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When the first Chinese tourists landed at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok this month, they were greeted like celebrities with welcome banners, flowers, gifts, and a scrum of reporters and photographers. It was the moment that hotels, airlines, tour operators and government officials had long been waiting for — the reopening of China’s borders after nearly three years of pandemic restrictions that effectively cut the world off from Chinese travelers, once the largest source of global tourism revenue. “It is very exciting to visit warm beautiful places again,” said Hua Liu, 34, a graphic designer from Shanghai, who was among the first visitors to Thailand, where she took a two-week beach vacation late this month, as part of a Lunar New Year trip. “I will make up for the lost time,” she said in a telephone interview. Her plan: “Stay at nice hotels, book spa treatments, eat at fine restaurants and buy nice gifts for myself and my family.” Before the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed international travel in 2020, China sent more travelers overseas than any other market, with about 150m Chinese tourists spending $277b abroad in 2018, according to a study by the United Nations World Tourism Organization and the China Tourism Academy. That outflow halted in 2020 and in the last year, even as countries around the world eased travel restrictions, China maintained an international travel ban for its citizens as part of its “zero Covid” policy. But on Jan. 8, the Chinese government opened its borders, allowing foreign travelers to enter and Chinese residents to go overseas. Some in the travel industry were predicting a flood of international Chinese travelers after search interest for outbound flights from mainland China increased by 83% between Dec. 26 and Jan. 5, with international flight bookings up 59% in the same period, according to the Chinese online travel agency Ctrip. But while there has been a bump in tourism to nearby destinations, including Macau, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore, farther-flung destinations are still waiting. In addition to high levels of Covid cases within China, Chinese travelers face long delays in getting passports and visas, high prices for international flights and a lack of capacity, since many carriers cut flights during China’s long lockdown. As of Friday, the number of airline seats available on direct flights from China to Britain in January was at about 8% of those available in 2019, according to VisitBritain, the official tourist board. The first direct flight scheduled between China and Switzerland on Jan. 26 was canceled because of a lack of passengers. Story has more.<br/>

America's largest airlines are expecting a strong 2023 with or without the help of the Chinese market, as executives cater to surging global travel demand while cautiously resuming flights into China after three years of zero-COVID policy. "We're not going to get ahead of ourselves in terms of capacity to China. We're going to be very mindful to see how demand warrants and how this opens up," said Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian on an earnings call earlier this month. "But that's the big question mark I think, in terms of international demand for 2023 that we don't know yet." Travelers in China were eager to fly after Beijing announced the end to most of the country's international flight restrictions and quarantine measures in December. According to data from ForwardKeys, outbound flight bookings from China increased 192% the week following Beijing's announcement compared to the year before, though remaining significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels. But for the major US airlines, the question remains whether or not American travelers, especially the highly profitable corporate customers, will be as eager to return for the kind of costly long-haul flights between the US and China. Capacity for all flights in and out of China has more than doubled compared to this time last year, but is still 82% below pre-pandemic levels, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. "All of those airplanes [before COVID days] were three-cabin, premium-fare oriented flying. And if you don't have those premium fares aboard, there's a very different economic proposition than if you had what you had in the past," said Robert Mann, a former American Airlines executive who now works as an industry consultant. And while travel demand in the US is returning to pre-pandemic levels, Mann said continued supply chain disruptions and staffing shortages will strain the equipment and labor supply for long-haul flights in particular. "The industry is still risk averse, they're still in recovery. They're not interested in flying stuff [on speculation], especially when they have limited resources in terms of aircraft and crew members," he said.<br/>

Chinese carriers reported a significant increase in domestic traffic during the week-long Lunar New Year holidays, benefiting from the abandonment of the country’s tight Covid-19 controls. During the seven-day period – between 21 and 27 January – known as the ’Golden Week’, Chinese airlines carried over 9m domestic passengers, an increase of nearly 80% year on year. Data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), issued on 28 January, also shows that passenger load factor to be at its highest in the three years of the pandemic, at 76%. The figure is 20 percentage points higher than 2022’s Lunar New Year period. This year’s Lunar New Year holiday is the peak travel period since China abruptly dropped its onerous ‘Zero Covid’ measures, including quarantine and testing on arrival, in early January. While the move has sparked an explosion in infections across the country, several Chinese carriers have announced a capacity ramp-up in time for the holiday season. China Eastern Airlines, for instance, said it would be restoring up to 87% of its pre-pandemic domestic capacity during the period. According to CAAC data, Chinese carriers mounted an average of nearly 12,000 domestic flights a day during the seven-day period, an increase of almost 34% year on year. Popular routes during the holiday period include Beijing-Shanghai, Shenzhen-Shanghai, Beijing-Guangzhou, as well as Chengdu-Guangzhou. The agency did not release traffic data for international flights during the holiday period. <br/>

Labour union strikes in France over the government's planned pensions overhaul will cause heavy disruption to public transport on Tuesday, the transport minister and several public transport authorities said on Sunday. Unions have called for a nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations and hope to repeat the large turnout seen on the first major protest on Jan. 19, when more than a million people marched against the reform. Strikes that day also halted trains, blocked refineries and curbed power generation. French civil aviation authority DGAC said in a statement it had asked airlines to reduce their flight programmes by 20% at the Paris Orly airport on Tuesday, but added that despite this preventive measure delays and disruptions could be expected.<br/>

Environmentalists protested over the weekend at the building site of a new airport in Albania’s south meant to boost tourism but which they say will endanger sanctuaries for some 200 bird species including flamingos and pelicans. The picturesque Vjose-Narte lagoon close to Albania’s Adriatic seaside is a crucial stop for flocks of birds in their annual migration between Europe and Africa. The government is building the airport just 5 kilometres from the Adriatic coast with pristine sandy beaches which the poor Balkan nation hopes will attract more foreign tourists. “For those who think this airport will bring development, in reality this airport will bring only destruction,” tourist guide Alben Kola told Reuters on Saturday as he and more than 100 environmentalists and ornithologists held their protest. The European Union, which Albania aims to join one day, has said the airport project, launched in December 2021 and due for completion at the end of 2024, was undertaken in contradiction with national and international laws on protecting biodiversity. The committee of the Bern Convention that works to protect European wildlife and natural habitats has said Albania should suspend the construction of the airport. “This shows that this nature wealth belongs not only to us but to the whole of Europe and foreign governments are doing more to protect it than we do,” said Joni Vorpsi, from the NGO Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA) that has been fighting for years to protect the lagoon.<br/>

Thailand will begin construction on the 290b baht ($8.82b) U-Tapao aviation city early this year, a government spokesperson said on Friday. The project will generate 15,600 additional jobs in the first five years and drive growth in Thailand's aviation industry, Tipanan Sirichana said. The investment plan is slated to turn the Vietnam-war era U-Tapao airport into a new international airport linked up with a budget terminal, Don Muang airport, and the country's main Suvarnabhumi Airport. The public-private project located in Thailand's industrial east will cover 1,040 hectares and is aimed at attracting tourists, said Tipanan. The project named "Eastern Aviation City" will also include a free trade zone for cargo, an aviation training centre and aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities, a government website shows.<br/>

Boeing expects to hire 10,000 workers in 2023 as it recovers from the pandemic and increases jetliner production, but will trim some support jobs, the US plane maker said Friday. The Arlington, Virginia-based company boosted overall employment by about 14,000 workers in 2022 to 156,000 as of Dec. 31, up from about 142,000 in 2021. Boeing employs about 136,000 workers in the United States. Boeing acknowledged it will “lower staffing within some support functions” - a move meant to enable it to better align resources to support current products and technology development. It declined to comment on how many jobs it will cut in 2023. Most of the growth will occur in Boeing’s business units, as well as engineering and manufacturing, to meet airlines’ growing demand. The company plans to increase deliveries of the 737 MAX from 374 aircraft in 2022 to between 400 to 450 planes this year, with deliveries of the 787 expected to hit between 70 and 80 aircraft.<br/>

Naoise Connolly Ryan told a Texas judge she’s refused any of the $500m Boeing was required to set aside to compensate families of 737 Max crash victims under a deferred prosecution agreement with the US government. “The secret sweetheart deal is not justice,” Ryan, who’s husband Mick was killed in an Ethiopian Airlines crash in 2019, said Thursday at a federal court arraignment for the company. “I’ve refused to accept the DPA blood money for this reason. I want justice for Mick and the 346 people killed by Boeing.” Ryan was among a handful of relatives making tearful appeals for the judge in Fort Worth, Texas, to hold the aircraft maker criminally liable. Earlier in the hearing, Boeing pleaded not guilty to deceiving US regulators about changes made to its 737 Max flight control system that led to two horrific crashes. It was the first time the company has been forced to publicly answer to a criminal charge connected to the disasters in 2018 and 2019. Two years ago, Boeing reached a controversial deal with the government, which agreed not to bring a conspiracy charge if the company met certain conditions. Mike Delaney, Boeing’s chief safety officer, entered the plea Thursday on behalf of the company, telling US District Judge Reed O’Connor that Boeing stands by its admissions of fault expressed in its agreement with the Justice Department, even while it’s contesting the pending felony charge. The 2021 agreement resolved a probe of Boeing’s role in crashes that killed 346 people and required the company to admit to conduct that would support a charge of conspiracy to defraud the US. The government also hit Boeing with a criminal fine of $243.6m and placed it under Justice Department supervision for a period of three years. <br/>

Boeing's 747, the original and arguably most aesthetic "Jumbo Jet", revolutionized air travel only to see its more than five-decade reign as "Queen of the Skies" ended by more efficient twinjet planes. The last commercial Boeing jumbo will be delivered to Atlas Air in the surviving freighter version on Tuesday, 53 years after the 747's instantly recognizable humped silhouette grabbed global attention as a Pan Am passenger jet. "On the ground it's stately, it's imposing," said Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden who piloted a specially liveried 747 nicknamed "Ed Force One" during the British heavy metal band's tour in 2016. "And in the air it's surprisingly agile. For this massive airplane, you can really chuck it around if you have to." Designed in the late 1960s to meet demand for mass travel, the world's first twin-aisle wide body jetliner's nose and upper deck became the world's most luxurious club above the clouds.<br/>

The new CE of Rolls-Royce has told staff that the engineering company is a “burning platform” that must transform to survive. Tufan Erginbilgic, the former BP executive who replaced Warren East as CE at the start of January, said the coronavirus pandemic could not be blamed for what in reality was a perennial underperformance of the business compared with rivals. “We underperform every key competitor out there,” Erginbilgic said in an address at Rolls-Royce’s UK manufacturing site at Derby, which was broadcast to staff globally. “Every investment we make, we destroy value.” He is expected to announce a sweeping and painful restructuring plan for the FTSE 100 company. Its market value has slumped by two-thirds over the last five years.<br/>