This week we've seen air passengers stranded in the Philippines after a power outage, flight delays in Florida and Denver, as well as the ongoing saga of Southwest Airlines' winter holiday meltdown. Welcome to 2023, where an airline actually being punctual is headline news. The airline in question is South American carrier Azul Brazilian Airlines, which last year had the best on-time performance globally, according to a new report by aviation analytics firm Cirium. During what was a particularly chaotic 12 months for aviation, Azul Brazilian operated nearly 280,000 flights last year and 88.93% of them arrived within 15 minutes of its scheduled time at the gate -- Cirium's performance measure. Elsewhere in South America, Chile's LATAM Airlines (86.31% punctuality across more than 450,000 flights) took fourth place on Cirium's ranking of international airlines and Colombia's Avianca (83.48% and nearly 145,000 flights) was sixth. The United States was also well represented, both for airlines and airports. For the second year in a row, Delta Airlines was given the Cirium Platinum Award for global operational excellence, which weighs up punctuality alongside operational complexity and an airline's ability to limit the impact of flight disruption to its passengers. Story has more.<br/>
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The airline industry’s global lobby group condemned national moves to introduce Covid tests and other measures for passengers arriving from China as travel from the Asia nation resumes despite a flareup in the virus. The measures represent a knee-jerk reinstatement of steps that have proven ineffective in stemming the pandemic over the past three years, the International Air Transport Association said in a statement Wednesday. IATA DG Willie Walsh said travel restrictions have been shown to delay the peak of new waves of coronavirus by only a few days, rather than halting them, while at the same time strangling off international connectivity, damaging economies and destroying jobs. “Governments must base their decisions on science facts rather than science politics,” Walsh said. The European Union is moving toward an approach to the rampant outbreak in China that may include masks and pre-flight testing requirements on flights from the country. A draft opinion drawn up on Tuesday includes masking recommendations and increased wastewater monitoring and suggests discussing Covid testing, with strong majority of countries back pre-departure tests. While the unexpectedly rapid reopening of China even as the Omicron variant of Covid continues to rage there could herald a stronger-than-forecast revival of Asian and long-haul flying, border curbs including tests on arrival have been shown to be a major drag on bookings.<br/>
Data from China shows that no new coronavirus variant has been found there, but also that the country under-represents how many people have died in a rapidly spreading COVID-19 outbreak, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Wednesday. Global unease has grown about the accuracy of China's reporting of an outbreak that has filled hospitals and overwhelmed some funeral homes since Beijing abruptly reversed its "zero COVID" policy. The UN agency was releasing data provided by the Chinese CDC, a day after WHO officials met Chinese scientists. China has been reporting daily COVID deaths in single figures. Mike Ryan, the WHO's emergencies director, told a media briefing that current numbers being published from China under-represent hospital admissions, intensive care unit patients and "particularly in terms of death." WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the U.N. agency was seeking more rapid and regular data from China on hospitalisations and deaths. "WHO is concerned about the risk to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccination, including booster doses to protect against hospitalisation, severe disease and death," he said. China's People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper, sought to rally worried citizens for what it called a "final victory" over COVID-19, rebutting criticism of its policy of strict isolation that triggered rare protests last year. Beijing's abrupt axing of those ultra-strict curbs last month has unleashed the virus on the nation's 1.4b people, who have little immunity after being shielded since it emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan three years ago.<br/>
European Union government officials recommended on Wednesday that passengers flying from China to the EU should have a negative COVID-19 test before they board, as Beijing plans to ease travel restrictions despite a wave of new COVID infections. The recommendation comes from the EU's Integrated Political Crisis Response group (IPCR), which is a body made up of officials from the EU's 27 governments, and is in line with a recommendation made earlier by the European Commission. China plans to ease travel restrictions on Jan 8, despite a wave of new infections which has left Chinese hospitals and funeral houses overwhelmed. The IPCR also recommended that all passengers on flights to and from China should wear face masks, that EU governments introduce random testing of passengers arriving from China and that they test and sequence wastewater in airports with international flights and planes arriving from China. The IPCR said that, together with the European Centre for Disease Control, the Commission's foreign affairs department and the World Health Organisation would continue to monitor the epidemiological situation in the EU and developments in China. "The Member States agree to assess the situation and review the introduced measures by mid-January 2023," the IPCR said.<br/>
Japan will toughen its COVID-19 border control measures for travellers from China from Sunday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, in response to a surge of infections. Additional measures will require negative coronavirus tests taken within 72 hours of passengers boarding direct flights from China, the government said on Wednesday after Kishida's announcement, stepping up measures adopted on Dec. 30. Japan will continue to ask airlines to limit additional flights from China, he told a nationally televised New Year news conference. The decision followed results of COVID-19 tests on travellers from China in recent days and similar measures by other countries, he said. A Japanese health ministry tally shows 53 of 56 international travellers who tested positive for COVID on arrival at airports on Tuesday were from China. China's axing of its stringent virus curbs last month has unleashed COVID on a 1.4b population that has little natural immunity having been shielded from the virus since it emerged in Wuhan three years ago. "The opaque situation of the outbreak in mainland China has made many in Japan worried," Kishida later told a Fuji TV show.<br/>
Hong Kong’s government said on Wednesday that Japan had relaxed six-day-old COVID restrictions that had limited flights from the financial hub to only a handful of destinations in Japan. Planes from Hong Kong would be able to land at all airports in Japan, not just four as under the curbs, the government said. There was no immediate confirmation from Japan. Hong Kong’s government said last week that Japan’s restrictions would affect about 60,000 passengers. Many Hong Kong residents had planned trips to Japan ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday which begins on Jan. 21. Hong Kong’s government said it welcomed the relaxations, but urged Japan to remove all remaining restrictions targeting flights from the Chinese special administrative region. “After the implementation of the relaxation measures, the Japanese authorities will still restrict the extent of the increase in the frequency of passenger flights departing from Hong Kong,” the government said. Japan is one of an increasing number of countries imposing restrictions on travellers from China after Beijing’s decision to lift stringent zero-COVID policies in December.<br/>
China’s outbound tourism market is showing good growth momentum and is expected to make a robust recovery amid the nation’s optimised Covid response measures and relaxed travel restrictions. According to travel portal Trip.com Group, bookings it received for international flight tickets rose by 145% year-on-year (y-o-y) during the three-day New Year’s Day holiday. The portal is expecting such bookings to increase by 260% during the Spring Festival holiday later this month. Airline international passenger volume saw a 70% increase over the holiday, recording its best performance since 2019, according to Flight AI, a database of Trip.com Group. In December, China optimised its Covid response measures, aimed at revitalising the economy and bringing people’s lives back on track. According to the latest travel policy, announced by the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism on Dec 27 and to take effect from next Monday, international passengers arriving in the Chinese mainland no longer need to quarantine or undergo a nucleic acid test on arrival. Responding to the adjustments, the National Immigration Administration released a notice on Dec 27 saying it will resume services of approving passport applications, and tourism and business permits for the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions on Jan 8.<br/>
US Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell on Wednesday said the panel intended to hold hearings after Southwest Airlines' recent meltdown that led to nearly 16,000 flight cancellations in the week ending Dec. 29. "Southwest's customers are rightfully dissatisfied and deserve better," Cantwell said. "These consumers need refunds and reimbursements for their expenses." Cantwell said she had spoken with Southwest CEO Bob Jordan and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg about the issue and added that the committee "will be holding hearings for FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) reauthorization to examine how to strengthen consumer protections and airline operations." Southwest, which did not immediately comment on Cantwell's statement, has said it will honor reasonable requests for reimbursement for "meals, hotel accommodations, and alternate transportation (for example: rental cars and tickets on other airlines)" for passengers affected by a flight cancellation or significant delay between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2. The Texas-based low-cost carrier has not said how much it has paid or how many refunds it has processed but has said it is awarding customers 25,000 Rapid Rewards points it values at more than $300 as a goodwill gesture. The FAA's operations must be reauthorized by Sept. 30 and the measure has traditionally been used to advance aviation reforms. The Southwest flight cancellations have been cited by some lawmakers as evidence that Congress needs to strengthen protections for air travelers.<br/>
New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh says the holiday travel woes that left thousands of passengers stranded at airports or struggling to find flights home show why there should be more competition in Canada's airspace. In a press conference Wednesday, Singh said the lack of choice for passengers is also making flying less affordable, and he's calling on the Liberal government to find ways to make the airline industry more competitive. The Canadian Transportation Agency requires domestic air service operators to be majority-owned and controlled by Canadians, limiting options for travellers -- especially in rural or remote areas. Over the holidays, hundreds of people were stranded in Mexico when Sunwing cancelled flights, and the airline has stopped flying from Saskatchewan entirely until next month. Air Canada is discontinuing flights from Saskatoon and Regina to Calgary this month after it discontinued flights from Yellowknife to Edmonton last year. Singh called on Transport Minister Omar Alghabra to ensure there is better oversight. "We need to make sure people have access to being able to get around the country, and that it is affordable," Singh said. "And right now, for many people, it is not at all. It's something we need to look at and find solutions for." A spokeswoman for Alghabra's office said the government is doing everything it can to support travellers. "All options are on the table to ensure that what happened over the holidays does not happen again," Nadine Ramadan said in a written statement.<br/>
The new runway of Quetta airport will be open for wide-body aircraft, including Boeing 777 and other passenger planes, next month, the Civil Aviation Authority chief operations officer told Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry leaders at a meeting on Tuesday. Chief Operations Officer Malik Mazhar Hussain said with the opening of new runway, the direct landing of flights from Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Eruption countries would be possible at Quetta international airport. Hussain said the CAA needed cooperation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry to provide best air travel facilities to the business community and every other person of Balochistan and expressed the hope all efforts would be made in this regard. Since people associated with trade and industry were the guarantors of economic prosperity, providing facilities to them was among the government priorities, he said. “We will give priority to the suggestions given by the officials and members of the QCCI,” he added.<br/>
National Aviation Services (NAS) Afghanistan, part of Menzies Aviation group, has been awarded around US$26m plus interest in a ruling at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Tribunal in London, following the government of Afghanistan’s “illegal termination” of its concession in 2020. NAS had been providing ground services at Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat airports since 2013 through a contract awarded after an open tender process, the UK-based global ground handler said in a statement, explaining that “at all times NAS fulfilled its contractual obligations having invested more than USD7mn, bringing in state-of-the-art systems and equipment thus significantly raising the operating standards and service levels within each airport of operation.” In October 2019, Ariana Afghan Airlines and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation “without justification expropriated NAS’ operations” in the country and replaced it with a new operator, having made “totally unsubstantiated allegations” related to the Menzies Aviation subsidiary. “They took active and hostile steps to force NAS to surrender its assets and personnel including the sudden imposition of a travel ban on NAS’ expatriate employees,” the group said, as a result of which the unit “suffered considerable losses.” The group sought retribution in the courts, which involved the arbitration proceedings before the ICC.<br/>
Airbus A220 operators are being instructed to update engine-control software which revises logic to prevent a dual-engine shutdown on landing. The revision followed an incident in which an Air Baltic A220-300’s powerplants both shut down automatically as the aircraft landed in Copenhagen on 11 July 2021. According to the US FAA the loss of engine power and hydraulic systems resulted in “compromised braking capability”. Investigation into the event, it states, revealed that if the autothrottle increased thrust to maintain Mach number, but the pilot commanded a reduction to idle, a “transient disagreement” occurred between actual and commanded thrust. This disagreement triggered the detection logic for thrust-control malfunction which, in turn, shut down the engines when the aircraft’s weight-on-wheels switch activated on touchdown. Changes to crew operating procedures were drawn up in response to the incident, directing pilots to take action before landing if an abrupt manual retardation of the thrust levers towards idle was carried out above 16,000ft. These procedures – which include starting the auxiliary power unit and opting for the longest runway – are designed to reduce the potential for runway excursion. The latest measures, contained in an FAA directive effective from 31 January, centre on an update to the full-authority digital engine control software for the A220’s Pratt & Whitney PW1500G powerplants. Situations which could erroneously trigger the thrust-control malfunction logic have been identified by the manufacturer and the software has been revised to improve and correct the logic criteria. The FAA is requiring removal of certain FADEC software – the versions earlier than V2.11.14.1 – and replacement with the updated version within 12 months.<br/>
Carmaker Stellantis will help build Archer Aviation's electric aircraft and increase its stake in the US company, the two firms said on Wednesday, driving Archer's shares up nearly 17%. Industrial firms and new startups are flocking to invest in air taxis, which can take off and land vertically to ferry travellers to airports or on short trips between cities, allowing them to beat traffic. The vertical take-off and landing Midnight aircraft, which can carry four passengers and a pilot with a range of 161 kms, will be manufactured in Covington, Georgia, from 2024, with a production target of 2,300 aircraft annually, Archer and Stellantis said in a joint statement. It is designed for back-to-back short distance trips of around 20 miles, with a charging time of approximately 10 minutes in-between. "The goal is for Stellantis to mass produce Archer’s eVTOL aircraft as its exclusive contract manufacturer," the companies said. Stellantis, created from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France's Peugeot, will provide up to $150m in equity capital for potential draw by Archer at its discretion in 2023 and 2024, subject to achievement of certain business milestones. Stellantis will also increase its existing stake in Archer through stock purchases in the open market, though its CEO Carlos Tavares said it wanted to keep a minority holding.<br/>