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UN humanitarian relief agency Unicef is looking to recruit some of the airline industry’s biggest operators to help distribute a coronavirus vaccine to the world’s poorest nations. Unicef, which normally provides aid to children, held a call with about 40 carriers Monday to make plans for the global airlift and to identify what tasks each party can perform, according to Glyn Hughes, head of cargo at the IATA, which helped arrange the meeting. Unicef, already the world’s largest buyer of vaccines, is leading efforts to purchase and distribute Covid shots to 92 states with funds from the GAVI immunization program, which brings together governments, the World Health Organization and World Bank. Another 80 higher-income countries have chosen it to procure inoculations they will buy, extending the plan to 70% of the world’s population. The summons to airlines was triggered by positive late-stage trial results reported by Pfizer and Moderna on two separate vaccines, Hughes said. Neither has yet been approved for use, but attention is turning toward how a successful shot can be distributed, especially to less well off countries without the resources for mass purchases. About 30 of the largest cargo airlines were invited to participate in the call, Hughes said. They included express-delivery specialists such as FedEx and UPS and dedicated freighter operators like Cargolux Airlines International.<br/>

With no federal mandates to follow, an increasing number of US airlines and airports are offering preflight coronavirus testing to boost public confidence in flying during the pandemic and help restore their businesses. The move mirrors what is already being done in countries around the world where preflight testing is seen as a way to reopen for business while helping control the spread of the virus. More than 100 countries now require proof of a negative coronavirus test for entry, and in some cases travelers with negative results are allowed to skip otherwise mandatory quarantines. The ICAO issued new recommendations last week that acknowledged the potential of such programs. The organization’s approach leaves the decision regarding quarantines up to individual nations, but it said it would publish a manual in coming days to help governments develop policies. “It was recognized that introducing testing could — if properly implemented in States that assess it as appropriate for their situation — reduce reliance on measures such as quarantines that restrict air travel or the movement of persons arriving in a country, and which evidence suggests is a disincentive to several important categories of travel,” the UN group said. Many international airports, including in Turkey and Germany, were among the first to offer such testing. In recent months, airlines and airports in the United States, including in Connecticut, Florida, New York and San Francisco, have begun offering the option as air travel continues to stall.<br/>

A U.S. travel group said on Tuesday that travel spending is expected to fall by more than $500b in 2020 and is not expected to recover to pre-coronavirus levels until 2024. The US Travel Association projects spending in 2019 will be $617b, down from its July forecast of $622b, compared with $1.13t in 2019. The decline reflects the dramatic falloff in business travel. The group said the industry has lost nearly 40%, or 3.5m, of all direct travel jobs and warned another 1m jobs could be lost without additional government relief by year-end. The group forecasts a 75% reduction in international visitors to the US in 2020, accounting for a $119b decline in spending. The United States currently bars most non-US citizens who have recently been in Europe, China, Brazil and some other countries.<br/>

Many EU governments oppose common rules on the use of rapid COVID-19 tests, an internal document seen by Reuters says, in a new blow to airlines which are betting on fast-track testing to help bring the travel industry back to life. Airlines are pressing governments for alternatives to blanket curbs on movement amid a second wave of COVID-19 sweeping Europe, with Lufthansa and Alitalia spearheading the use of rapid antigen tests. But many EU governments are not ready for common procedures on the tests which would help ease travel across Europe, according to the document prepared by the German government, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency. “A large number of member states made clear that discussions on common minimum standards and criteria were premature,” the paper, dated Nov. 12, says. The document will be on the table when EU leaders discuss coordination in fighting the pandemic in a video conference on Thursday. Rapid antigen kits are less accurate than standard PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, but can offer results in a few minutes, as opposed to days. European airlines are using them on passengers before departure, allowing only those who test negative to travel. But the testing is largely limited to domestic flights, partly because of European countries’ reluctance to apply consistent rules.<br/>

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the aviation industry like no crisis before, grounding thousands of planes and drying up travel as restrictions on movement deter people from flying. International flights have felt the impact most acutely due to border controls and mandatory quarantine requirements; domestic routes are starting to recover as people are generally able to move more freely within their countries. Asia is a standout, home to all 10 of the world’s busiest domestic routes this month, according to OAG Aviation Worldwide. South Korea has the busiest by far, between its capital Seoul and the island Jeju. The route -- which takes a little over an hour -- has around 1.3m seats scheduled in November, OAG said. That’s more than the top 10 international routes combined. Jeju-Seoul was the world’s busiest domestic route last year, pre-pandemic, with over 17m seats, or about 48,000 on average a day. Of the other top 10 busiest domestic routes, China and Japan have four each and one is in Vietnam. China’s busiest is from capital Beijing to Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport, with 768,184 seats this month, about the same as the top four US routes combined. Separately, aviation analytics company Cirium said this week that 31% of the world’s passenger jet fleet was in storage as of Nov. 11, or a little over 8,100 aircraft. <br/>

The Boeing 737 Max is nearing clearance to fly again after a 20-month ban prompted by two fatal crashes that sent the company into a crisis, but the planes are returning to a different problem. The coronavirus pandemic has roiled airline finances around the world, hurting demand for new planes and helping to drive up cancellations and deferrals. “The Max isn’t coming into a situation where everything is fine now,” said Phil Seymour, president of London-based aviation consulting firm IBA Group. It’s been a bruising year for the company. In the first 10 months of 2020, Boeing lost 393 aircraft orders after factoring in new sales, cancellations and orders for planes that were converted to other aircraft. Chief rival Airbus won 308 net new orders for aircraft in that period, by comparison. Boeing has lost $3.45b this year through the end of September and analysts don’t expect it to get to positive free cash flow until the end of next year. Boeing executives, however, are eager to turn the page after the protracted crisis, and many investors appear to be, too. Boeing’s stock price has shot up more than 40% this month, fueled by optimism around the jets’ return and positive news from two vaccine trials. But the shares are still off more than 37% this year as the pandemic presents an added challenge to the plane maker.<br/>

Relatives of victims of one of the plane crashes involving Boeing’s grounded 737 Max argued Tuesday that the plane is still unsafe as US regulators near clearing the jet to return to service after 20 months. The FAA has telegraphed that a decision to recertify the jet is coming soon. The agency has already released proposed software upgrades and fixes to the plane, and plans for revised pilot training. Michael Stumo, father of Samya Rose Stumo, who died in the March 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, said in a teleconference with reporters that the agency is keeping families of crash victims in the dark about why it believes the 737 Max is now safe to fly. “They say trust us, just like before,” Stumo said. “They don’t meet with us, they meet with each other. And we cannot trust this plane.” The FAA and Boeing have already faced multiple reviews of their actions by lawmakers, government watchdogs, crash investigators and outside experts. In response to similar charges leveled against the agency last week, the FAA issued a statement defending its actions. “The FAA’s process during the certification of the Boeing 737 Max has been transparent to an unprecedented degree,” the agency said. Naoise Ryan, wife of Mick Ryan, who died in the Flight 302 crash, said a decision by the FAA to re-certify the 737 Max would not be enough to convince her the plane is safe now. “We want answers as to why the crash happened and also we want answers as to exactly what they’ve done to make sure this never happens again,” she said. “Based on the lack of transparency alone, I would not want a family member to board one of these planes.”<br/>

The US House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation Tuesday to reform the FAA’s aircraft certification process after two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people. The 737 MAX has been grounded since March 2019 but the FAA is set on Wednesday to approve the plane’s return to service after a lengthy review, new software safeguards and training upgrades. The House bill, approved on a voice vote, requires an expert panel to evaluate Boeing Co’s safety culture and to recommend improvements, and mandates that aircraft manufacturers adopt safety management systems and complete system safety assessments for significant design changes. It also requires that risk calculations be based on realistic assumptions of pilot response time, and that risk assessments are shared with regulators. Boeing and the FAA declined to comment on the legislation. The Senate Commerce Committee plans to vote on Wednesday on a similar FAA certification reform bill, but it remains unclear if Congress will be able to adopt a measure by year end.<br/>

Britain and the US have signed a deal for the continuation of flights between the two countries as the UK prepares for the end of its transition period with the EU. The deal, called the Air Services Agreement, was reached in November 2018, and signed on Tuesday by UK transport minister Grant Shapps, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Transport Secretary Elaine Chao. Britain left the EU earlier this year but in practice remains covered by EU agreements and rules until the transition period finishes at the end of this year. The newly signed agreement allows the two countries to continue existing operations as they did under the EU-U.S. open skies deal, although flying between them is currently at a very low level due to the coronavirus pandemic. <br/>

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury called on the European Union to patch up its shaky partnership with the US, warning that the bloc risks falling behind as other regions recover from the coronavirus pandemic. “Asia is going faster than the rest of the world,” Faury said Monday. “I’m really worried we’ll emerge late and weakened.” Trade tensions between the EU and the US threaten to bog down Airbus and its US rival Boeing as they try to claw their way back from the worst aviation crisis in history. Meanwhile, a new Asia-Pacific trade deal shows the risks of Europe and the US continuing to battle each other on trade rather than working together, Faury said. The Airbus CEO said that while he agreed with the EU’s recent decision to impose retaliatory tariffs on US aircraft, an escalating trade war “would not be good for Boeing, Airbus or the industry.” US President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on EU-built planes and other goods last year, amplifying a 16-year rift between the two dominant planemakers. His defeat by challenger Joe Biden in this month’s election has led to calls for a reset. “It’s obvious this conflict neither helps customers nor industry,” Faury said.<br/>

Frequent fliers who represent just 1% of the world’s population account for more than half of the total emissions from passenger air travel, according to a new study. The study looked at flights in 2018 and found that just 11% of the world's population travelled by air, and only 4% took international flights, contributing a billion tonnes of CO2. In the UK, 59% of the adult population does not fly, and 20% of frequent fliers produced 60% of 2018 emissions. The study, conducted by Sweden’s Linnaeus University and published in the journal Global Environmental Change, will give support to calls for governments to impose frequent flier levies to help keep emissions down. A frequent flier levy was one of the key recommendations that came out of the Climate Assembly, a representative group of members of the public asked by parliament to discuss how the UK should meet its legally-binding net zero commitments. That came after a report from the Government’s climate change advisers last year recommended a frequent flier levy and scrapping airline reward programmes. Andrew Murphy, the aviation analyst at international NGO Transport and Environment, said the results of the study raised questions over the benefits of expanding airport capacity, especially in the wake of Covid-19. “We have to ask who is this serving? We now know it’s not the one family who are going on their annual holiday to Spain, it’s the elite who are hopping on a plane every other week and taking multiple holidays a year in between business trips,” he said. “They've been huge beneficiaries of Government policies that have left emissions untaxed and unregulated.” <br/>

A former Aviation Security Service (Avsec) officer has been found guilty of planting a fake bomb at Dunedin Airport two days after the Christchurch terror attack. Preetam Prakash Maid, 32, was charged with taking an imitation explosive into a security-enhanced area after a device was found on the northern side of the airport on March 17, 2019. Maid, who started work with Avsec in May 2017, claimed to have spotted an unusual item near a hut. He was found guilty in a majority verdict by a jury in the Dunedin District Court on Wednesday. Judge Michael Crosbie praised the jury, which took over a day and a half to reach its majority verdict, noting the evidence was "overwhelming". During a trial that took more than two weeks, the Crown alleged Maid planted the device at the airport himself, constructing it from items obtained from a secured airport area. The device contained wires, a cylinder, batteries, a cellphone and a cryptic note, the jury was told during the trial, held over more than two weeks. The handwritten note read: “A. Alpha, B. Birds, C. Crash, D. Dunedin, E. Emergency, F. Fools.” A handwriting expert told the court it was likely to have been written by Maid. The Crown alleged a possible motive for Maid, who had previously raised issues over airport security measures, was getting more work at the airport.<br/>