Category Archives: Air transport

Hotel quarantine – too little too late? Politics Weekly podcast

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Jessica Elgot and John Crace look at why the latest coronavirus travel restrictions might not work the way the government expects. Plus, Helen Davidson and Jon Henley on how the world sees the UK’s Covid response

In response to the myriad of new Covid-19 variants entering the UK, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced in the Commons on Tuesday that travellers arriving from coronavirus hotspots who refuse to adhere to the new restrictions could face £10,000 fines and jail sentences of up to 10 years. The move might seem extreme, but given how long we have known about variants cropping up since the new year, many are asking, is it too little too late?

The housing minister, Robert Jenrick, has announced billions of pounds in extra support to address the cladding crisis exposed after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. Will it be enough to help hundreds of thousands of people feel safe again in their own homes?

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Ireland to crack down on ‘Dublin dodge’ used to evade UK travel ban

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Travellers from Middle East using Irish capital as a backdoor into Britain to swerve coronavirus rules

The Irish government has promised to crack down on travellers from the Middle East who use the “Dublin dodge” to enter the UK and evade coronavirus restrictions.

The number of people flying to Dublin from Dubai has increased since the UK added the United Arab Emirates to a travel ban list last month, prompting concern that passengers are using Ireland’s capital as a back door to Britain.

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Berlin airport’s baggage handlers suffer electric shocks in latest mishap

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About 60 cases recorded of workers being hurt recorded at airport, which has been plagued with problems

Baggage handlers at Berlin’s new airport have reported receiving electric shocks from scanners in yet another problem to befall the troubled project, which is widely seen as an engineering catastrophe.

About 60 incidents of electric shocks have been reported since the airport opened its doors on 31 October last year, nine years behind schedule and more than €4bn (£3.6bn) over budget, according to the trade union Verdi. Affected workers have complained of significant pain, dizziness and numbness, and ambulances have been called on four occasions this month.

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Indonesia plane crash relative: ‘I said I would pray for her’

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As divers search for black boxes in Java Sea, families recall last-minute messages

Rafik Yusuf Alaydrus’s wife, Panca Widia Nursanti, messaged him on WhatsApp as she sat on board the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 flight. The weather in Jakarta was bad, she said. It was raining heavily and the flight, bound for Pontianak on Borneo island, had been delayed for an hour by the poor conditions.

As she waited for takeoff on Saturday, Panca told him she had a bad feeling, and asked him to pray for her. “I tried to calm her down, saying that I would pray for her, and asked her to pray during flight. Inshallah she would be safe,” he said.

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Boeing 737 carrying 62 people feared to have crashed into sea near Jakarta

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Suspected debris found in sea after Sriwijaya Air flight went missing shortly after takeoff

An Indonesian passenger plane carrying 62 people that went missing on Saturday is feared to have crashed, after suspected debris was found in the sea north of Jakarta.

The Boeing 737-500, which departed from Jakarta’s international airport at about 2.36pm, lost contact four minutes later. Data from the flight tracker FlightRadar24 said Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 had reached an altitude of nearly 11,000ft (3,350 metres) before dropping to 250ft.

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Stowaway tells how he survived 11-hour flight to UK in new film

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South African man, now known as Justin, speaks for first time of friend Carlito Vale, who died after 430-metre fall, in Channel 4 documentary

A South African man who survived an 11-hour flight from Johannesburg to London after hiding in a plane’s undercarriage has told of the last words he exchanged with a friend whose body fell from the same British Airways flight as it came in to land at Heathrow.

“He said: ‘We made it,’ and then I passed out with the lack of oxygen,” said the man, who was then known as Themba and who has spoken publicly for the first time about the desperate journey both men undertook in 2015.

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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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‘A real bad precedent’: Australia criticised for Antarctica airport plan

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Multibillion-dollar project is unnecessary and damaging to wildlife, say scientists

Australia is planning to build Antarctica’s biggest infrastructure project: a new airport and runway that would increase the human footprint in the world’s greatest wilderness by an estimated 40%.

The mega-scheme is likely to involve blasting petrel rookeries, disturbing penguin colonies and encasing a stretch of the wilderness in more than 115,000 tonnes of concrete.

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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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‘Glamping’ at Singapore airport offers in-tents retail therapy

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Guests grounded by Covid can ‘wake up to the refreshing view of the majestic HSBC Rain Vortex’ or peg a bargain in the shops

Singapore’s Changi airport is charging customers up to $269 per night for the chance to camp in a tent in its retail wing, the latest unusual travel experience aimed at boosting revenue during the pandemic.

Tickets for the “glamping” experience, which have already sold out, offer guests the chance to “wake up to the refreshing view of the majestic HSBC Rain Vortex”, the world’s largest indoor waterfall. Tents are four metres in diameter and come with blankets. Shopping discounts are also included.

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Multiple European countries ban travel from UK over new Covid strain

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WHO tells members to redouble efforts to stop spread as Israel turns away UK passport holders

European countries have begun to close their doors to travellers from the UK after the discovery of a fast-spreading strain of Covid-19 in England.

As the World Health Organization called on its members in Europe to step up measures, countries including France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands announced bans on travel from the UK.

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Ministers face fresh legal challenge over Heathrow airport plans

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Critics say plan for third runway runs counter to UK’s legally binding target of net zero emissions by 2050

The government faces a legal challenge over its plan to expand Heathrow airport, with lawyers and environmentalists demanding it review its policy in line with its commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.

The Good Law Project, a not-for-profit organisation with a focus on public interest cases including environmentalism and tackling poverty, argues that the government must update its plan for a third runway to take into account the emissions pledge it made following the approval for the airport expansion in June 2018.

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UK’s ‘test to release’ Covid scheme for travellers gets off to chaotic start

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Most private providers are unable to offer the service, which should have cut quarantine from to 10 days to five

The UK government’s long-awaited test to release scheme, designed to allow travellers to cut quarantine, was embroiled in chaos on its first day of operation after the last-minute publication of 11 private providers, most of whom appeared unable to offer the service on Tuesday morning.

Airports, many of which have had testing centres in place for weeks or months, were perplexed at being left off the Department for Transport’s approved list, as they reported a surge in bookings in the run-up to the festive season.

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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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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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Chaos at Shanghai airport as thousands are tested for Covid – video

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Chaotic scenes played out at Shanghai airport on Sunday as thousands of people were corralled into a car park after a snap decision to test everyone for coronavirus. 

Footage posted on social media shows officials wearing white suits containing crowds of people at Shanghai Pudong International airport after several people tested positive for Covid-19

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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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Australian women say Qatar has not contacted them since invasive Doha airport examinations

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Women say they have had no apology from Qatar Airways or government and are considering legal action

Women who were removed from a Qatar Airways flight and subject to an intimate medical examination, sparking international outrage last month, have not received any individual apologies or been directly contacted by the airline.

Passengers on the flight, which departed Doha for Sydney on 2 October, have told Guardian Australia there has been no direct contact with them from either Qatar Airways of the Qatari government in the six weeks since the incident took place.

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People plan to drive more post-Covid, climate poll shows

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Exclusive: Gap between actions and beliefs threatens green recovery from pandemic

People are planning to drive more in future than they did before the coronavirus pandemic, a survey suggests, even though the overwhelming majority accept human responsibility for the climate crisis.

The apparent disconnect between beliefs and actions raises fears that without strong political intervention, these actions could undermine efforts to meet the targets set in the Paris agreement and hopes of a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

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