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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rescinded an order that had grounded the aircraft, in a move that could allow the planes to fly again before the end of the year.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Researchers say Covid-19 hiatus is moment to tackle elite ‘super emitters’
Frequent-flying “‘super emitters” who represent just 1% of the world’s population caused half of aviation’s carbon emissions in 2018, according to a study.
Airlines produced a billion tonnes of CO2 and benefited from a $100bn (£75bn) subsidy by not paying for the climate damage they caused, the researchers estimated. The analysis draws together data to give the clearest global picture of the impact of frequent fliers.
Continue reading...Airline to run 20% of flights for rest of 2020 but says vaccine news has boosted bookings
EasyJet has slumped to a £1.3bn full-year loss, the first in its 25-year history, but said bookings had been boosted by positive news on Covid-19 vaccines.
Johan Lundgren, the chief executive, said bookings had surged by 50% last week after the US drugmaker Pfizer and the German biotech firm BioNTech announced that their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90% effective. “Momentum has continued this week, as people have more confidence making travel plans going forward,” he said.
Continue reading...The worst parts of this week’s annual results have already been trailed – but what a terrible year it’s been
No flights, no planes, no crew, no fares – November! Late autumn is, even on easyJet’s standard aviation calendar, quite the worst time of any year, but 2020 has been something else.
On Tuesday, the airline unveils its annual results from what it can only hope are the depths of the Covid-19 abyss. A trading update last month warned on much of the misery – losses of up to £845m, not counting “non-headline items” such as a £145m bad bet on fuel hedging, and the immediate £120m cost of laying off about a third of its staff. The cash burn of around £50m a week over summer “compared favourably” with the previous three months, it said.
Continue reading...First air taxis to fly in Catalan capital and Santiago de Compostela in 2022, says Enaire
When Spain’s much-missed tourists and pilgrims finally return, they may be offered a novel way to rise above the crowds and appreciate some of the country’s most dramatic urban architecture.
Enaire, Spain’s air navigation authority, has announced plans to begin demonstrating flying taxis in Barcelona and Santiago de Compostela in 2022.
Continue reading...Border agency Frontex accused by campaigners and MEPs of evading its responsibilities towards people in distress
The EU has been accused of condemning migrants to death by critics of its recent €100m (£90m) deals for drone surveillance over the Mediterranean Sea.
Campaigners and MEPs have accused the EU’s border agency Frontex of investing in technology to monitor migrants from afar and skirt its responsibilities towards people in distress.
Continue reading...Australia’s foreign minister says 18 women, including 13 Australians, on Qatar Airways flight were subjected to compulsory intimate searches
The government of Qatar has said it “regrets any distress or infringement on the personal freedom of any traveller” caused by a decision to conduct intimate medical examinations of women transiting through Doha international airport, in what it said was an “urgently-decided search” to find the mother of an abandoned baby.
On Wednesday morning the Australian government confirmed that 18 women on a flight from Doha to Sydney were subjected to the compulsory medical examination, including 13 Australian citizens. Passengers from 10 flights leaving Doha on the evening of 2 October were affected.
Continue reading...Investors’ summer optimism gives way to insecurity as curfews and lockdowns return
Stock markets in the US and Europe fell sharply oas investors focused on signs that rich countries’ efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic were foundering.
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 index lost 1.8% after heavy falls in German blue-chip stocks. In the US the Dow Jones industrial average closed 2.3% down at 27685.38, while the benchmark S&P 500 fell 1.9% to 3400.97.
Continue reading...Thirteen Australians reportedly among women taken off flight at Doha and subjected to medical examination after newborn found abandoned in airport
The Australian government has registered “serious concerns” with Qatari authorities after women on a flight from Doha to Sydney were ordered to disembark the plane and subjected to a strip search and a medical examination.
Flight QR908 to Sydney was due to leave Hamad International airport at Doha at 8.30 on Friday 2 October, but was delayed for four hours, apparently after a newborn infant was found dead in the airport.
Continue reading...European aerospace giant and two Israeli arms firms win EU contracts totalling €100m
Airbus and two Israeli arms companies will be paid €100m (£91m) to operate unmanned drones to spot refugees and migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean sea to Europe, according to EU contracts.
Drone operations over the Mediterranean will start next year, after testing carried out on the Greek island of Crete.
Continue reading...CommonPass aims to create common standard proving a traveller is Covid-free or vaccinated
A new digital “health passport” is to be piloted by a small number of passengers flying from the UK to the US for the first time next week under plans for a global framework for Covid-safe air travel.
The CommonPass system, backed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), is designed to create a common international standard for passengers to demonstrate they do not have coronavirus.
Continue reading...Diners paid up to £360 to eat onboard in latest sign of public appetite for aircraft experience
Diners have rushed to pay up to £360 per head to eat a meal on a stationary plane, in the latest sign of public appetite to recreate the onboard experience without travelling.
Singapore Airlines launched a waiting list after tickets rapidly sold out for two weekends of sittings onboard two stationary A380 superjumbos, with meals at seats and the chance to watch a movie, albeit no longer in-flight.
Continue reading...Berlin-Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport, €4bn over budget and nine years late, now has virus to contend with
Almost three decades after the plans were first mooted, over nine years behind schedule and more than €4bn (£3.6bn) over budget, Berlin’s new international airport is finally ready to open its doors.
But the already tortuous birth of Berlin-Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport (BER) expected to open on 31 October, and once hailed as a celebration of the ambitious German reunification project, has only been compounded by the decision to unveil it in the middle of a pandemic.
Continue reading...With the airline industry at a standstill and farmers desperate for workers, aviation staff are finding opportunities in a new field
The cabin of a harvester in the middle of a vast wheat field might be a strange place to find an airline pilot at work, but for Andrew King it all makes sense.
King worked as a passenger jet pilot for Hainan Airlines but has been on leave without pay since the pandemic hit in February.
Continue reading...Airline becomes first in Japan to make move as part of commitment to tackle gender-based discrimination
Japan Airlines is replacing “ladies and gentlemen” in its in-flight and airport announcements with gender-neutral expressions, beginning in October.
The formerly state-owned airline will use phrases such as “all passengers”, “good morning” and “good evening” in its English announcements. The standard term used in Japanese “minna-sama” – an honorific form of “everybody” – is already gender neutral.
Continue reading...Coronavirus has hit few sectors harder than air travel, wiping out tens of thousands of jobs and uncountable billions in revenue. While most fleets were grounded, the industry was forced to reimagine its future
When an airline no longer wants a plane, it is sent away to a boneyard, a storage facility where it sits outdoors on a paved lot, wingtip to wingtip with other unwanted planes. From the air, the planes look like the bleached remains of some long-forgotten skeleton. Europe’s biggest boneyard is built on the site of a late-30s airfield in Teruel, in eastern Spain, where the dry climate is kind to metallic airframes. Many planes are here for short-term storage, biding their time while they change owners or undergo maintenance. If their future is less clear, they enter long-term storage. Sometimes a plane’s limbo ends when it is taken apart, its body rendered efficiently down into spare parts and recycled metal.
In February, Patrick Lecer, the CEO of Tarmac Aerosave, the company that owns the Teruel boneyard and three others in France, had one eye cocked towards China. Lecer has been in aviation long enough to remember flights being grounded during the Sars epidemic in 2003. This year, when the coronavirus spread beyond Asia, he knew what was coming. “We started making space in our sites, playing Tetris with the aircraft to free up two or three or four more spaces in each,” he told me.
Continue reading...Funding used to protect workers will expire on 30 September, and airlines have already announced huge layoffs
US airlines are facing what one leading analyst calls a “Thelma and Louise” moment as the industry approaches a government-funding deadline that could decide its future.
On 30 September a government aid packages used to protect workers expires, the airlines have already announced huge layoffs but what comes next could be even worse.
Continue reading...Cost cuts and lack of scrutiny contributed to 737 Max disasters, say US politicians
Boeing jeopardised the safety of passengers by cutting costs on the development of the 737 Max and escaped scrutiny from regulators before software flaws contributed to two fatal crashes of the aircraft, according to a report by US politicians.
The US manufacturer was forced to ground its bestselling plane after the crashes of a Lion Air 737 Max in 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines jet in 2019. The crashes killed 346 people.
Continue reading...With flights on hold, airline caterers have pivoted to selling direct-to-public, so how does an airline meal taste without cabin pressure?
“If you’re going to a cafe and paying $25 for a meal you have certain expectations. If you’re doing a 10-course fine dining degustation you have expectations … It’s one of those things where you have to set your expectations accordingly.”
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