Robust air cargo demand should remain a bright spot for the airline industry as international travel gradually recovers from the coronavirus crisis, industry body IATA said Tuesday. IATA DG Willie Walsh said strong freight revenues had been “the difference between life and death for some airlines” as COVID-19 lockdowns brought passenger traffic to a standstill. “Cargo will continue for the next few years to play a bigger role than it did before the crisis,” he told an online briefing. The mass grounding of passenger planes that normally carry half the world’s air freight in their holds has driven cargo prices and revenue higher. That led some airlines to post record freight earnings last year, even as overall losses peaked. Despite returning passenger capacity, a broader economic recovery will sustain cargo income that surged to 35% of airline revenue last year from 10-15% pre-crisis, IATA predicts.<br/>
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The US House of Representatives has introduced a bill that would prevent cut-rate airlines which have been established under “flags of convenience” to operate in the US. The chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio says on 11 May that the “Fair and Open Skies Act” is designed to force foreign airlines to “play by the rules” rather than offer services under conditions that would be illegal in the USA. “In the past, we have seen foreign airlines set up under a flag-of-convenience business model to exploit weaker labour laws outside their home countries in order to save money, undercut competition, and skirt important labour standards to get a leg up,” DeFazio says. “By preventing such an airline from serving the US this bipartisan bill protects American jobs from predatory and unfair competition.” The proposal would require the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to ensure that, when issuing new foreign air carrier permits, it remains “consistent” with labour and competition provisions laid out in the US-EU-Norway-Iceland Air Transport Agreement. The requirement would apply only to non-US airlines seeking to begin US-Europe flights that fall under that treaty.<br/>
The CEs of major US and UK passenger airlines Tuesday called for a summit with the two governments to speed the reopening of transatlantic travel. “The airline industry needs adequate lead time to establish a plan for restarting air services, including scheduling aircraft and crews for these routes as well as for marketing and selling tickets,” said the letter signed by the CEOs of American Airlines, Delta, United, BA, Virgin Atlantic and JetBlue Airways in a letter to the transport chiefs of both countries. A spokesman for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the British Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment. The letter said US and UK citizens “would benefit from the significant testing capability and the successful trials of digital applications to verify health credentials.”<br/>
Canada has set aside C$700m to support the country’s airport infrastructure as it recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. The country’s transportation minister, Omar Alghabra, says on 11 May that airports “are major contributors to our country’s economy, and play a key role in sustaining the social and economic well-being of our communities, and our local airport workers”. “These programmes will help ensure that, as Canada works towards recovery and travel restart post-pandemic, our airports remain viable and continue to provide Canadians with safe, reliable and efficient travel options, while creating and maintaining good paying jobs in the airport sector,” Alghabra adds. Transport Canada introduced two new programmes - the Airport Critical Infrastructure Program (ACIP) that will provide nearly C$490m for critical infrastructure related to safety, security or connectivity, and the Airport Relief Fund (ARF) which will have almost $65m to distribute to targeted Canadian airports to help maintain operations. In addition, Transport Canada’s Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP), a programme that targets local and regional airports with safety-related infrastructure and equipment costs, will receive a top-up of $186m over two years.<br/>
England’s NHS app will be available to use as a vaccine passport from Monday, the government has said - but only for those who have had both doses of the jab. A paper version will also be available - by calling 119 but not through a GP. Both will be available from Monday, 17 May, when the ban on foreign travel is eased. The NHS app is separate to the NHS Covid-19 app, which is used for contact tracing. People can already use the NHS app to: request repeat prescriptions, arrange appointments to see their doctor, and view medical records. It can also show vaccine statuses, including for coronavirus, but currently this feature must be enabled by a GP before it appears on the app. The new update will contain a separate feature to display coronavirus vaccine records, so the government said there should be no need to contact GPs. The app will not show coronavirus test results, but the NHS plans to incorporate this in the future, the government website said.<br/>
The mailbox of a well-known hotel in the heart of Lisbon was bombarded with queries as soon as Britain announced it was including the country on its travel “green list” this summer. Manuel Pinto, Mundial Hotel director, is over the moon that British holidaymakers, who are essential to Portugal’s tourism industry, will be able to return after a five-month travel ban, providing a much-needed boost to the struggling sector. “I was delighted, not only on a personal level but for our country,” Pinto said, standing in Mundial’s rooftop bar, adding that British visitors had already booked around 4,000 room nights at the hotel this year. Portugal was one of just 12 countries and territories to be added to Britain’s “green list”, allowing Britons to visit the country from May 17 without needing to quarantine, but still requiring two COVID-19 tests - one before returning to the UK and one on arrival into the UK. Travel search website Skyscanner said there was a 616% increase in bookings to Portugal last week compared to the previous one, prompting airlines to add capacity to existing routes and, in some cases, launch news ones to meet demand. Easyjet is adding more flights to Portugal for this summer, putting an extra 20,000 seats on routes including London Gatwick to Faro and Lisbon over the May-October period.<br/>
Planes full of holidaymakers could be diverted to European airports under emergency plans to cope with four-hour queues at Heathrow, under contingency plans to be discussed by aviation regulators on Wednesday. The Telegraph understands Heathrow is planning to divert holiday jets to other airports including in Europe if queues at border controls exceed four hours. The airport says it is no longer prepared to tolerate queues that have been six or more hours long because of health and safety risks - and will instead hold passengers in their planes or divert them to other UK airports or those on the continent. The move will pile pressure on the Home Office and Border Force after its director general Paul Lincoln warned last week that there would be delays at immigration checks because it is taking 15 times longer to process every passenger than normal. If planes are diverted to the continent and passengers have to disembark, it would mean they would have to quarantine for up to ten days once they got back to the UK. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the regulator, has invited airlines, airports and Government officials to a tabletop exercise on Wednesday to test its contingency plans, which include the diversion of planes to alternative airports.<br/>
Kenya has banned all commercial and cargo flights to and from Somalia until August, despite the two countries agreeing to restore diplomatic relations a week ago. According to a NOTAM filed by the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority on May 11, 2021, the only exceptions would be UN Humanitarian Air Service relief flights, medevac flights, and humanitarian missions. No reason was given for the suspension. The Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not yet commented on the ban by the time of publication. However, the announcement appeared to be related to the long-held dispute between the countries about the import from Kenya to Somalia of miraa/khat, a leafy green plant with psychoactive properties, after Somalia's Civil Aviation Authority announced that shipments of the stimulant remained prohibited. "Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) has the honour to inform all the operators that carrying Mirra to Somalia is still prohibited, and the policy of the Federal Government of Somalia did not change regarding the transportation of Miraa to Somali airports." Somalia banned miraa exports from Kenya in early 2020 after accusing Kenya of interfering in its internal affairs. <br/>
Boeing said on Tuesday 737 MAX jet deliveries fell to just four airplanes in April from 19 in the previous month, as the US planemaker’s best-selling aircraft struggles with an electrical problem that has re-grounded part of the fleet. Boeing said last month it was halting deliveries of the jet again due to the electrical problem. The planemaker started delivering the 737 MAX to airlines in December nearly two years after the jet returned to service following a lengthy safety ban. The company said it delivered a total of 17 airplanes in April, bringing its deliveries to a total of 94 aircraft for the first four months of the year. Apart from the four 737 MAX jets, Boeing said it delivered nine 787 Dreamliners, two 767s and two 777-freighters last month and booked 25 gross orders. The gross orders include five previously announced 777-freighters for Silk Way West Airlines and 20 orders for the 737 planes - 14 for Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, three for Air Lease Corp and three for unidentified customers. Boeing said customers canceled 17 737 MAX airplane orders in April. <br/>
Airbus is asking key suppliers to get ready for a further 18% increase in A320-family jet output by the end of 2022, on top of existing targets for this year, as airlines eye a partial return to normal travel, industry sources said. The tentative new planning goal would lift output of the workhorse domestic and medium-haul jet, which competes with Boeing's BA.N 737 MAX, to 53 a month, they told Reuters. The number being floated for the end of next year remains informal and Airbus has only committed so far to raising output in two steps to 45 a month by the end of 2021, from 40 now. But it is the first concrete indication of the shape of recovery that the world’s largest planemaker hopes to achieve for benchmark single-aisle jets beyond the end of this year, as it tries to replenish coffers emptied by the pandemic. “We do not comment on speculation regarding the longer-term trajectory,” an Airbus spokesman said. “We see the market recovering to pre-COVID levels in the 2023-2025 timeframe, with single-aisle recovering first,” he said, adding, “uncertainties remain”.<br/>
Singapore Technologies Engineering's aviation asset management unit has agreed to set up a joint venture with Temasek for freighter aircraft leasing, amid growing demand for freighter aircraft as e-commerce and air cargo volumes rise. The joint venture aims to build a portfolio valued at about US$600m within five years, said ST Engineering Tuesday. The joint venture will invest in passenger aircraft to be converted into freighters. Global airline industry body IATA said on Tuesday that the outlook for cargo remains positive and demand is likely to be strong this year. The air freight business has been a bright spot in aviation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Air cargo traffic is expected to expand 13.1% this year, it said. ST Engineering will provide the associated maintenance, repair and overhaul services to these aircraft. In addition, ST Engineering will be the asset and lease manager to the joint venture.<br/>
Moody’s Investors Service has changed the outlook for the global airline industry to positive from negative as it expects widespread travel to pick up in the second half of this year and accelerate through next year. “We expect this positive demand trend to run for many quarters, into 2023, ” it said on Tuesday, pointing out to rising Covid-19 vaccinations will spur a demand in leisure traffic. It is now using its expectations for growth in travel demand as its key indicator for the passenger airlines industry outlook. However, it also noted its two pre-pandemic indicators, operating margin and change in operating profit dollars, are less insightful about fundamental business conditions at this stage of the pandemic. “We expect the industry to sustain operating losses and negative operating margins for all of 2021, although to a lesser degree than in 2020, ” it said. Moody’s said increasing coronavirus vaccinations around the globe will allow governments to lower barriers to entry for visitors and re-entry for residents returning home.<br/>