Category Archives: Airline industry

Daniel Andrews flags shutting out stranded Australians except for ‘compassionate cases’

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Citizens stuck overseas say the idea of making them list their ‘tragedies’ to be ranked is ‘unspeakable’

The Victorian premier, battling an outbreak of the UK variant of coronavirus, has flagged slashing the number of Australians able to return home, suggesting travellers could only be allowed to enter the country on “compassionate grounds”.

The proposal sparked a furious reaction from citizens stuck overseas, who said the proposal was “unspeakable” because it would lead to people’s misfortunes being compared.

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Boeing 737 Max cleared to fly again by EU regulator

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The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority will certify the plane separately

Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft has been given the green light to return to the skies in the EU by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), after a 22-month grounding following two fatal crashes.

Marking a crucial step in its return to service, a modified version of the US company’s previously bestselling aeroplane has been given permission to fly again, although not until a package of checks and training is completed.

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Boeing says it will make planes able to fly on 100% biofuel by 2030

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Aviation giant already staged the world’s first commercial flight using 100% biofuel in 2018

Boeing says it will begin delivering commercial airplanes capable of flying on 100% biofuel by the end of the decade, calling reducing environmental damage from fossil fuels the “challenge of our lifetime.”

Boeing’s goal – which requires advances to jet systems, raising fuel-blending requirements, and safety certification by global regulators – is central to a broader industry target of slashing carbon emissions in half by 2050, the US planemaker said.

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As Covid cases spike, Dubai works to keep its economy open

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For an emirate dependent on trade, transport and tourism, vaccination, not lockdown, is key to keeping its economy going

As if the Boohoo online fashion company had not generated enough controversy in recent months, its bosses once again found themselves in the headlines last week for hosting a four-day meeting with suppliers in the luxurious surroundings of a Dubai hotel.

The company’s top executives had taken a private jet to the emirate for the get-together with the businessmen and women who supply their fabrics and manufacture their fashions, despite Foreign Office guidance that advises against all but essential travel.

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Family fear for dying Australian man stranded in Ireland as Emirates cancels flights

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John Jobber, who is suffering from end-stage renal failure, prostate cancer and dementia, had a ticket for a March flight home

It was John Jobber’s dying wish to visit the UK, spend time with family and say his goodbyes before returning to Australia and entering palliative care.

The trip was meant to last four weeks, but a year later he is stranded in Ireland, disoriented and getting progressively sicker, and his daughter, Samantha John, fears Emirates cancelling all flights to Australia’s east coast, including his, will be a life sentence.

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Questions will be asked over timing of closing UK travel corridors

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Analysis: poor implementation ends another week of shifting Covid policy by the government

The announced closure of all international travel corridors to the UK marks the end of another week of changing policy, with the timing and implementation dismaying many.

Travel corridors will be axed in effect from Monday morning. The corridors, which exempted inbound travellers from the requirement to quarantine for 10 days, may make little practical difference to the airline and travel industry in the current context.

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Bill Gates joins Blackstone in bid to buy British private jet firm

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Gates’ Cascade Investment fund teams up with US private equity firm on offer for Signature Aviation

Bill Gates has joined a £3bn bidding war to buy the world’s largest private jet operator just as he prepares to publish his new book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.

Cascade Investment, the fund that manages much of Gates’s $134bn personal fortune, announced on Friday it had teamed up with US private equity firm Blackstone in a bid for British private jet operator Signature Aviation.

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US fines Boeing $2.5bn following fraud charges tied to 737 Max crashes

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  • DoJ condemns ‘fraudulent and deceptive conduct’
  • Airliner grounded after crashes that killed hundreds

Boeing has been fined $2.5bn by the US justice department after being charged with fraud and conspiracy in connection with two fatal crashes of its 737 Max airliner.

Related: Biden condemns 'domestic terrorists' at Capitol as Pelosi calls for Trump's removal from office – live

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Plane crash deaths rose in 2020 despite pandemic

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Dozens more died in large commercial plane crashes despite 42% drop in flights worldwide

The number of people killed in large commercial airplane crashes rose in 2020 to 299 worldwide despite a sharp decline in flights due to the coronavirus pandemic, a Dutch consulting firm has found.

In 2020 there were 40 accidents involving large commercial passenger planes, five of which were fatal, resulting in 299 fatalities. In 2019 there were nearly double the number of accidents – 86 – eight of which were fatal, resulting in 257 fatalities, said aviation consulting firm To70.

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Football, flights and food: how the EU reshaped Britain

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As Brexit’s tangible effects kick in, we look at the impact the EU’s most far-reaching project has had on British society

Historians of the future will judge the politics of the half century before the Brexit transition ended on 1 January 2021. What, though, of social and cultural historians, those who study how we live?

Perhaps the most symbolic cultural artefacts of the last 50 years will turn out not to be a blue flag but a bottle of Blue Nun, a block of mozzarella, a Ryanair boarding printout or a ticket to a Bayern Munich v Manchester City football game.

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Future shock: how will Covid change the course of business?

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The crisis poses a deadly threat to some sectors and creates opportunities for others. We examine how they will fare in 2021

Coronavirus has changed lives and industries across the UK, accelerating fundamental shifts in behaviour and consumption that were already on their way. Debates about home working, preserving local high streets and the ethics of air travel were bubbling away before coronavirus rampaged across the world, but the consequences of the worst pandemic in more than a century have either settled those arguments or boosted the momentum behind certain lifestyle changes. Here we look at how those debates have been changed – or resolved – by Covid-19.

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Boeing 737-8 Max: Air Canada jet shuts down an engine and diverts after mechanical issue

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Emergency signal sent from Montreal-bound plane carrying three crew before the plane was rerouted to Arizona

An Air Canada Boeing Co 737-8 Max en route between Arizona and Montreal with three crew members onboard suffered an engine issue that forced the crew to divert the aircraft to Tucson, Arizona, the airline says.

Shortly after the take-off, the pilots received an “engine indication” and “decided to shut down one engine”, an Air Canada spokesman said on Friday.

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UK and US close to deal on cutting tariffs, says White House trade chief

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Talks on reducing charges on items such as Scotch whisky follow UK move to drop levy on Boeing

The UK and the United States are hoping to reach an agreement on reducing trade tariffs, according to Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative in Donald Trump’s outgoing administration.

In an interview with the BBC, Lighthizer said he was in talks with the UK’s international trade secretary, Liz Truss, which could remove hefty tariffs imposed by the US on goods including Scotch whisky.

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Boeing 737 Max back in the skies after fatal crashes that killed 346

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Brazilian airline Gol has resumed commercial flights using the plane grounded globally since March 2019

Commercial passenger flights have resumed on Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft for the first time in 20 months, after Brazilian airline Gol resumed operations using the plane.

The aircraft was grounded globally in March 2019 after two fatal plane crashes in the space of six months, which killed a total of 346 people.

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PM apologises for erroneously stating Kevin Rudd had left and re-entered Australia during Covid

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Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the lower house correcting the record and apologising to the former Labor leader

Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the House of Representatives correcting the record and apologising to Kevin Rudd after declaring erroneously in question time that the former Labor prime minister had been allowed to leave and re-enter Australia during the pandemic.

The controversy began when Labor on Monday asked Morrison why Tony Abbott and Alexander Downer had been able to leave and re-enter the country multiple times this year “when there are thousands of vulnerable stranded Australians who haven’t been able to get home once?”

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Delta plans to trial ‘quarantine-free’ flights between US and Italy

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Passengers will have to test negative for coronavirus three times, says US airline

The US airline Delta has announced the first “quarantine-free” transatlantic flights, with pre-departure Covid testing enabling passengers to escape 14 days’ isolation on arrival in Italy.

The trial flights will start next month between Atlanta and Rome, the first of the type of transatlantic corridor that UK airlines have been seeking to establish to open up travel on their most lucrative routes.

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Norwegian Air files for bankruptcy protection in Ireland

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Low-cost airline to continue reduced flight schedule and shares will still be traded in Oslo

Low-cost airline Norwegian Air has filed for bankruptcy protection in Ireland, becoming the biggest casualty of the coronavirus pandemic in the aviation sector to date.

The troubled carrier has asked an Irish court to carry out a process of examinership. This should protect the group’s assets while it tries to slash debt levels and find new funding as part of a restructuring. It is expected to take as long as five months.

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Boeing 737 Max given approval to fly again by US regulators

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FAA’s move comes after plane was grounded in March 2019 following two fatal crashes

US regulators have approved Boeing’s 737 Max to fly once more, 20 months after the manufacturer’s bestselling plane was grounded following two fatal crashes caused by design flaws.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rescinded an order that had grounded the aircraft, in a move that could allow the planes to fly again before the end of the year.

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UK urged to open up transatlantic corridors as ‘Covid-free’ flight arrives

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Airlines hope testing passengers pre-departure can remove need for quarantine

Airlines have piled more pressure on the UK government to open up transatlantic air corridors after the first confirmed “Covid-free flight” arrived at Heathrow and the launch of a pre-departure testing trial by British Airways.

A United Airlines flight from Newark arrived at London Heathrow on Tuesday morning having tested all of the passengers onboard to certify them free from coronavirus before departure.

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