New regulations on refunds for air passengers are coming into force this week, but consumer advocates and airlines are raising concerns about the rules. Since 2019, federal rules have required airlines to compensate passengers for delayed or cancelled flights when those disruptions happen for reasons the airlines themselves can control. Starting Sept. 8, airlines will have to refund passengers for cancellations and lengthy delays if passengers can't be rebooked on another available flight within 48 hours — even when those cancellations or delays are not the fault of the airlines themselves. "It's a big deal. It's a win for passengers," said Tom Oommen, DG of the analysis and outreach branch at the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), a quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator tasked with enforcing the regulations and settling disputes between airlines and customers. Oommen said a gap in the regulations was exposed when airlines began cancelling flights and denying refunds to passengers during the onset of the pandemic. He said the expanded rules also cover other issues, such as weather delays and labour disputes. But one consumer advocate is less optimistic about the new rules. Sylvie De Bellefeuille, a lawyer with the Quebec-based advocacy group Option consommateurs, said the 48-hour window still leaves a gap for passengers who may be travelling for short periods of time.<br/>
general
Europe’s weaker airlines face a heightened risk of collapse this winter as nations that rescued carriers during the Covid crisis focus support elsewhere amid rising inflation, according to analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein. While the pandemic brought few airline failures in the region amid a deluge of aid payments, carriers now face a squeeze from higher fuel and labor costs combined with a seasonal decline in travel, Bernstein said in an investor note Monday. That’s just as governments struggle to respond to soaring household bills. Smaller carriers in Central and Eastern Europe will be most vulnerable, Bernstein analysts Alex Irving and Clementine Flinois said, citing a new model for assessing bankruptcy risk according to levels of competition and capacity, route networks and likely costs from leasing and replacing planes. Europe’s top six airlines face negligible risk, Bernstein said, with low-cost specialists Ryanair Holdings, EasyJet and Wizz Air Holdings, retaining investment-grade credit ratings and legacy groups Air France-KLM, IAG SA and Lufthansa still able to rely on government help if required. The most exposed carriers include one from Cyprus and two from Albania, as well as airlines based in Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Moldova and Romania.<br/>
Wreckage and oil have been found where a private Cessna plane crashed into the Baltic Sea off Latvia's coast after a mysterious flight from southern Spain. The Cessna, registered in Vienna, had been due to land in Cologne, Germany, but instead headed out into the Baltic. German businessman Peter Griesemann died - it was his private plane. German media say the other three victims were his wife, daughter and her boyfriend. Griesemann was prominent among organisers of the Cologne Carnival. The Carnival's Facebook page has a mourning tribute to him. He was president of Blaue Funken (blue sparks) - one of the oldest carnival associations. When the Cessna 551 failed to respond to controllers' calls German and Danish fighter jets were sent to follow it, and later a Swedish helicopter searched for it. Latvia now has three small ships and a helicopter in the area of Sunday's crash. "We found three parts of the plane, we think - experts will have to say," the Latvian maritime search and rescue service (MRCC) told the BBC. Spokesperson Liva Veita said there was no sign of those on board the Cessna. She also confirmed earlier reports that oil had been seen there.<br/>
Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport was forced to close one of its runways after dry grass caught fire and “spilled over from the adjacent community within the airport precinct,” it said via Twitter. Fire and rescue teams are onsite to extinguish the blaze, according to OR Tambo, which is the busiest airport in Africa. The runway that has been closed is typically used for landings because it’s long, at more than 4.4 km, which helps planes land in the thinner air at Johannesburg’s relatively high altitude, aviation society Scramble said on its website. In Johannesburg and surrounds it’s the end of a dry winter and there are frequent fires until the rains arrive, usually in October.<br/>
Oman’s capital Muscat was hit by a power blackout on Monday, among other provinces in the Gulf Arab nation, impacting energy, telecommunications and aviation sectors. Authorities have yet to give a reason for the outage which the public services authority reported at 15:13 local time, saying the electricity network would be restored within four hours. It later said power was restored in some areas of the sultanate where temperatures reached a high of 36 degrees Celsius (96.8°F) in Muscat on Monday. Oman’s state energy company OQ said the power outage had led to increase flaring at the Mina Al Fahal and Sohar industrial complexes. Oman Airports said the electricity outage was expected to impact operators at Muscat International Airport. The telecommunications regulator said services had been affected. <br/>
Operational processes for establishing a separate Qatari airspace are set to commence after the signing of a multinational agreement between the emirate and several Gulf states. The Qatari civil aviation authority has signed the pact with representatives of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. It says the activation of operational processes for the new Doha flight information region – connecting it with surrounding airspace – will begin on 8 September. Separation of Qatari airspace, which has previously been under Bahraini control, follows five years of discussion – notably following the political Qatari blockade in 2017, in which Bahrain’s government participated alongside several other countries. ICAO Council representatives had backed plans to create the Doha FIR at a session in March. The new airspace carries the ICAO code OTDF. Qatar’s aeronautical information publication has been updated with the new FIR details, which take effect from 8 September. These include definition of the airspace boundary as well as flightplan requirements, Doha area centre frequencies, and transition altitude information. Qatari transport minister Jassim Saif Ahmed Al-Sulaiti has assured that the emirate is prepared for activation of the FIR, and for the expansion of routes and increase in aircraft holding capacity.<br/>
Japan on Monday braced for the impact of a strong approaching typhoon, with airlines cancelling flights and some companies suspending production at factories in the western part of the country. Typhoon Hinnamnor was already pounding parts of the westernmost main island of Kyushu with heavy rain on Monday, with both rain and winds expected to worsen as the storm brushes by on Tuesday and heads towards Korea, which raised its typhoon alert level to the highest. Some 70 flights were cancelled on Monday, Japanese media said. Toyota Motor Corp said it will suspend some evening shifts at three plants in western Japan, while Nissan Motor Corp and Nissan Shatai Co subsidiaries in Fukuoka prefecture were expected to suspend production for Monday night and Tuesday daylight shifts. <br/>
South Korea raised its typhoon-alert to its highest level on Monday as approaching Typhoon Hinnamnor forced flight cancellations, the suspension of some business operations and the closure of schools. Heavy rain and strong wind pounded the south of the country as the typhoon approached from the south at a speed of 33 km per hour. Hinnamnor is expected to make landfall southwest of the port city of Busan early on Tuesday, after reaching the holiday island of Jeju on Monday. President Yoon Suk-yeol said he would be on emergency standby, a day after ordering authorities to do their best to minimise damage from the typhoon. "Very strong winds and heavy rains are expected across the country through to Tuesday due to the typhoon, with very high waves expected in the coastal region along with storm and tsunami," the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said. Hinnamnor is on a course that will take it northeast toward Sapporo, Japan, it said. As Typhoon Hinnamnor neared South Korea on Monday, the country raised its typhoon-alert level to its highest South Korea classifies typhoons in four categories – normal, strong, very strong, super strong. "Very strong" typhoons like Hinnamnor have wind speeds of up to 53 metres per second. Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines have cancelled most of their Monday flights to Jeju Island, according to their websites, while budget airlines such as Air Seoul and Jin Air have cancelled some of their flights.<br/>
China's Shenzhen city eased a COVID-19 lockdown on Monday as infections in its latest outbreak showed signs of stabilising, while most of the 21.2 million residents of Chengdu city faced extended curbs on their movements. An outbreak since late August prompted the technology hub of Shenzhen to order most of its 17.7m residents to remain largely at home over the weekend and to take two rounds of tests. By Monday, certain restrictions on dining and visits to some parks were eased and many subway stations resumed operations, in an effort to minimise disruption while adhering to the government's "dynamic COVID-zero" policy that aims at containing each and every outbreak. But Shenzhen remains on high alert for subvariants of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. Entertainment venues are shut and large events suspended in most parts of the city, and most people are banned from visiting residential compounds unless they're on a list of people allowed in. Chengdu extended its lockdown for most people to Wednesday to enable authorities to complete another round of mass testing that began on Monday. As of Monday morning, 88% of flights at Chengdu's Shuangliu Airport had been cancelled while the city's Tianfu Airport saw 95% of its flights cancelled, up from 62% and 79% respectively, on Thursday, the first day of the lockdown. Flights in many other cities remain suspended. The flight cancellation rate at Lhasa's Gongga Airport in Tibet was at 97% and Sanya's Phoenix Airport in Hainan province in the south was at 90%, while Xining's Caojiapu Airport in northwestern Qinghai province stood at 96% and Shenzhen's Baoan Airport was at 82%.<br/>
Australian airports are still welcoming less than half the number of international passengers than before COVID, despite a strong start to the winter season. According to new data from the Department of Infrastructure, numbers hit a post-COVID high of 1.6 million in June, up from 1.3m in May. That figure is up significantly from a pandemic low of just 42,000 in September last year, but well down on the 3.3m in the equivalent June month in 2019. Australia opened its international border in stages, first allowing residents and citizens to fly in November 2021, before opening to students, backpackers and skilled migrants shortly after. Finally, the country welcomed vaccinated tourists in February before dropping the controversial mandate in July. The new BITRE numbers, based on ‘total revenue passengers from the top 20 airports’, suggest the local industry has a long way to go before it can fully recover from COVID. The APAC region saw the worst global aviation recovery in 2021 as its countries went into lockdown despite other nations opening up. Analysis from aviation analytics firm Cirium showed APAC’s passenger numbers tumbled by 14% compared to 2020 despite North America’s increasing by 75%.<br/>