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The US TSA said it screened 1.85m passengers on Sunday at US airports, the highest number since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic slashed travel demand. The US air industry has been setting a number of new post March 2020 highs in recent days. Sunday’s tally is 100,000 travelers higher than Thursday’s 1.74m, which had been the best in 14 months. Still Sunday’s demand was about 70% of pre-pandemic air travel on the equivalent day in May 2019. By comparison, just 253,000 people were screened at US airports on the same day in May 2020. US airlines have been adding more flights, anticipating rising summer travel demand as more Americans get vaccinated. On Monday, United Airlines said it would add more than 400 daily flights to its July schedule and increase service to reopened European destinations.<br/>

United, Delta and American Airlines are adding flights to Italy with protocols for coronavirus testing as the country opens to leisure travelers from the United States for the first time in more than a year. On Sunday, the Italian government eased a number of COVID-19 travel restrictions and requirements as it looks to boost summer tourism, including scrapping a mandatory quarantine for visitors from certain countries as long as they test negative for COVID-19. As a result, United on Monday joined Delta and American in announcing additional COVID-tested flights to the popular European travel spot, which had been closed to tourists from countries including the United States, Canada and Japan. The three US airlines have multiple nonstop options to Rome and Milan and Delta plans to add nonstop flights to Venice from New York in July and from Atlanta in August. US travelers to Italy must take a COVID-19 test no more than 48 hours before boarding and again on arrival. If negative, they will be exempted from quarantine. To return to the United States, travelers must present a negative test taken no more than 72 hours before departure, even if they have been vaccinated.<br/>

Former BA CE Alex Cruz, who suffered a serious data breach while running the carrier, has warned that airlines are being left behind by more nimble digital rivals because of their outdated technology. “If you look at the underlying systems that all big airlines . . . rely on, it is 20, 30, 40, 50-year-old technology, it is truly amazing to see,” he said in his first interview since he stood down as BA boss last October. Cruz, who has joined the board of Israeli digital start-up Fetcherr, was in charge of BA during a 2018 data breach that exposed personal and financial data of more than 400,000 customers. The airline said it had made considerable improvements to security since the breach, which led to a GBP20m fine from the UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office. Cruz also warned that the rise of companies with user-friendly technology such as Uber had left consumers demanding a better experience. This is putting pressure on airlines to raise their game, particularly after widespread complaints over the processing of refunds from cancelled flights during the pandemic<br/>

The Korea Airports Corp. will carry out a feasibility study for an airport development project in Laos worth 100b won ($88m), the state-run airport operator said Monday. KAC President and CEO Son Chang-wan said during a media conference that the Laotian government is currently pushing for the project to improve and expand Luang Prabang International Airport, located about 4 kilometers from the center of Luang Prabang in northern Laos. The city, which was the royal capital of Laos until 1975, is known for its many Buddhist temples, and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in December 1995. The KAC, which operates 14 regional airports in Korea except for Incheon International Airport, participated in a bid that took place in February, and was selected as the successful bidder over the other airport operators of France, Japan and Malaysia. The Korean airport operator will carry out the feasibility study, which includes forecasting air travel demand and drawing up plans to improve the airport operating system, as well as an environmental effects evaluation, for the next six months.<br/>

Australian PM Scott Morrison on Tuesday said it was still not safe to allow residents fully-vaccinated for COVID-19 to travel overseas, as industries hit hard by the pandemic press for a faster reopening of international borders. “I understand that everyone is keen to get back to a time that we once knew. But the reality is we are living this year in a pandemic that is worse than last year,” Morrison told reporters. Morrison said any plans to relax border rules for vaccinated travellers could be implemented “only when it is safe to do so”. Australia plans to reopen borders to the rest of the world from the middle of 2022 even as the federal budget unveiled last week hopes to fully vaccinate its near 26 million population by the end of this year. Airlines, tourism operators and universities - reeling from the impact of border bans - have been urging the federal government to fast track the opening of borders. “We can’t keep (COVID-19) out forever ... It will make us sick but won’t put us into hospital. Some people may die but it will be way smaller than the flu,” Virgin Australia boss Jayne Hrdlicka was quoted as saying in Australian media on Tuesday. Morrison described Hrdlicka’s comments as “somewhat insensitive”.<br/>

The aviation industry is in crisis, there's a global push to cut carbon emissions, and many of us haven't stepped on a plane or hugged far-flung loved ones in more than a year.<br/>Reviving the supersonic dream that died with Concorde's retirement nearly two decades ago seems, at first, like an outrageous fantasy. The British-French airliner Concorde, one of only two supersonic jets to have operated commercially, flew from 1969 to 2003 and was ludicrously expensive and an environmental disaster. But now a fresh bunch of start-ups are working on supersonic and hypersonic projects. Last October frontrunner Boom Supersonic was the first to roll out an actual honest-to-goodness IRL demonstrator aircraft, the XB1. Piece interviews founder and CEO Blake Scholl about Overture, the Mach 2.2 commercial airliner he wants to get in the air by 2026, and the company's ambitious long-term plans. "Either we fail or we change the world," says Scholl over a video call from Denver, Colorado. There hasn't been any major speed-up in travel times since the Jet Age of the '50s and '60s and his team hopes to change that. "That barrier of time is what keeps us apart. We believe it's deeply important to break the time barrier, more so than the sound barrier."<br/>

For countless executives and salespeople, business trips have been a bedrock of corporate life. Employees needed to fly to meet clients, drum up new business and grab some face time with the boss at headquarters. Then came the coronavirus pandemic, which grounded travelers and forced many companies to find news ways of doing things. Zoom replaced face to face meetings, even if there is something awkward about video chats.Now, with coronavirus restrictions easing in many countries, the question is how quickly business travel will rebound, and whether the pandemic and efforts to address the accelerating climate crisis will prevent the lucrative sector from ever making a complete recovery. Road warriors will themselves play a crucial role in determining whether business class is full or mostly empty, as they negotiate a return to corporate life after more than a year working from home. Some — or many — could balk at missing out on date night or their kids' football game. "For a lot of people, frequent business travel has become more of a burden than a perk," said Scott Cohen, a professor at the University of Surrey in England who studies business travel. There is increasing recognition that frequent work trips can negatively effect health and personal relationships, he added. A weak recovery in business travel would be disastrous for airlines, which have already seen their finances stretched to breaking point by the pandemic. While corporate travelers represent just 12% of passengers, on some flights they can generate as much as 75% of profit, according to PwC.<br/>"Business travelers often book last-minute fares at significant markups — in the past, a road warrior may have paid $1,000 one day before departure for the same seat a leisure traveler bought for $100 two months back," Zach Honig, editor-at-large of The Points Guy, explained via email.<br/>