The administration of President Joe Biden on Wednesday revoked a series of restrictions on flights to Cuba imposed by his predecessor, including ending a prohibition on US airline flights to Cuban airports other than Havana. The US Transportation Department (USDOT) issued the order at the request of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said the action was "in support of the Cuban people, and in the foreign policy interests of the United States." The White House last month had signaled the planned move as part of a broader revision of policy toward Cuba. The flight restrictions have been lifted effective immediately. The Trump administration had issued a series of aviation restrictions in 2019 and 2020 in a bid to increase US economic pressure on the Cuban government. They included barring US carriers from flying to eight international airports in Cuba outside of Havana including those in Camaguey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Manzanillo, Matanzas and Santiago de Cuba. Under President Donald Trump, USDOT imposed a cap on charter flights to Cuba at 3,600 per year and later suspended private charter flights to Cuba. The department also barred charter to flights to any Cuban airports except Havana. Then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Cuba "uses tourism and travel funds to finance its abuses and interference in Venezuela. Dictators cannot be allowed to benefit from US travel."<br/>
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When Delta Air Lines’ Terminal C at La Guardia Airport opens to the public on Saturday, New York will get not only a gleaming new transportation hub but also a significant art destination. “Airports are gateways to a region — travelers should know where they are,” said Rick Cotton, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates La Guardia. “Public art is at the core of that aspect of building a new civic structure.” Large-scale permanent installations by Mariam Ghani, Rashid Johnson, Aliza Nisenbaum, Virginia Overton, Ronny Quevedo and Fred Wilson — all artists living and working in New York — are poised to become new city landmarks throughout the terminal. In Terminal B, four site-specific pieces by Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens and Sarah Sze were commissioned by La Guardia Gateway Partners with the Public Art Fund in a $10 million investment unveiled in 2020. A restored 1942 mural by James Brooks in Terminal A nods to the heyday of Works Progress Administration artists employed in the service of grand infrastructure projects. And a soaring 40-foot-high Richard Lippold sculpture, which hung at Lincoln Center for decades, will become the centerpiece of an atrium to be completed this year. As the largest carrier in New York, employing 10,000 people in the area prepandemic (and now back up to over 9,000), Delta wanted the artworks in its terminal “to be New York-centric and reflect the diversity of our company,” said Ryan Marzullo, a managing director with the company who is overseeing the $4b Terminal C project, now 80% finished. For each of the six artists chosen by the Delta team from dozens initially presented by the Queens Museum, it’s been an opportunity to push their practices in terms of scale and experimentation, according to the museum’s president and executive director, Sally Tallant. “All these works are very rooted in what it means to live in New York,” she said.<br/>
PM Justin Trudeau is defending the recent extension of COVID-19 border restrictions, saying the decision is “anchored in science” as representatives from the travel and tourism sector gather in Ottawa to demand relief. Trudeau said Canada is still in the midst of a pandemic and lifting restrictions – such as requiring foreign tourists to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination upon entry -- too soon could cause worse outcomes for the travel sector. “The reality is, as much as people would like to pretend we’re not, we’re still in a pandemic. There are Canadians who die every single day because of COVID-19,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I know people are eager to get back to things we love but what will also further damage our tourism industry is if we get another wave.” Industry groups held a press conference later Wednesday, calling on the federal government to alleviate travel pain points, such as long lineups and delays, in time for the summer travel season.“We did our part to keep Canadians safe and now it is finally our turn to recover. Travel is back with a vengeance and we could not be happier but the passenger experience at our Canadian airports is a challenge,” said Susie Grynol, President and CEO of the Hotel Association of Canada. Interim Canadian Airports Council President Monette Pasher said while the organization welcomes the government’s steps to increase Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) staffing levels, more must be done.“We’re urging the federal government to take three concrete actions in the short term to immediately alleviate pressure on the system. They include: removing onsite mandatory testing from Canada’s airports, removing the Public Health Agency of Canada’s duplicate health check questions at government custom checkpoints and at the international border and removing vaccination mandates for CATSA and CBSA workers,” she said.<br/>
The Paris Airport authority, which manages Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, and the Eurostar rail service both warned on Wednesday of major disruption to travellers, adding to pressure on holidaymakers already facing delays across Europe. The Paris Airport body sent a message on its Twitter account saying that software problems were impacting border controls checks, and this in turn would lead to delays. Eurostar, which runs train services linking London to Paris, also issued a similar warning. “Our stations are very busy today. Passport and security checks are taking longer than usual due to issues with French authority control systems,” it said on its Twitter account. Airports across Europe have struggled to cope with a post-pandemic rebound in demand, but British airports are facing a particularly difficult week as a school half-term holiday combines with a long public holiday weekend to mark Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne.<br/>
Airlines have asked the UK to relax post-Brexit immigration rules and give EU aviation workers special visas to help ease the disruption that is plaguing the travel industry as demand for flights soars. Chief executives of airlines told transport secretary Grant Shapps at a meeting on Wednesday that they could ease some of their staffing shortages by moving crew into the UK from other European bases, according to people with knowledge of the call. But Shapps warned it was unlikely the government would relax immigration rules to help the industry, which has been convulsed by delays and cancellations during one of the busiest weeks of the year. The pressure on the industry will intensify this bank holiday with nearly 2mn people hoping to fly away following a week which has seen passengers suffer widespread disruption and companies accused of selling more fights than they could operate. More than 10,500 flights with some 1.9mn seats are scheduled to depart from UK airports between Thursday and Sunday, according to data from analytics company Cirium, as the Jubilee long weekend coincides with schools’ half-terms. The rush follows a disastrous week for the industry as travellers have complained of missed flights, day-long delays and queues snaking out of terminal buildings. EasyJet and Tui were forced to cancel hundreds of flights — some at short notice — as they struggled to find enough crew and aircraft to fulfil their schedules, while airports including Manchester and Bristol apologised to customers for delays. Air traffic control problems across Europe added to the chaos.<br/>
Britain's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has told airlines to stop selling tickets for flights they cannot staff after a spate of cancellations caused widespread disruption for holidaymakers. Airports across Europe have struggled to cope with a post-pandemic rebound in demand, but British airports are facing a particularly difficult week as a school half-term holiday combines with a long public holiday weekend to mark Queen Elizabeth's 70 years on the throne. Airports faced similar queues over the Easter vacation earlier this year and Shapps said that while some steps had been taken, there had not been the progress that is needed. "We need to make sure there is no repeat of the scenes witnessed over the last few days. Despite government warnings, operators seriously oversold flights and holidays relative to their capacity to deliver," Shapps said, adding he would meet industry officials to discuss the issues. "This must not happen again and all efforts should be directed at there being no repeat of this over the summer." Airlines had hoped for a bumper summer for passengers after two years of COVID-19 travel restrictions. But they have struggled to recruit staff after the turmoil of the pandemic, and complain it is taking longer to recruit new employees and vet them for security clearance. Shapps said the government had helped the industry by changing the law to speed up the recruitment of staff, adding that the "government has done its part."<br/>
The forecast on which Dublin airport based its 2022 staffing needs has proven “wildly wrong” and the airport cut too many staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, its chief executive said on Wednesday as he apologised for a weekend of travel chaos. More than 1,000 passengers missed flights at Ireland’s main airport on Sunday as staff shortages forced travellers to queue for hours to pass through security, a scene replicated in other parts of Europe as airports struggled to meet a strong recovery in demand. Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) CEO Dalton Philips said airports were running on “very, very fine margins” and that higher than usual staff absences and the accidental rostering of trainee security staff compounded the queuing issues on Sunday. “We felt going into 2022 with 70% of our (pre-COVID) staff we’d be OK and we were wrong ... We were wildly wrong in terms of the recovery levels,” Philips told a parliamentary committee. He said no industry analyst believed that traffic would come back to pre-pandemic levels until 2024 or 2025. In Dublin, it has returned to 90% of pre-COVID levels in recent weeks and is set to pass that mark in the coming year, he added. The DAA made 25% of its staff redundant at the height of the pandemic, which Philips accepted was too grave a cut. He said the airport would increase its number of security screening staff - a particular pinch point - to 702 by the end of June from 535 currently and hoped to add another 100 during the summer to reach pre-pandemic levels.<br/>
Five Russian airlines have returned more than two dozen leased airplanes to foreign lessors, a document seen by Reuters showed, even though Moscow has passed a law allowing the seizure of hundreds of jets as part a response to Western sanctions. The sanctions barred Russia from receiving planes, parts and maintenance and aircraft leasing companies asked Moscow to return jets under lease, a move that threatened to halt air transportation across Russia. To protect domestic flights, Russia seized hundreds of planes owned by foreign leasing companies, putting them on the country’s aircraft register. The document, from Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia, showed that it was notified that a number of Russian airlines focused on charter flights - Azur Air, iFly, Nordwind, Pegas Fly and Royal Flight - had kept their planes outside Russia. “Jets of some operators... with foreign registration are currently located at foreign airfields, including in Turkey, in order to transfer them to the lessors on the pre-text of maintenance,” Rosaviatsia’s document, dated March 9, showed. The document gave no details on why the five companies decided to leave their leased fleet outside Russia. “The fate of the planes seized abroad is unknown to us,” Nordwind said in a written reply to Reuters, declining further comment. Azur Air, iFly, Pegas Fly and Royal Flight did not reply to Reuters requests for a comment. The Planespotters aircraft tracking website said a total of 31 aircraft operated by Azur Air, Nordwind, Royal Flight, iFly and Pegas Fly did not return to Russia after Feb. 27 and are based in Turkey, Europe, the United States and the Middle East. <br/>
Brazilian planemaker Embraer SA is assessing mergers and acquisitions (M&A) opportunities in services and support as it looks to optimize operations as part of its “fit for growth” plan, executives said on Wednesday. The search includes Embraer’s own executive jets division as the company sees it as complementary to the Services & Support one. Michael Amalfitano, the head of the executive jets business, said during an event that most of such opportunities might be in the United States and Europe, where the bulk of its clients are. “We are reassessing that network, saying ‘what is the right balance? Is there an opportunity for us to build, or merge, or buy that will give us some more optimized way of taking care of customers for the four segments of executive aviation?’,” Amalfitano said. The demand for executive jets has been overwhelming, with Embraer’s expecting to deliver between 100 and 110 jets this year. Embraer’s backlog currently stretches into the third quarter of 2024, Amalfitano said. His remarks came as the chief executive of Embraer Services & Support, Johann Bordais, confirmed the unit was pursuing M&A opportunities. “M&A is something we are pursuing just to grow. The priority will be on the executive aviation side, we want to make sure we are really increasing our footprint on the support side of executive aviation, but definitely commercial aviation also,” Bordais said.<br/>