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The US will screen passengers for Ebola at five designated airports if they have traveled in Uganda within three weeks prior to their arrival, federal officials said on Thursday. Uganda, a nation in East Africa, is battling a deadly outbreak of Ebola with 63 confirmed and probable cases including 29 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. No cases of Ebola have been reported in the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The CDC is working closely with Uganda’s health ministry and the WHO to respond to the outbreak, according to U.S. health officials. The US Embassy in Uganda, in a health alert Thursday, said passengers who have been in the country within 21 days of their arrival in the US will be routed to one of five airports: New York JFK, Newark, Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare or Washington Dulles. Passengers arriving from Uganda at those airports will undergo temperature checks and verification of their contact data, a federal health official said. Airlines will send passenger information to the CDC so the agency can conduct health follow-ups, the official said. Contact information will also be sent to state health departments so they can conduct follow-ups locally. The health screenings are based on Ebola’s incubation period. People infected with the virus are not contagious until symptoms appear, which can take anywhere from two to 21 days after exposure, the CDC said. On average, it takes about eight to 10 days for symptoms to appear. Uganda is battling an outbreak caused by a strain of Ebola called Sudan ebolavirus. It spreads through direct contact with body fluids of a person who has fallen ill with the virus or died from it, as well as from infected animals and contaminated objects, according to the CDC. Ebola does not spread through airborne transmission, the health agency said.<br/>

Amsterdam Schiphol airport is offering security workers a pay rise of 20% on average in a bid to solve ongoing staff shortages, labour union FNV said on Thursday. Schiphol, one of Europe's busiest airports, has been grappling with long passenger queues for months and has cut capacity by almost a fifth until at least March 2023 due to the lack of security staff. Agreements struck between Schiphol and the two main unions at the airport offer security workers a pay rise of E2.50 per hour from November, while nightshift supplements will be increased by 35%. The Unions and the airport said they would also try to find ways to make workers' schedules more attractive. Schiphol has repeatedly asked airlines to scrap flights this year, as lines for security checks stretched onto the streets outside terminal buildings. KLM, the Dutch arm of airline group Air France-KLM and the main carrier at Schiphol, last week said it had already missed out on more than E100m in ticket sales due to the problems at the airport.<br/>

Hong Kong has a plan to get visitors back to its shores as the pandemic recedes: free airline tickets. The Hong Kong tourism board plans to give away 500,000 airline tickets, worth the equivalent of HK$2b ($254.8m) once the city-states remaining coronavirus restrictions are lifted, per the BBC. "Once the government announces it will remove all COVID-19 restrictions for inbound travelers, we'll roll out the advertising campaigns for the free air tickets," Dane Cheng, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, told the BBC. Hong Kong's government introduced strict travel rules in response to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. They included requiring anyone entering the city-state to quarantine for two weeks in hotels. The mandates have been so onerous on aircrew at times that Cathay Pacific began offering pilots cash bonuses to fly into the city-state, and between mainland China. The restrictions were loosened in September, but visitor numbers to the city-state have plummeted. Just over 183,600 people visited Hong Kong between January and August 2022, according to the latest figures published by the tourism board. While that's a significant uptick on last year, it's well below pre-pandemic figures of 56m in 2019, per the BBC. A spokesperson for the Hong Kong Tourism Board told Insider that the distribution of the tickets will be handled by the Hong Kong Airport Authority. It's not clear which airlines could be set to receive tickets. The tickets were purchased during the pandemic in order to support airlines and will be distributed in 2023, per the BBC.<br/>

Britain's competition regulator said on Thursday Viasat's $7.3b takeover of satellite rival Inmarsat could hamper competition and lead to airlines facing higher prices for on-board wifi, raising the prospect of the deal being delayed. US-based Viasat's plan to buy Britain-based Inmarsat, announced in late 2021, was given security clearance by Britain last month and the United States in the summer, but the deal could now face an in-depth probe from the UK watchdog. Viasat said the part of the business the regulator was considering, In Flight Connectivity, represented less than 10% of the revenues of the combined company and it would work to show the regulator how the deal would benefit users. It also offers connectivity services to residential, aviation and defence customers in North America, while Inmarsat is a provider of satellite-based communications services to shipping, aviation and government departments, including Britain's Ministry of Defence. Viasat expects to close the deal in the second half of 2022, but the companies said on Thursday they would communicate any delay to that timeline as their engagement with Britain's Competition and Markets Authority progresses. The watchdog said its concern was that airlines could face a worse deal due to the loss of competition and that could be bad for British consumers and businesses as in-flight wifi becomes more widespread.<br/>