US carrier United Airlines Holdings said Tuesday it is currently evaluating the market demand and operating environment to determine when to resume additional flight operations to mainland China. China will stop requiring inbound travelers to go into quarantine from Jan. 8, the National Health Commission said late on Monday. United currently operates four-times-weekly service between San Francisco and Shanghai.<br/>
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Avianca plans to roll out a new route connecting Boston to its base in Bogota, Colombia starting by the end of March 2023. Operating five times weekly using a 180-seat Airbus A320, the Boston-Bogota route would expand the flag-carrier’s network to include 11 destinations in the USA starting 27 March, Avianca said 27 December. The airline also plans to launch new routes connecting Bogota with Manaus and Belo Horizonte in Brazil, and Tegucigalpa, Honduras. “Avianca is proud to provide new connectivity options for millions of travelers in Colombia, United States, Brazil, and Honduras with the inauguration of these new bases and the start of operations of these new routes,” says CCO Manuel Ambriz. “In this way we not only maintain but continue to strengthen our network, one of the largest in Latin America, with a renewed, more flexible proposal for everyone.” In 2022, the airline launched 21 new connections, and it has plans for another 20 or more in 2023 amid its recovery from Covid-19-related travel restrictions and Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The carrier currently operates 3,800 weekly flights to 129 routes throughout Latin America, North America, Europe, and the Caribbean. About 2.6m passengers flew with Avianca in 2022.<br/>
Ethiopian Airlines will resume flights to the capital of the war-torn northern region of Tigray starting on Wednesday, the airline said in a statement, the first commercial flights to Tigray in about 18 months. The announcement comes a day after a delegation of government officials and heads of public enterprises visited Mekelle to discuss implementation of last month's peace agreement. The agreement, which included promises to restore services, ended two years of fighting between the Ethiopian federal government and allies against the Tigrayan forces, that killed thousands and displaced millions. "The resumption of these flights will enable families to reunite, facilitate the restoration of commercial activities, stimulate tourist flow and bring many more opportunities which will serve the society," Ethiopian Airlines CEO Mesfin Tasew, who was part of the delegation to Mekelle, said in a statement. A travel agent in Addis Ababa said the first Mekelle-bound flight was fully booked within hours of the announcement.<br/>
Korean Air's acquisition of Asiana Airlines now seems to depend heavily on the European Union's decision, as China preemptively gave its approval for the business deal, according to aviation industry experts, Tuesday. The Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China (MOFCOM) announced on Monday that it approved the deal between the two Korean air carriers. The Chinese antitrust regulator's decision came after Korean Air submitted remedies proposing to transfer slots to any new airline wishing to start air services on nine routes where both Korean Air and Asiana Airlines operate. As a result, China became the first foreign country to give its approval for the acquisition, among countries where reporting for such deals is mandatory. This was in contrast to most industry insiders' expectations, who felt that Korean Air would face difficulty in winning approval from China. "We expect MOFCOM's approval of the business combination to play a positive role in the review process of the remaining competition authorities," Korean Air said. The company is still waiting for approval from the US, the EU and Japan, where reporting is mandatory, as well as final approval from the UK, where reporting is arbitrary. Given that the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) accepted remedies submitted by Korean Air earlier this month, it is expected to give its approval during Q1 next year. The US is also expected to allow the acquisition in the near future, as the Department of Justice said last month that it needs time to review the matter, instead of disallowing the deal. Japan is unlikely to reject the deal, because various budget carriers' use of most of the country's flight routes has reduced concerns over a possible monopoly. Korean Air, however, still needs to overcome the strict review of the EU, which has a long track record of opposing large-scale acquisitions.<br/>
Air India has embarked on a new initiative to advise its passengers flying out of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) of options when fog interferes with flight schedules. This push notification service is not just intended to preemptively maintain schedule integrity, but to respect customers’ time. For the past few weeks, intense fog has hit India again as it did in 2019 and in January 2016 when the above photo was taken. Although as per a statement from Air India, the airline has CAT-III Instrument Landing System (ILS) which enables automatic landings and allows for one to get to 50 feet above runway altitude before having to see the runway or abort. Nonetheless even having the best ILS that is much more evolved than the initial work of the United Kingdom’s Blind Landing Experimental Unit is sometimes insufficient. According to a December 22, 2022 edition of the Tribune of India, there were significant delays of 30 flights, and 6 flights were canceled by all airlines due to fog events. Although only one Air India flight was affected – regional flight 9I-806 to Delhi – with a two-hour delayed departure, the airline believes in being proactive. Rajesh Dogra, Chief Customer Experience Officer and Global Head of Airport Operations, Air India shared some thoughts: "We will strive to give our customers up to date information on whether their flight has been impacted by fog and help them make the best choice given the circumstances. By proactively tackling the issue, we will be able to maintain the overall network schedule integrity as best as possible, and offer a better experience to all passengers, particularly those on flights unaffected by fog in Delhi, who would otherwise have been subjected to the cascading effects of rolling fog delays."<br/>