IATA is working on a mobile app that will help travelers demonstrate their coronavirus-free status, joining a push to introduce so-called Covid passports as vaccines for the disease near approval. The Travel Pass will display test results together with proof of inoculation, as well as listing national entry rules and details on the nearest labs, the IATA said Monday. The app will also link to an electronic copy of the holder’s passport to prove their identity. A test program will begin with BA parent IAG this year before arriving on Apple devices in the first quarter and Android from April, IATA said. Travelers will be able to share their status with border authorities or present a QR code for scanning. Qantas said Monday a Covid-19 vaccination will be a necessity for its international passengers. CEO Alan Joyce said he has discussed the idea with other airlines, and it’s likely to become a pre-boarding requirement around the world. “It’s going to be a common theme across the board,” Joyce said. While international travel remains in the doldrums amid a patchwork of local restrictions and lockdowns, countries are beginning to embrace testing to shorten or do away with quarantines for arriving passengers. The first vaccines are meanwhile expected to become available in coming months. That’s prompted a spate of technology-led moves to devise mechanisms to monitor travelers’ Covid credentials and combat false claims from people desperate to fly.<br/>
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Aviation bosses have stepped up calls for coronavirus tests for airline passengers to replace quarantine as they warn that the vaccine breakthrough may distract from the immediate priority to open up air travel. The CEs of British Airways, Delta, Airbus and easyJet have ratcheted up pleas to countries such as the UK to introduce pre-flight testing as industry losses mount following the collapse in passenger numbers. Although welcoming Pfizer’s successful trials that prompted a rally in shares, they warn of the time it may take to meet the huge logistical challenge of immunising large sections of the world’s population. “Testing is going to be critical to opening up international travel. It is going to take a while before the vaccine rollout,” Delta boss Ed Bastian said. He added that in the short term a vaccine “could be a negative to travel” as people hold off booking flights until they have been immunised. Johan Lundgren, easyJet chief executive, told the FT: “I think there are reasons to be positive. But as you would imagine and expect, nobody knows how long this pandemic will continue before you see the vaccine being rolled out.” BA chief executive Sean Doyle said: “The vaccine is great news, and we are encouraged by that. But the details of when it is rolled out, to what scale and when it will have a material effect on travel is unclear. It is obvious we need a solution in the short term to get travel going again.” Two different jabs are likely to be approved before the end of the year, but the aviation industry does not expect to begin to see the benefits until well into 2021.<br/>
Willie Walsh is to become the next head of the IATA, a position which will see the former British Airways CE lead the industry’s response to the pandemic. Walsh will be proposed as the next director-general at IATA’s annual meeting on Tuesday, and is expected to take over from Alexandre de Juniac in April next year, the group said. Iata has led the global airline industry’s reaction to the coronavirus crisis, including lobbying governments for financial support in the early stages of the pandemic. More recently it has called for the introduction of a co-ordinated global testing regime to lift the blanket quarantine bans that have stifled the industry. Walsh stepped down as CE of BA owner International Airlines Group after 15 years in September. Walsh will take the helm at Iata around a year after the rapid spread of Covid-19 sent the aviation industry into an unprecedented crisis. Airlines around the world are on course to lose about $80b this year, but the prospect of a vaccine means the Irishman could become the public face of the industry’s recovery. “The building blocks for an industry recovery are in place,” de Juniac said.<br/>
England will chop its 14-day quarantine for arrivals from high-risk countries by almost two-thirds if they take a coronavirus test, easing restrictions on air travel just in time for the Christmas holiday rush. The new rules, which will come into force on Dec. 15, will reduce the self-isolation period to five days if a passenger tests negative for Covid-19 on or after the fifth day, the Department for Transport said Tuesday. While the announcement is a step forward for an industry battered by the travel slowdown, airlines have been seeking a complete removal of the UK’s quarantine system. The leaders of major carriers like Ryanair and BA parent IAG have roundly criticized the policy and blamed it for worsening a disastrous year for aviation. The new rules are “a vital first step to reopening the skies in the run-up to Christmas,” said Shai Weiss, CEO of Virgin Atlantic. However, “a five-day quarantine is likely to prove a significant deterrent for travelers, especially those on business.” He called for a move to pre-departure testing that would completely replace self-isolation.<br/>
Prosecutors in Qatar have announced that the airport police officers who ordered forced vaginal examinations of female passengers after a newborn child was discovered abandoned in a bin have been charged and could face prison sentences of up to three years. Prosecutors did not say how many officers faced charges over the incident last month at Hamad international airport, which sparked widespread anger in Australia, a key destination for the state-owned Qatar Airways. “Extensive investigations revealed that some employees of the airport security department acted unilaterally by summoning female medical staff to conduct external examination to some female passengers, thinking that what they had done was within the law,” a statement from prosecutors said on Monday. The public prosecutor said it had also charged the child’s mother, who left the country, with attempted murder and that it had launched legal proceedings to arrest her. The mother, identified as of “Asian nationality”, could face a maximum penalty of 15 years, the statement said. It also said a male defendant had been identified as the child’s father after a DNA test. The mother had messaged the father telling him she had just given birth and that she was abandoning the child and leaving the country, the prosecutor said. It is not clear what charges the father faces.<br/>
Warnings from public health officials not to travel for Thanksgiving didn't stop passengers from packing US airports and planes this weekend. From Friday to Sunday, more than 3m people passed through airport security checkpoints in the US — a record weekend for air travel since the pandemic hit in March. Sunday was the biggest day for air travel since March 16, with 1.05m people screened. US health officials have pleaded with the American public not to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday this week as new Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths soar. Friday saw a one-day record of 196,000 new US cases, according to Johns Hopkins. The airlines say 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. The airlines also require passengers to wear masks. But officials from the CDC say the risk of spreading disease lies less in the flight itself and more with large family gatherings, especially with hospitals in many parts of the country already at capacity treating Covid patients. The traffic is forecast to get even busier later this week. 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 airline industry is neither encouraging nor discouraging holiday travel, the head of the industry's trade group said Thursday. "Do we want to see them travel? Yes, but only if it's safe for them," said Nick Calio, CEO of Airlines for America. "There's a variety of factors involved in that for each individual traveler."<br/>
When it comes to concern about contracting Covid-19, air travelers are most worried they’ll catch it from fellow passengers on aircraft, according to a survey by J.D. Power, despite the industry’s efforts to convince people that flying is safe. Travelers are less concerned about catching the virus when they can control their own personal space and don’t have prolonged interaction with strangers. Hence, hotel rooms and rental cars are regarded as much safer than the cabin of a passenger plane, the survey found. The survey featured more than 50,000 respondents traveling through a major US airport over a period that ended on Oct. 15, J.D. Power said, without naming the airport. Nearly a quarter of respondents weren’t “worried at all” about contracting Covid-19, while only 10% stated “great concern.” The IATA has said the risk of contracting Covid-19 on a flight is very low, with fewer than 50 confirmed cases of transmission in-flight since the start of the pandemic. Forward-facing seats, high airflow rates and hospital-grade filters are some of the reasons why flying is safe, according to the airline lobby. <br/>
The suspension of the 80:20 ‘use it or lose it’ rule on slots should be extended into the 2021 summer season and possibly beyond, in the view of IATA’s head of worldwide airport slots Lara Maughan. The revised rules would be “something more balanced”, however, than the “blanket waiver” agreed for the summer 2020 and winter 2020-21 seasons, Maughan states during a briefing ahead of tomorrow’s IATA AGM. “What we’re working through with the airports and the slot coordinators isn’t a blanket waiver,” Maughan explains. “We’re trying to put in place something that is a balance between protecting and preserving the slots that provide the connectivity and allowing new access for airlines that can restore their schedules quicker.” Noting that the 80% threshold set by slot rules is “obviously too high” in a global market where travel – particularly on international routes – is depressed and likely to remain so for some time, Maughan says she hopes the guidelines can be adapted to enable “some flexibility and upfront thinking, but also something that recognises there hopefully will be some recovery of traffic”. She stresses that a decision on the rules for summer 2021 is needed soon, with airline planning for the season well under way. She adds that the revised rules should better reflect “the worst-case of operating conditions”, to ensure they are suitable for all airlines. When markets eventually stablilise, “the rules come in to play again”, Maughan says of the 80:20 requirement, without putting a firm date on when that might be possible.<br/>
Vietnam plans to extend a 30% reduction in environment tax on jet fuel by one year until the end of 2021 to help local airlines weather the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, its finance ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry cut the tax from 3,000 dong ($0.13) per litre to 2,100 dong for five months starting from August this year, it said. “The aviation industry has suffered seriously,” the ministry said. “The domestic market is expected to gradually recover for this year and next, but the international market will take a longer time.”<br/>