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Despite a record number of new Covid cases and the CDC recommending against travelling for Thanksgiving, Friday and Saturday were two of the busiest days at US airports since the pandemic brought air travel to a near halt in March. The TSA screened slightly more than 1m people at US airports on Friday. Saturday's screenings fell just short of that mark, but were enough to bring the two-day total to 2m. That's still only 42% of the volume screened on the Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving a year ago, but it marks only the second- and third- busiest days for US airport traffic since mid-March. The only time that topped those days was October 18, when 1.03m passengers were screened. The rush of travelers comes on a day that Johns Hopkins University reported a record 195,542 new US Covid-19 cases confirmed. And it comes the day after the CDC issued its warning against traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday. US airlines are bracing for their busiest week since the start of the pandemic. American Airlines said it will increase its schedule by about 15% during Thanksgiving week, compared to the rest of November, from a daily average of 3,500 flights to more than 4,000 flights. The airlines insist that the cleaning procedures used between flights, the exchange of fresh air in the cabin throughout flights and the hospital-quality air filters now used on planes make it safe to fly even during a pandemic outbreak. The airlines also insist passengers wear masks. The CDC's concern is not about the spread of the disease during a flight, but rather whether large family gatherings during the holiday will spread cases of the disease, especially with hospitals in many part of the country already at capacity treating Covid patients.<br/>

The disappointment was palpable for the first passengers getting ready to fly between Hong Kong and Singapore under a quarantine-free air travel bubble after the scheme was put on hold for two weeks. The Hong Kong government announced the postponement on Saturday, after a surge in untraceable Covid-19 cases, in what is being seen as the city’s fourth wave of coronavirus. Commerce minister Edward Yau Tang-wah was non-committal about establishing a new launch date, which would depend on the infection picture improving. Cathay Pacific said it was “very sorry for this unexpected change” to flights. Hong Kong’s flag carrier was offering refunds, travel vouchers for future flights or a change to new flights to Singapore – which would still require quarantine. The airline said it planned to operate non-bubble flights on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays over the next two weeks. “Both governments were acting in the best interest of everyone,” said Subhas Menon, DG of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. He said the authorities had shown some consistency in sticking to the rules that established and guided the travel bubble. “We don’t want what happened in Europe and started [spreading the virus] after a few weeks, they had to U-turn and impose quarantine, go back to square one and there is no travel. We don’t want that to happen here,” he said. For Cathay and SIA, pushed deep into financial trouble by the ongoing Covid-19 chaos, the postponement was yet another blow. Neither airline has a domestic service and with borders closed, most of their international flights have been cancelled and planes grounded.<br/>

The shelving of the Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble shows just how delicate the process of reopening borders is -- even for places that have largely contained the coronavirus. The cities’ virus outbreaks are far less intense than in places such as the US and Europe, but a recent uptick in cases in Hong Kong proved enough to delay the start of the air corridor between the two financial hubs by two weeks, dashing the plans of those who booked flights that were due to begin Sunday. The bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore was heralded as a pandemic world-first, allowing people to travel to and from the two places without the need for quarantine. Authorities are reviewing a new launch date. “This is a sober reminder that the Covid-19 virus is still with us, and even as we fight to regain our normal lives, the journey will be full of ups and downs,” Singapore Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said Saturday. The two sides agreed that the bubble would be suspended if local infections exceeded five on a rolling seven-day average. That wasn’t even met in Hong Kong before the decision, but the recent jump in infections there was enough for authorities to apply the brakes, handing another setback to the aviation and travel industries of the two cities, which had some of the region’s busiest airports before the pandemic. Even if the Hong Kong-Singapore corridor opens, the boost to the two aviation hubs will be limited, said Rico Merkert, professor of transport at the University of Sydney’s business school. SIA and Cathay will continue to struggle because they can’t funnel onto the route those travelers who would normally arrive from Europe and the US, he said. “Without that feeder traffic, those bubbles will at best be limited to the local population,” Merkert said. “International travel is going to remain a tricky affair.”<br/>

Australia’s two most populous states reopened their borders on Monday after more than four months, as Victoria stamped out a second coronavirus wave, raising prospects of a quicker return to normal and speedy economic recovery. New South Wales and Victoria closed their borders in early July, the first time in more than a century, to contain a COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne, Victoria’s capital city. The borders were last shut in 1919 during the Spanish flu pandemic. Lifting of the border ban at midnight triggered joyful scenes and celebrations across the border towns with most drivers crossing the border honking their car horns to cheers from border residents, television footages showed. Reopening of the borders should see a surge in air traffic between Melbourne and Sydney, one of the busiest routes in the world before the pandemic, with Sydney airport expecting nearly 4,000 passengers across 26 flights from Victoria on Monday. “Today, some people who haven’t worked since March are going to be on aircraft for the first time,” Qantas CE Alan Joyce said.<br/>

The future of Boeing’s freshly approved 737 MAX is in the hands of nearly 700 workers toiling behind the gray doors of a three-bay hangar at a desert airport in Washington state. Inside, over an endless 24-hour loop, 737 MAX planes are rolled in for maintenance, and upgrades of software and systems as mandated by the US FAA in this week’s order lifting a flight ban imposed after two crashes, the airport’s director said. In front, workers in bright yellow vests inspect the roughly 240 jets stored in giant grids at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake - more than half of an inventory worth about $16b, according to investment firm Jefferies. Analysts say clearing the logjam of up to 450 stored jets in total is crucial before Boeing can resume meaningful production of its traditional cash cow - a task complicated by the fact that buyers have in some cases walked away during the grounding. While parked on the tarmac, each jet is fitted with red engine and wheel covers, a windshield screen to block out the sun, and a small generator powering cycles of fresh air and electricity through its systems - the aviation equivalent of life support. “It’s an enormous undertaking,” said the airport’s director, Rich Muller. “But this go-ahead from the FAA has given them a real shot in the arm. It’s really energized everyone.” The work at Moses Lake is a cornerstone of a global logistical and financial strategy under way at Boeing to clear a backlog of more than 800 mothballed 737 MAX jets. About 450 are Boeing property, and a further 387 were in airline service before the FAA’s grounding order in March 2019. Story has more.<br/>

Europe is set to lift its flight ban on the Boeing 737 MAX passenger jetliner in January after US regulators last week ended a 20-month grounding triggered by two fatal crashes. The head of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said in remarks aired on Saturday that the 737 MAX was safe to fly after changes to the design of the jet that crashed twice in five months in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. “We wanted to carry out a totally independent analysis of the safety of this aircraft, so we performed our own checks and flight tests,” Executive Director Patrick Ky said. “All these studies tell us that the 737 MAX can return to service. We have started to put in place all the measures,” he said. “It is likely that in our case we will adopt the decisions, allowing it to return to service, some time in January.” EASA’s decision is seen as the most important milestone after the FAA’s approval since, as the watchdog responsible for Airbus, it too carries significant weight in the industry. Officials confirmed a draft EASA directive proposing to end the grounding in Europe will be published next week, followed by a 30-day comment period. After finishing touches, that would lead to an ungrounding decision in January. How long it takes for flights to resume in Europe depends on pilot training and the amount of time it takes airlines to upgrade software and carry out other actions mandated by EASA. <br/>

Boeing is finally close to getting its 737 Max back into the air again in the US. But the company still faces challenges in the critical aviation market of China, where its business woes go way beyond the troubled aircraft. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has yet to say whether it will allow the 737 Max to fly in the country after the US Federal Aviation Administration gave the green light for the plane to carry passengers earlier this week. While the US government was an important hurdle for Boeing to clear, it will need approval from other aviation regulators before airlines can fly the plane between international destinations. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency, which oversees flights in Europe, has said it expects to take action in late December or early 2021. But China's sign-off is critical. The country was the first to ground the 737 Max last year after two of the jets crashed, claiming hundreds of lives. The CAAC said last month that it has its own criteria that Boeing needs to meet before China will be satisfied with the plane again, including assurances that changes to its design are "safe and reliable. "As long as they meet the requirements, we are happy to see them resuming flights," Feng Zhenglin, director of CAAC, said last month. "But if not, we have to maintain strict examination to ensure safety." China's approval isn't just about allowing the 737 Max to fly in Chinese airspace again. Boeing's business in China has been severely damaged by years of fighting between Washington and Beijing over trade, technology and intellectual property rights, and getting back on track will be a huge challenge.<br/>

After more than a decade working at Manchester Airport in the northwest of England, Tracey Moore finally got the job she wanted — at Virgin Atlantic’s passenger check-in desk. Then, at 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 22, after about a year on the job and months on furlough, she returned to the airport and handed in her uniform. She had taken a buyout and left her dream job. But she didn’t work for Virgin Atlantic. She was one of the thousands of people let go at Swissport, an international company that provides ground handling services for airlines, including passenger check-in and loading and unloading baggage. From check-in through takeoff and landing, travelers with Virgin Atlantic end up interacting with hundreds of other companies the airline has hired to provide the services and goods that make up a smooth flying experience. It is the same with most big airlines. Virgin doesn’t cook the in-flight food, or print the menus, or build the business-class seats, or de-ice the wings, or unload the baggage at the airport, or return your luggage when it gets lost; it hires companies to do these and many more tasks. But eight months after governments closed their borders and imposed travel restrictions to stop the spread of the coronavirus, lockdown restrictions have only partially eased and a second wave of the pandemic has besieged Europe, stamping out tourism. Virgin Atlantic, which relies heavily on long-haul routes and trans-Atlantic travel, has had almost no opportunity to recover. The airline has laid off 4,700 employees, nearly half of its staff. The companies contracted by Virgin, with names like Gogo (a provider of in-flight internet), ESP Colour (printing services) and Eagles Couriers, have also been knocked down by the pandemic’s crushing blow on air travel, in some cases cutting staff and closing facilities. Story has more.<br/>