general

The US is preparing to downgrade Mexico’s air-safety rating in a potential blow to what has been one of the few strong airline markets during the pandemic. The FAA in coming days will designate Mexico as Category 2 in its International Aviation Safety Assessment Program, said two people familiar with the action who asked not to be identified because the decision hasn’t been announced. Mexican airlines can continue to fly to the US, but the downgrade will prevent any expansion of flights and could limit business arrangements between carriers in the two countries. It also sends a powerful signal that could sway consumer decisions on choosing flights between the two neighbors. FAA audits of other nations’ aviation systems don’t look at individual carriers, instead focusing on whether countries have adequate safety regulations and the resources to enforce them. The baseline is whether countries meet the standards of the United Nations’ ICAO. The FAA found 24 issues of concern in an audit of Mexico’s oversight program and only a handful have been resolved, said one of the people. The notification of the agency’s decision is imminent, the people said. Mexico is confident the FAA won’t lower its rating after the country’s Federal Agency of Civil Aeronautics responds to the audit, said an official at the Transportation and Communications Ministry who asked not to be identified discussing the sensitive issue. The official said the FAA had identified 28 issues.<br/>

The New York Governor has announced a $250m grant to overhaul airports in the state in a bid to support regional economic development. Of the total grant amount, $230m will be offered via the new Upstate Airport Economic Development and Revitalization Competition. This will be for projects supporting upgrades at commercial passenger service airports. The remaining $20m will be offered from the Governor’s Aviation Capital Grant Program, which focuses on the safety, infrastructure and economic development projects at smaller airports across the state. A further $16.5m funding has also been made available. This was formerly allocated through the Aviation Capital Grant Program in this year’s executive budget. The new programme builds on the success of the initial Upstate Airport Economic Development and Revitalisation Competition announced in 2016 and the revamp of JFK and LaGuardia airports.<br/>

Canada has extended its ban on passenger flights from India and Pakistan by 30 days to June 21 as part of a campaign to fight COVID-19, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said on Friday. Alghabra said Canada had seen "a significant reduction" in coronavirus infections among arriving airline passengers since Ottawa first announced the bans on April 22 as the number of cases in India soared. The move does not affect cargo flights. "These ongoing measures will remain in place to help protect Canadians and to manage the elevated risk of imported cases of COVID-19 and variants of concern," he told a briefing. The ban on Indian and Pakistani flights is part of a series of restrictions Canada has imposed to lower the transmission of the virus, including curbs on non-essential travel across the long land border with the United States.<br/>

Foreign airlines Friday made preparations to resume services to Tel Aviv hours after Israel and Hamas reached a truce after the worst violence in years. While Israeli carrier El Al kept flying, many international airlines including BA suspended flights to and from Israel's main Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. Others were diverted to Ramon Airport near Eilat, several hours drive away. Delta said it had suspended flights to Tel Aviv on May 12. "Delta plans to resume service from New York-JFK to Tel Aviv tonight," a spokesperson said on Friday. "We continue to closely monitor the security situation and will make adjustments to our flight schedules as necessary." Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and SWISS aim to resume flights to Tel Aviv on Sunday, Lufthansa said. Lufthansa had said on May 13 that it was suspending all flights to Tel Aviv due to the hostilities. Virgin Atlantic said separately on Friday it expected to resume flights from Britain to Israel on Monday, but also said it would keep the route under constant review.<br/>

Israel reopened its borders to foreign tourists on Sunday after a fall in COVID-19 infections but said it would take time for visitors to start arriving and to revive the tourism industry. Under an easing of coronavirus restrictions, the government went ahead with a plan to start letting in small groups of tourists from countries using vaccines it has approved. Foreign airlines are also resuming flights they suspended when Palestinian militants began rocket attacks on Israel this month. A ceasefire has now halted the fighting, helping the government meet Sunday’s target date for starting the plan. But registration for the Tourism Ministry’s plan opened only last week, so the number of visitors will initially be limited. “It is unlikely that the first groups will arrive before the beginning of June,” a Tourism Ministry spokeswoman said.<br/>

Air traffic management body Eurocontrol projects flight activity in the region will not return to pre-crisis levels until 2024 at the earliest and most likely not until 2025. The outlook, made in a fresh forecast issued today, is based on travel restraints within Europe being eased from this summer. If that gets delayed until the first quarter of next year, Eurocontrol does not see air traffic in Europe returning to pre-crisis levels until 2025. Eurocontrol director general Eamonn Brennan says: ”We’re heading into summer 2021 and most restrictions are still in place despite encouraging progress on the vaccination front. So while we are anticipating an uptick in summer traffic, our most-likely medium-term scenario envisages a co-ordinated lifting of restrictions by Q1 2022 between regions, which facilitates more long-haul travel. ”We’ll probably have around 50% of 2019 traffic for all of 2021”, which would be about 5.5m flights, he adds. ”By the end of next year, traffic will only have recovered to 72% of 2019 levels, and will only get back to close to where we were pre-pandemic by 2025.”<br/>

A bid to slash queues at Heathrow using high-tech scanners has been blown off course following a row with aviation regulators over airport charges. The rollout of scanners which would allow passengers to leave toiletries and laptops in hand luggage has been delayed because the airport says it can no longer afford to install the kit after suffering billions of pounds of losses during the pandemic. Heathrow finance chief Javier Echave blamed the Civil Aviation Authority for refusing a request to increase charges on airlines in the wake of the Covid crisis. He said: “The CAA’s reticence to uphold the principles of existing regulation... is already forcing us to cut investment, with tangible consequences for our passengers. One of our most popular upgrades is the rollout of enhanced security equipment. This technology has the potential to make passenger journeys through security much more convenient by allowing passengers to keep their liquids and laptops in their hand luggage.” London-based Smiths Detection was awarded a GBP50m contract to supply Heathrow with computed tomography scanners similar to those used in hospitals. In what would have been the largest use of the technology at any UK airport, the scanners allow security staff to see through bags in far greater detail - avoiding the need for passengers to remove certain items and cutting queue times dramatically.<br/>

Sniffer dogs could contribute to efforts to prevent the spread of Covid as society reopens, according to scientists. As part of a trial, dogs were trained to recognise a distinctive odour produced by people with the virus, but undetectable to the human nose. This could come in useful for screening at airports or mass events. But the dogs' findings would have to be confirmed by lab testing, the researcher said. Although the dogs correctly picked up 88% of coronavirus cases, they also incorrectly flagged 14% of people as having the virus when no Covid was present. Dogs can have up to 100,000 times the smelling ability of humans and have long been used to sniff out drugs and explosives. Recent research has shown dogs - particularly breeds like spaniels and retrievers - can detect the unique scents of diseases including cancer, Parkinson's and malaria.<br/>

Sri Lanka closed its international airports for passenger arrivals for ten days from midnight on May 21 to control the spread of COVID-19 after recording its highest spike of infections. The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) in an urgent notice on social media advised that disembarking passengers would not be allowed into Sri Lanka with effect from 2359L on May 2021 until 2359L on May 31, 2021.<br/>

A COVID-19 outbreak at Singapore’s airport may have initially spread through a worker who helped an infected family arriving in the country, authorities said on Friday, as they further ramped up their testing regime. The airport cluster which involves about 100 cases, is part of a resurgence of infections in the Asian business hub and highlights the challenges of keeping the virus out, despite rigorous testing and quarantine measures for travelers. It is Singapore’s largest active cluster. The civil aviation regulator and the Changi Airport Group in a statement said test results from a batch of staff were similar and were of the B.1.617 variant, first found in India, suggesting they “originated from a common source”. “Preliminary investigations indicate that the initial transmission could have occurred through an airport worker who was assisting a family from South Asia,” it said. The family arrived on April 29.<br/>

Aerion, the supersonic-jet developer founded by Texas billionaire Robert Bass and backed by Boeing, said it’s ceasing operations after failing to secure enough money to start building the aircraft. Raising the large investment needed to move the AS2 private jet from design to production has been “hugely challenging,” Aerion said Friday. The company had said in March that output of the first planes would start in 2023 at a factory in Melbourne, Florida, with the first commercial delivery expected in 2027. The shutdown ends Aerion’s ambitions to help revive civilian supersonic travel for the first time since the 2003 demise of the Concorde. The company had brought in Boeing, signed up General Electric to supply engines and amassed more than $11b in orders, including a recent deal for 20 planes from NetJets, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Aerospace manufacturers have been hammered by the Covid-19 pandemic as passengers avoided flying and airlines stopped buying planes. Boeing, already reeling from the grounding of its 737 Max because of two deadly crashes before the pandemic, was hit especially hard. Boeing had pledged to help with engineering and manufacturing when it announced “significant” backing for Aerion in 2019. But the planemaker pared its funding in futuristic aircraft and dissolved its Boeing NeXt investment unit last year as it faced one of the worst financial crises in its history.<br/>

Airport Show, a leading annual airport industry B2B platform, kicks off tomorrow (May 24) with 95 exhibitors and more than 100 hosted buyers from across the globe taking part on 12,000 sq m of exhibition space. The event will run until May 26 at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) as the ICAO paints the ‘most optimistic scenario’ of the industry’s global recovery by June 2021 and the start of the journey to regain the lost pace of growth. In Q3, up to 71% of the 2019 levels, with 53% for international and 84% for domestic flights, will likely be recovered. A more pessimistic scenario foresees only a 49% recovery - 26% for international and 66% for domestic. As against 4.5b travellers in 2019, only 1.8b passengers took to the skies last year. The coronavirus pandemic led to a 50% drop in domestic passenger traffic globally and 74% in international traffic in 2020. <br/>