Delta and Alitalia are to launch “quarantine free” flights from the US to Italy, opening up the first such route linking the US and Europe since travel restrictions were introduced during the pandemic. The US airline said that from next month passengers travelling on select flights from Atlanta to Rome would not have to self-isolate if they test negative for Covid-19 three times. Travellers will be asked to take a gold-standard PCR test 72 hours before departure, and then rapid tests at the airport in Atlanta before boarding and again on arrival in Italy. The new system will apply to all EU citizens and to US citizens travelling for essential reasons such as work, in line with current Italian immigration rules. A US ban on European travellers flying from Europe remains in place. However, US airline executives believe the White House is considering lifting the ban on EU and UK nationals but has not yet made a final decision, according to two people briefed on the matter. Several airlines have launched flights between the US and Europe that test passengers as they travel, but Delta and Alitalia’s flights to Rome are the first that will allow travellers who have been tested to skip quarantine. Marco Troncone, CE of Aeroporti di Roma, said he hoped the programme would be extended to other airports in Europe. “It’s hard to convey this message to governments and policymakers but I think we’re close to a breakthrough,” he said. “Quarantines don’t work, they are inefficient and hard to police.”<br/>
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In cavernous cold-storage warehouses at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, KLM workers are gearing up for a surge next year in COVID-19 vaccine cargos that will need to be flown around the world at ultra-low temperatures. A major hub for pharmaceutical products, Schiphol has already handled some of the vaccines being used in trials and KLM’s boss is confident its “cold chain” operations will cope with the influx of cargos as mass inoculations start in earnest. “The short and sweet of it is, yes, we’re ready,” KLM CE Pieter Elbers said. “Obviously both for societies and our industry it’s of paramount importance to have these vaccines distributed at the quickest possible pace.” While no COVID-19 vaccine has yet been approved by US or European regulators, the shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is the most advanced in the process and could be ready for rapid production and distribution next month. But it needs to be stored and shipped at minus 70 degrees Celsius while Moderna’s candidate has to be kept at -20C, at least until the drugs have reached their destinations where they can survive in normal fridges for short periods. “Schiphol will, for sure, be one of the major airports for the vaccines,” said Marcel Kuijn, global head of pharmaceutical logistics for Air France-KLM Cargo. “Our market share on the routes we fly is 10% to 20%, that’s in our regular pharma business, so we expect to get at least that part of the vaccine distribution,” he said.<br/>
Vietnam Airlines will likely make losses of 14t-15t dong ($604-$647m) this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the government said on Thursday. It would take up to three years for local airlines to fully recover from the pandemic, the government said. Last week, Vietnam’s National Assembly, the country’s lawmaking body, approved a government plan to boost the capital of the airlines, which reported a net loss of $453m for the first nine months of this year.<br/>