. OFAC also designated Jong Yong Nam, a Minsk, Belarus-based individual allegedly acting as the agent of sanctioned Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS), and Bank Sputnik, a North Korean bank facilitating sanctions-busting transactions in and with Russia.<br/>

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation Monday imposed a Rs 10-lakh fine on SpiceJet for training 737 Max aircraft’s pilots on a faulty simulator. Earlier, the DGCA had barred 90 SpiceJet pilots from flying B737 Max aircraft. The pilots will have to be retrained, the regulator had ordered. “Training being imparted by SpiceJet could have adversely affected flight safety and was nullified,” the regulator said. This happened within eight months of the DGCA lifting a ban on Boeing 737 Max aircraft. While it was grounded worldwide from March 2019 to December 2020 following two crashes — in Indonesia and Ethiopia — killing 346, DGCA lifted the ban much later in August last year. The faults were detected during a surveillance check by the regulator at the Greater Noida-based facility of CAE Simulation Training Pvt Ltd (CSTPL). Scheduled surveillance checks and surprise audits are regularly done by the regulator. These are to find inefficiencies in the safety system of airlines, airports, flying training organisations and simulators and implement corrective measures. During such a check, the DGCA surveillance team found that the stick shaker of the simulator was non-functional.<br/>

AirAsia Thailand will launch flights on 20 June from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, making it the first low-cost airline to offer flights to Kuala Lumpur from Bangkok’s two international airports. Travellers planning trips to Bangkok from Kuala Lumpur can now choose flights landing at Don Mueang International Airport (DMK) or Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Flights on the Kuala Lumpur – Suvarnabhumi route will operate twice daily. AirAsia Thailand CEO Santisuk Klongchaiya said: “At present, the carrier operates three domestic routes from Suvarnabhumi, flying to Chiang Mai, Phuket and Krabi, and from June onwards will be operating our first international route with Suvarnabhumi-Kuala Lumpur.” Fully vaccinated travellers between Thailand and Malaysia are no longer required to present a Covid-19 test result or undergo quarantine on arrival. Thailand will abolish the Thailand Pass requirement for Thai Nationals to enter the country from 1 June 2022.<br/>