The US USDOT said it planned to seek higher penalties for airlines and others that broke consumer protection rules, saying they were necessary to deter future violations. USDOT said in a notice posted on its website it intended to hold airlines, ticket agents and others "accountable and deter future misconduct by seeking higher penalties that would not be viewed as simply a cost of doing business." The notice comes after Transportation Department Secretary Pete Buttigieg vowed in recent days to take a hard line on Southwest if it failed to compensate travelers after cancelling nearly 16,000 flights in the week ending Dec. 29. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday the Transportation Department "will seek fines from Southwest if it doesn't cover" required costs.<br/>
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The FAA said Thursday it had named 24 experts to review Boeing’s safety management processes and how they influence Boeing’s safety culture after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people. The panel, which was required by Congress under a 2020 law to reform how the FAA certifies new airplanes, includes MIT lecturer and aerospace engineer Javier de Luis whose sister was killed in a MAX crash, as well as experts from NASA, the FAA, labor unions, Airbus, Southwest, American Airlines, United Airlines, GE Aviation, FedEx Express and Pratt & Whitney. The panel will convene in the coming weeks and have nine months to complete its review and issue findings and recommendations, the FAA said. Congress directed the agency to appoint a panel by 2021, but the FAA missed that deadline. A September 2020 House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee report said the MAX crashes "were the horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing's engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing's management, and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA."<br/>
Canada's process for handling travel complaints is "broken," one aviation expert says, as passengers struggled to get to their destinations this holiday season amid widespread delays and cancellations. "It is not built for speed, it is not built for efficiency," John Gradek, head of McGill University's aviation management program, told CTV's Your Morning on Thursday. "It is built for thoroughness and is built to make sure that the regulatory regimes are put in place." As it stands, the Canadian Transportation Agency says it could take up to 18 months to have an air travel complaint reviewed. "We need another body that can expedite these complaints, that passengers who have complaints can get an answer very quickly," Gradek said. "Right now, waiting two years, which is what likely will happen to get your hearing on a complaint, just is not acceptable." A severe winter storm in Canada left holiday travellers stranded on Via Rail trains and at airports abroad, disrupting vacations and forcing passengers to miss Christmas back home. Gradek says while weather did contribute to the recent flight disruptions, a lack of planning and experienced airport and airline staff were also factors. "I don't think it's a question of overbooking. The problem in this case was the fact that the flights are all full," he said.<br/>
Air travellers in Europe face more “major” disruption in 2023, in part because the skies are more congested than normal following the closure of Ukrainian and Russian airspace, the region’s air traffic manager has warned. Eurocontrol in late December warned that 2023 could be the toughest year in a decade for managing the region’s congested airspace as airlines start returning to pre-pandemic flight schedules. “We anticipate a risk of major air traffic flow management delays,” the agency said. Air traffic delays were just one part of a cocktail of problems that gripped airlines and airports over the summer as the industry struggled to handle the return of mass travel following more than two years of restrictions to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. Many large airports were forced to impose passengers caps, while airlines cancelled thousands of flights after concluding that industry-wide staffing problems meant they would be unable to fly their planned schedules. Russia’s war in Ukraine is compounding the problem. With both Ukrainian and Russian airspace closed to European airlines, only about 80 per cent of normal airspace is available to fly in, said Andrew Charlton, managing director of consultancy Aviation Advocacy. Charlton said this crowding would “add to the pressure on fragmented airspace”, given that there was no single European air traffic manager and planes were directed by a patchwork of national controllers across their journeys. Airlines have long blamed politicians for failing to fully implement proposals for a “Single European Sky” to create a more efficient air traffic management system. Eurocontrol said it was “working closely” with air navigation providers, airlines and airports to try to keep delays to a minimum, including reorganising some airspace and proposals to reroute some journeys. As a result of this work, the performance outlook for 2023 was expected to improve, said Eurocontrol. Eurocontrol forecasts a return to 92% of 2019 air traffic levels this year thanks to strong pent-up demand for travel, up from 83% in 2022.<br/>
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has “done some very preliminary work” to do wastewater testing with airlines, Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO for the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said Wednesday. There have been growing concerns among public health officials to ramp up monitoring for coronavirus variants amid a Covid-19 surge in China. “I think they’ve done some early piloting of one flight, for example, testing the blue water in one flight,” she said, adding that such a program could be expanded to test collections of wastewater from multiple flights or a single airport. Freeman did not know where or which airline participated in this initial testing of wastewater. “So they’re looking at that, and it does require some agreements to be made with the airlines and so forth – and then how and when to do this – but it does look like a promising area of surveillance for the future,” she said. “Certainly, expanding the wastewater surveillance just is another data point that can be helpful, and it’s a less-intrusive way of doing disease surveillance.” United Airlines said that it has “been in touch with the CDC and are evaluating our participation” in the program. CNN has requested comment from the CDC and from other US carriers that service China. US officials have been concerned about China being truthful and transparent about Covid-19 data.<br/>
A coalition of airline and airport groups on Thursday criticized new recommendations asking for passengers flying from China to the European Union to show a negative COVID-19 test prior to boarding. EU government officials made the recommendation on Wednesday as Beijing plans to ease travel restrictions despite a wave of new COVID infections. The International Air Transport Association, Airlines for Europe and ACI Europe in a joint statement said that “the current surge of COVID-19 cases in China is not expected to impact the epidemiological situation in the EU/EEA (European Economic Area)” and ran counter to an earlier assessment by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The ECDC last week said EU citizens had relatively high vaccination levels and the potential for imported infections was low compared to daily infections in the EU, with healthcare systems currently coping. China plans to ease travel restrictions on Sunday despite a wave of new infections that has left Chinese hospitals and funeral homes overwhelmed. Sweden and Germany on Thursday said they would implement the recommendations and more countries in the bloc are expected to do so soon. “While it is regrettable that the recommendations agreed yesterday largely amount to a knee-jerk reaction, it is now vital that they are implemented by EU member states in a fully uniform manner,” the groups added in the statement.<br/>
Germany is changing its entry rules for travellers from China and will in future require at least a rapid coronavirus test to enter the country, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said on Thursday. There will also be random checks upon entry for any coronavirus variants as well as expanded monitoring of wastewater, he said. The steps are in line with recommendations by European Union government officials released on Wednesday evening.<br/>
China will reopen the border with its special administrative region of Hong Kong on Sunday for the first time in three years, as it accelerates the unwinding of stringent COVID rules that have battered its economic growth. The opening will bring the resumption of quarantine-free travel between the financial hub and the mainland, although it would be done in a "gradual and orderly" way, China's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said in a notice on Thursday. China is set to reopen to the world on Sunday, welcoming international travellers and returning residents without the need to quarantine for the first time since 2020, even as infections surge after it scrapped its COVID curbs. Short of imposing a city-wide lockdown, Hong Kong closely followed China's tough zero-COVID policy until the middle of 2022 when it began to ease some of restrictions. The former British colony dropped all of its COVID rules in December but masks remain mandatory except while exercising.<br/>
Japan will allow flights from Hong Kong and Macau to land at any airport in the country, partially reversing a rule it implemented last week for both cities and mainland China that restricted arrivals to four major airports. Direct flights from Hong Kong and Macau will no longer be limited to Narita, Haneda, Kansai and Chubu Centrair airports, according to a government statement on Wednesday. Airlines also will be asked to not increase the number of flights they offer, the statement said. The about-face comes after Hong Kong requested that the rule be withdrawn, saying it created confusion for travelers visiting Japan over the holidays, according to local reports. The curb would have impacted about 10,000 people, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Dec. 28. The Japanese government limited direct flights from China, Hong Kong and Macau to the four major airports starting on Dec. 30. The restriction came as China abandoned the stringent Covid Zero policy it pursued for the first three years of the pandemic and moved to throw open its borders starting Jan. 8. New arrivals from China will be required to have negative Covid-19 test results, officials said. <br/>
South Korean police found on Thursday a Chinese man who went missing after testing positive for COVID-19 upon arrival, and said he would be taken to a quarantine facility and could later be charged under a disease control law. The man's disappearance after testing positive for COVID upon arrival at Incheon airport on Tuesday and being ordered into quarantine raised concern about increasing infections after China abandoned a tough "zero-COVID" policy and prepares to scrap travel restrictions as its cases rapidly increase. "The person was found at a hotel in Seoul this afternoon," a police officer said, adding the man in his 40s would be taken to a facility to spend the stipulated seven days in quarantine. "We plan to investigate the individual once the mandatory isolation period is completed." The man has been on a wanted list for allegedly running away while awaiting admission to quarantine. He could be subject to up to one year in prison, or 10m won ($7,840) in fines, if convicted of violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, officials said. South Korea began requiring travellers from China to undergo a PCR test upon arrival from Monday, joining a growing list of countries imposing border restrictions amid concern over infections following China's decision to end its zero-COVID policies.<br/>
Any international flights departing from Korea's regional airports will be able offer duty-free shopping on board, the Korea Customs Service (KCS) announced on Thursday. In-flight duty-free sales on planes bound for overseas destinations have been allowed only under the condition that the duty-free items are loaded directly from the airports where the corresponding planes depart. This rule is premised on airlines operating international flights at Korea's smaller airports being equipped with their own inventories of duty-free items. Big-name carriers could afford to have inventories at smaller airports, such as Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province and Yangyang International Airport in Gangwon Province. But low-cost carriers could not afford to do so, as they have inventories only at three major airports in Gimpo, Incheon and Gimhae due to financial reasons. They as a result have not offered in-flight duty-free sales.<br/>
All visitors to Thailand must show proof of at least two Covid-19 vaccinations under revised rules that coincide with the revival of travel from China, authorities said on Thursday. Also, visitors who will be travelling onward from Thailand to a country that requires a negative RT-PCR test result must provide proof of insurance. China still requires a negative PCR test result no older than 48 hours prior to arrival for all incoming travellers. Thailand last October scrapped the requirement for proof of vaccination and antigen test results as well as health insurance. However, officials believe that as people resume travelling from China in large numbers, the prospect of people in many countries contracting Covid-19 will rise.<br/>
Thousands of airline passengers were stranded across Papua New Guinea as commercial airlines grounded planes after the country’s sole supplier of finished petroleum products stopped providing jet fuel. Puma Energy, the country’s only fuel supplier, said the shortage in supply was due to a lack of foreign currency from the Central Bank of Papua New Guinea, used to buy fuel on the international markets. There was chaos at the country’s main domestic airport in Port Moresby, after all major airlines cancelled their scheduled domestic flights earlier on Thursday. “Our livelihood is being affected, just after new year,” said Simdei Kamgu, who was supposed to be travelling to Kiunga, Western Province. The prime minister, James Marape, said the situation had become a national security issue and asked the Bank of PNG and Puma Energy to solve the problem, saying the country was being held to ransom.<br/>
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said supply-chain issues will continue to hold back the aerospace industry this year amid continued strong demand. Speaking at an event of the French aerospace lobby Gifas — which Faury also heads — the CEO said the industry faces a shortage both of parts and qualified employees. Airbus was twice forced to cut its delivery targets last year because of supply-chain disruptions, a situation Faury called an “enormous frustration.” He declined to provide the final number of deliveries for the year. An analyst at Jeffries estimated Airbus likely handed over 670 jets last year, about 10 planes fewer than expected. “We’re going to continue to have big supply chain issues in 2023,” Faury said. “But we’re not going to deny our happiness about being in such a strongly growing sector.” Speaking about China’s exit from its zero-Covid policy, Faury said the step would be helpful in the medium- and long-term, but that for the moment the situation there was difficult to manage. “The re-opening, the end of the zero-Covid policy there, is very turbulent, to say the least,” he said. <br/>