Global airline industry body IATA is forecasting that total air passenger numbers in 2021 will be 52% lower than they were in 2019, slightly reducing its forecast from January, as pandemic restrictions continue to hinder travel. In 2022, passenger numbers will recover to 88% of pre-pandemic levels IATA chief economist Brian Pearce forecast on Wednesday.<br/>
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The UN civil aviation agency will hold an urgent meeting Thursday to discuss Belarus after Western powers on the UN Security Council called for the body to investigate Minsk's diversion of a European flight and arrest of a dissident. The ICAO Council will meet as the consequences of the incident play out in Europe's airspace, with a Barcelona-bound flight from Minsk refused access to French airspace, and Poland banning Belarusian carriers on Wednesday. But a defiant President Alexander Lukashenko said he had "acted lawfully to protect our people", in an address to parliament on Wednesday. In his first public statement since the Ryanair flight was diverted and opposition journalist and activist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend were arrested on Sunday, Lukashenko dismissed the international outcry. The criticism was nothing more than another attempt by his opponents to undermine his rule, he said, accusing them of waging a "modern, hybrid war" against Belarus and of crossing "boundaries of common sense and human morality".<br/>
Belarus on Wednesday accused French authorities of committing an act of "air piracy" after a Belarusian passenger plane flying from Minsk to Barcelona was denied passage through French airspace and turned back. Belarusian state carrier Belavia said that flight B2869 with 56 passengers on board had been refused permission to go through French airspace and had to spend around two hours in mid-air before returning to Minsk. "Honestly, this is essentially air piracy," foreign ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said. Turning back the Belarusian plane, French air control cited "an order from the French prime minister", Belavia said. The Belarusian foreign ministry said that most of the passengers onboard were EU citizens, adding that their safety was put at risk. "This is an absolutely egregious fact and immoral act," said Glaz, accusing French authorities of violating the Chicago Convention that regulates air travel. On Sunday, Belarusian authorities diverted a European plane to arrest an exiled dissident, sparking global fury. The EU banned Belarusian planes from the bloc's airspace and urged EU airlines to avoid flying over the ex-Soviet country.<br/>
Airbus’s A330-900 has been certified for carbon dioxide emissions, the first time the EASA has applied such a process to an aircraft approval. The airframer voluntarily submitted the A330-900 – powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines – to the certification after ICAO finalised a carbon dioxide standard, which was implemented by EASA in mid-2018. Airbus will be the first manufacturer to apply the certification requirement. “Its experience will contribute to improving and further developing the standards set by ICAO, which will benefit the entire industry,” says the regulator. EASA says the process assesses the aircraft’s fuel efficiency in cruise from which the carbon dioxide emissions during operation can be calculated. It points out that this efficiency is affected not only by the engines but by the aircraft’s weight – which changes as fuel is burned – and by its airspeed, altitude and aerodynamic characteristics. The certification requirements involve checking the aircraft’s efficiency and emissions performance against limits set out in ICAO’s Annex 16. EASA says the certification is a “key milestone” on its strategy to establish an “environmental label” for aviation by next year. This label will use carbon dioxide emissions data to assess the aircraft’s environmental performance.<br/>
Airline and holiday firm bosses have joined in attacking the UK government’s “utterly confusing” advice on foreign travel, accusing ministers of “moving the goalposts” and lacking transparency over decisions on safe destinations. The UK was being left behind Europe and throwing away the success of its coronavirus vaccination programme, they said, warning that another lost summer would have “grave consequences” for the industry. The bosses of easyJet, British Airways, Ryanair, Jet2, Tui UK and others have written to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, to register their dismay at ministers’ comments suggesting travel was dangerous, urging the government to “stick to the framework” of the traffic light system instead of telling people to not visit amber-listed countries. The letter says: “The government now appears not to want a meaningful restart to international travel this summer, and it is impossible for any business or consumers to plan under this scenario, such that we are genuinely fearful that some UK businesses may fail.” Speaking earlier, the chief executive of easyJet, Johan Lundgren, said that there was no transparency on the parameters of the green list, compared with other European countries: “The government has made this into a guessing game, not led by data and science. It’s made it tremendously difficult for operators to plan.”<br/>
Pressure is growing for an impartial safety probe into the forced landing of a Ryanair jet in Minsk, including review of the plane’s black boxes - a move fraught with sensitivities over access to evidence, aviation experts said. International condemnation of the scrambling of a fighter jet and the use of what turned out to be a false bomb alert to divert the flight to Minsk and detain a dissident Belarusian journalist has focused mainly on accusations of state-sponsored hijacking and rights violations. But Europe’s aviation regulator said on Wednesday that Belarus’s actions had also cast doubt on its ability to provide safe air navigation, and some international officials are pushing for an investigation close to the type seen when a plane crashes or something goes technically wrong. Opening such an investigation would test a system of global co-operation that has generally worked smoothly for decades, aviation experts said. That’s because under a global protocol called Annex 13 Belarus, as the “state of occurrence”, would have the right to lead any ordinary safety probe with “unrestricted authority” over key evidence such as the plane’s black boxes. “The state of occurrence has the lead,” said Michael Daniel, a former U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accident investigator. “However they are also the prime suspect in this case.”<br/>
Records of airline pilots’ training and any legal violations will be kept in a national database with the creation of a new tracking system born from the last major aviation disaster in the US more than 10 years ago. The FAA, which has been criticized repeatedly for failing to finalize the congressionally mandated database, announced Wednesday it has completed the troubled program and airlines must begin checking the records of new hires within six months. “It has been a long journey for the families of Colgan Flight 3407, but their tireless advocacy and continued engagement with the FAA has made this database a reality,” FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said. “With it, employers will be able to quickly and thoroughly make informed hiring decisions to keep our skies safe.” Congress required the Pilot Records Database one year after a Colgan Air commuter plane crashed near Buffalo, New York, on Feb. 12, 2009, killing all 49 people on the plane and one on the ground. It was the last passenger airline accident with mass casualties on a US-registered carrier. The crash was caused by the pilots’ confused reaction to a cockpit warning, but among the issues uncovered in the probe was that the captain had a record of failing training exercises and tests that were never shared with the airline, the NTSB concluded. The issue has continued to be a problem, the NTSB said last year in another accident investigation. The pilot of a cargo jet carrying Amazon.com packages who became disoriented and crashed near Houston on Feb. 23, 2019, had a history of panicking during training exercises, but had hidden that from his employer, Atlas Air, the NTSB said. The FAA’s pilot database will include records of any previous failures to obtain certificates, as well as information on accidents, incidents, enforcement actions, drug and alcohol tests, disciplinary actions and firings.<br/>
Australian aviation’s domestic revival faces its first major test today as Victoria announced a seven-day lockdown with state borders likely to shut in response. The ‘circuit breaker’ restrictions come after the state’s new COVID cluster grew to 26, with 12 new “linked cases” emerging in the 24 hours until midnight. Acting Premier James Merlino appeared to blame the federal government’s handling of hotel quarantine for contributing to the situation. It came after Labor’s federal leader, Anthony Albanese, tweeted this morning that, “Outbreaks will keep happening if Scott Morrison doesn’t fix quarantine”. Victoria’s list of exposure sites has now grown to 150, with one of the active cases revealed to be in ICU on a ventilator. Already, 10,000 primary or secondary contacts have been asked to either quarantine or test and isolate in response. Merlino said the latest cluster was a “highly infectious strain” that was spreading “faster than we have ever recorded”. Already, 29 flights have been cancelled at Melbourne Airport, with more likely to follow. WA quickly followed by closing its state border, in a move that will come into effect at 10am local time. New Zealand earlier this week paused the trans-Tasman bubble to Victoria for at least 72 hours, with that now almost certain to be extended today.<br/>
The Government has set aside an additional $170m in airline subsidies to keep air cargo links open through to October, and will consider extending the relief to March if necessary, the transport minister says. As part of a $600m package to support the aviation industry through Covid-19 the Government spent $370m to keep air cargo moving by subsidising airlines via an International Airfreight Capacity scheme. New Zealand’s closed borders and record low passenger numbers resulted in air cargo capacity dropping, and sent the cost of freight skyrocketing. Transport Minister Michael Wood said the scheme was restructured in March, and replaced with the Maintaining International Air Connectivity scheme, allowing for airline support to reduce as passenger numbers increased. “Securing our recovery is a key focus for the Government and we are carefully watching the international aviation market,” Wood said. It would consider extending support beyond October to a final date of March if necessary, he said. Airfreight capacity was at 90% of pre-Covid levels thanks to the schemes, which helped keep trade channels open and maintain supply of time-critical goods like medicine into New Zealand, he said.<br/>