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With miles of barbed wire and electric fencing along its border and open government hostility to migrants, Hungary's borders aren't always the friendliest place for foreigners. That's during normal times. Amid the pandemic, Hungary has shut its doors to almost everyone, even its European neighbors. Unless, they've had Covid-19. It's not the place you'd expect to find such a novel exception to otherwise tough entry rules. The policy, which came into force in early September, opens the door to visitors who can provide evidence that they've recovered from Covid-19 -- proof of both a positive and negative test in the past six months. Iceland has plans for a similar policy beginning next week -- and it already gives citizens who have previously been infected permission to ignore the nationwide mask mandate. Experts call these types of policies a kind of "immunity passport." But does beating the virus actually give you immunity? The evidence so far suggests that for most people, it does. "It's certainly theoretically possible that some people even who have antibodies may not be protected," Dr. Ania Wajnberg said outside her lab at Mount Sinai Hospital's Icahn School of Medicine in New York. "But I think the majority of people that test positive for antibodies will be protected for some time." Wajnberg is leading a massive study of more than 30,000 people who had mild to moderate cases of Covid-19. Her latest research published in October found that more than 90% of people have enough antibodies to kill the virus for many months after infection, perhaps longer. So the risk that someone entering Hungary under this policy could get re-infected, or infect others, is low, she says. Though the science hasn't entirely been settled on how long immunity does last for, there have only been a handful of documented cases of reinfection. "This may be a reasonable way to begin to reopen society and allow for travel and business," she says.<br/>

Even as the race to approve and distribute Covid-19 vaccines is entering its final stretch, parts of the travel industry are sprinting to a different finish line: airport testing. In hubs large and small - from JFK to Boston to Frankfurt, Germany - a variety of companies are figuring out how to scale pre-flight rapid and polymerase chain reaction Covid-19 testing in hopes of facilitating safe air travel and lessening quarantine requirements for anyone who is not first in line for a shot. The leaders of that effort might come as a surprise. In the United States, it's XpressSpa, the purveyor of quickie mani-pedis and travel pillows. It is currently operational in four major US airports, with more to come this month. In Britain, Collinson - the parent company of the Priority Pass airport lounge network - is the testing partner for London Heathrow and Virgin Atlantic, which recently began offering free tests for passengers on flights to select Caribbean destinations. This effort expanded to three additional British airports this week. Collinson also announced a partnership in mid-November with American Airlines, British Airways and the Oneworld airline alliance that will bring testing to select flights and hopefully lead to the creation of an "air bridge". "We went from concept to pilot in 75 days," said XpressSpa chief executive officer Doug Satzman of the effort's early days. The company's first Covid-19 testing facility opened at New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in June. But expanding has been slow work. Story has more.<br/>

Airlines eager to fill premium seats left empty by the coronavirus crisis are making a beeline for the entertainment and energy industries, which still must get their workers to far-off places. Most companies have slashed spending on corporate travel, leaving airlines without a crucial source of revenue. Business traffic remains at least 85% down on pre-crisis levels. While travel groups expect new COVID-19 vaccines to help revive future business traffic, sectors like sporting events, streaming and content creation are a rare bright spot for airlines in the hard-hit travel sector. “It is at least somewhat of an oasis,” said Glenn Hollister, vice president of sales strategy and effectiveness at United. “Certainly the entertainment industry is not back traveling anywhere close to normal. But there are certain aspects of the entertainment industry that just cannot happen without travel,” he said, referencing content production. The US carrier introduced new sector incentives this fall, including access to a 24/7 support desk, for production crews, actors, entertainment executives and other passengers who are still traveling. Activity in some production hubs, like Vancouver, Canada is bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels. Carriers are using a similar strategy with other industries, such as oil and gas.<br/>

After the most devastating year in the history of aviation, airlines are scrambling to deliver goods and presents in time for Christmas. With thousands of jets grounded in the wake of the pandemic and the collapse in passenger numbers, cargo capacity has been dramatically cut, just as an online shopping boom has prompted demand for air freight to soar. It means companies are struggling to find planes to move goods around the world in the run-up to the busiest time of the year, putting the global supply chain under pressure. “There aren’t enough cargo freighters in existence to meet the need for travel by air,” said Heathrow airport’s CE John Holland-Kaye. Overall freight capacity has fallen 25% year on year, according to IATA, while the cost of transporting goods by air on the Baltic Exchange has spiked again after rising to record levels in Q2. With US consumers spending $9b online on Black Friday last week, up 21.5% compared with 2019, according to software group Adobe, the rush into ecommerce is straining the market to the limit. The squeeze on supply chains and disruption to services prompted Amazon to urge customers to shop earlier than normal to make sure they meet their Christmas deadlines. “It's going to be tight for everyone . . . we will all be stretched,” Amazon’s CFO Brian Olsavsky told analysts in October. The capacity shortfall has been compounded because the aircraft best suited for carrying cargo, the large wide-body jets used for long-haul, are still mostly grounded, with demand for short flights returning more quickly. It has forced the cavernous specialist cargo planes to take up the slack. They are transporting 80 to 90% of the world’s freight this year, an increase from about 50%, said John Peyton Burnett, managing director at air freight pricing group TAC Index. Air cargo and courier companies such as DHL and FedEx have also kept flying to try to plug the capacity gap.<br/>

Boeing has further trimmed its production target for 787 Dreamliner output to five a month in mid-2021 from six as international travel demand suffers in the coronavirus pandemic, CFO Greg Smith said Friday. International passenger traffic is around 90% lower compared with last year, Smith said at a Credit Suisse investor conference, impacting the “overall near-term demand for the wide-body markets.” Boeing shares were down more than 2% in afternoon trading while the S&P 500 was up 0.7%. The planes are used on long-haul international routes, which analysts and industry members expect to be the last to recover because of the virus and a host of travel restrictions. Deliveries of Dreamliners are also slower than expected because of inspections stemming from production issues, which Boeing disclosed in September. “The additional time that we’re taking to inspect and ensure that each of our 787s are delivered to the highest quality standards has taken longer than we previously anticipated,” said Smith. The manufacturer didn’t deliver any 787s in November and the inspection “process will continue to slow deliveries in December.” In October, Smith said on an earnings call that Boeing expects a “big fourth quarter on deliveries” of the 787.<br/>

London Heathrow airport says it could resume paying a small dividend to shareholders from 2022, the Sunday Times reported. Heathrow said it would not pay dividends this year or next in return for leniency from its shareholders in a submission to the Civil Aviation Authority. The airport will resume payouts of about GBP400m a year in two years’ time, down from an expected GBP600m, the paper said. The CAA rejected Heathrow’s demand for a pandemic bailout, without which the airport said it would have to curb its investment and face increased borrowing costs. The London hub’s passenger tally was down 82% last month compared with a year earlier, it reported in November, with further job losses looking likely even after a 30% cut in management.<br/>