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The FAA has issued its first airworthiness certificate for a Boeing 737 MAX built since March 2019, the agency said on Tuesday. The FAA on Nov 18 lifted a 20-month-old grounding order on the MAX after two fatal crashes in five months killed 346 people. The FAA is requiring a series of software changes and new pilot training requirements before planes can return to service. Boeing has about 450 737 MAX airplanes that have been built since 2019 and are awaiting approval by the FAA before they can be delivered to airlines. Boeing declined to comment on the FAA approval. "We expect to have sufficient number of inspectors on hand to meet Boeing’s planned delivery schedule for the foreseeable future. We’ll defer to Boeing to discuss the company’s manufacturing and delivery plans," FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said. The FAA separately last week approved an American Airlines training plan for pilots to resume 737 MAX flights, the agency and airline confirmed. That approval clears the way for American to resume MAX flights starting Dec 29 once it completes required tests and software upgrades to parked planes. American plans to begin with a single daily MAX flight from Miami to New York's LaGuardia airport. That will mark the return of the MAX to US commercial service.<br/>

Rules allowing the rapid shipment of Covid-19 vaccines by cargo aircraft have been approved by US transportation regulators. The DOT established safety requirements for carrying the potentially dangerous dry ice needed to keep some vaccines stable, the agency said in a press release Tuesday. It also set standards for carrying flammable batteries needed in the airlift and eased restrictions on how long flight crews involved in the effort can work. “The department has laid the groundwork for the safe transportation of the Covid-19 vaccine and is proud to support this historic endeavor,” Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao said. The government’s “Operation Warp Speed” program has been seeding pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines and creating an infrastructure for delivering them across the country. Pfizer and Moderna have requested emergency authorization for their vaccines. Infections from the deadly virus are surging throughout the northern hemisphere. <br/>

The Senate has set aside $17b for airlines in a more than $900b bipartisan proposal providing additional coronavirus aid that was released Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter. Airlines received $25b under the CARES Act in March to keep paying their workers and forgo job cuts until Oct. 1. American and United began furloughing more than 30,000 workers in October after Congress and the White House were unable to reach an agreement on another round of coronavirus aid that could have included more support for airlines. Tens of thousands of other workers have accepted buyout and early retirement packages. The roughly $908b Senate coronavirus aid package would set aside $45b for the struggling transportation sector, according to a breakdown of the proposal.<br/>

Consumer advocates are protesting a move by the Trump administration that they say will make it harder for the government to punish airlines that treat passengers unfairly. On the Friday during a four-day Thanksgiving weekend, the Transportation Department made final its proposal for defining unfair and deceptive practices by airlines. The rule deems that airline policies – around things like how ticket prices are advertised – are unfair only if they cause unavoidable and “substantial injury” that isn’t offset by some benefit. That is a high bar, in the view of consumer advocates. In addition, the rule lets airlines request a hearing before the department issues new regulations. Charlie Leocha, a travel consumer advocate, said the agency’s rule could clear the way for airlines to go to court and overturn regulations that require them to advertise the full cost of tickets and to give passengers a chance to return to the gate if planes are stuck on the ground for hours. Under the new rule, “airlines can do anything they want in terms of passenger protection with no worries,” he said. “This is not good for consumers, and it is a big win for airlines.” The Transportation Department said it received 224 comments, with about 180 of them filed by individuals who argued that the proposal weakens consumer protection. The two Democrats on the Federal Trade Commission also criticized the proposal — commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter wrote that the rule “will seriously hamper the Department’s ability to fulfill its statutory mission of protecting aviation consumers.”<br/>

Hong Kong and Singapore further delayed the keenly-anticipated travel corridor between the Asian financial hubs, a setback for the region’s airlines and tourism businesses seeking to start a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The travel bubble will be delayed beyond 2020, and the cities will review the arrangement for 2021 toward late December, according to a Hong Kong government statement Tuesday. The pact, which would allow passengers to travel between the cities without a quarantine, was already postponed by two weeks on Nov 21, a day before flights were due to start. 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 halt the plan. The delay shows just how delicate the process of reopening borders is --even for places that have largely contained the coronavirus. The two sides originally 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 initial delay decision, and more recently the city has seen an alarming jump in infections.<br/>

Airline prices for a one-way ticket to Perth have skyrocketed to $1000 after Western Australia announced it will open its border to the east coast and travellers from NSW and Victoria will no longer be forced to quarantine. WA Premier Mark McGowan announced the new border policy on Tuesday, but said his state will only open from December 8 if NSW achieves 28 days free of community transmission on Saturday. The news from WA came as there were happy scenes at Brisbane Airport early on Tuesday morning, after the Queensland border reopened to residents of Sydney and Victoria. Western Australia's border announcement saw airline prices lift to more than $1000 one way to Perth from Sydney and Melbourne, while other flights required travellers to detour to other cities. For example, one option from Sydney to Perth on December 8 would cost a traveller $1720 and 19 hours to complete, with the flight detouring to Melbourne. A direct flight on the same day costs $1249. In response to the increased demand, Virgin, Jetstar and Qantas have added more flights and expect prices to return to normal. Virgin Australia will increase services between Perth and Sydney and Perth and Melbourne between December 8 and early January.<br/>

Investment firm Castlelake signed an agreement with Boeing to provide as much as $5bof financing to airlines and other companies looking to buy planes from the aerospace manufacturer. Boeing Capital, the company’s finance arm, is reluctant to lend to customers as the planemaker’s debt levels have swelled, first because of its 737 Max jet being grounded, and then because of the pandemic. Boeing’s debt totaled around $60b as of the end of September, more than double its level at the end of last year and four times the amount at the end of 2018. “We prefer to use third-party financing rather than Boeing’s balance sheet, certainly at today’s time where we’ve leveraged up over the course of the last 18 months,” said Tim Myers, president of Boeing Capital. Castlelake will finance the 737 Max among other aircraft, he said. Meanwhile, airlines increasingly need financing as the pandemic has resulted in sharp drops in demand for air travel, and some traditional lenders are retrenching. Steep losses are expected to continue into 2021, according to the IATA. That creates an opportunity for alternative investment firms to step in. Castlelake, which has invested in aviation for 15 years, launched a new aviation lending program in November. “There’s huge disruption in this industry and the well-managed airlines right now are focused on managing cash burn and maintaining liquidity,” said Evan Carruthers, chief investment officer and co-founder of Minneapolis-based Castlelake.<br/>