Major shift in border policy will require people arriving in UK to self-isolate for 14 days
The government has unveiled a major shift in border policy to be introduced next month in a bid to prevent a second wave of Covid-19 in the UK.
Continue reading...There are fears of mass casualties after a passenger aircraft carrying more than 100 people crashed into a residential area in the Pakistani city of Karachi.
The Pakistan International Airlines jet, carrying 99 passengers and eight crew members, was on its final approach to Karachi airport when it went down near Model Colony
Continue reading...Aviation is struggling and seeking support, but there are demands for it to give something in return
“The political moment is now” to address the climate risks posed by the aviation industry, analysts, insiders and campaigners say, as governments across the world weigh up bailouts for airlines grounded by the coronavirus pandemic.
Rescue packages need to come with green strings, such as reduced carbon footprints and frequent flyer levies, they warn, or the sector will return to the path that has made it the fastest rising source of climate-wrecking carbon emissions over the past decade.
Continue reading...I knew my journey home would be complicated, but I wasn’t prepared for the sense of isolation as I moved from one dystopian scene to another
When I booked my flight home after spending more than two-and-a-half months in Europe, I knew what my journey would entail. With no more direct flights between Paris and Hong Kong, I would have a brief layover in London. I knew that when I landed at the Hong Kong airport, I would be tested and held at a facility for roughly eight hours until my results came back.
In the best case scenario – if I were negative – I would be spending two weeks in home quarantine, my whereabouts tracked by an app and a chunky device worn on my wrist. If I were positive, I would be sent to the hospital.
Continue reading...Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce among those who raised objections to the Peter Dutton proposal for regional airport fees
The Morrison government has overhauled cost recovery arrangements for regional airports to conduct security screening to head off a potential revolt by the Nationals in the Senate.
The Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick sought on Wednesday night to disallow regulations imposing security screening requirements that he says would have forced small airports to seek cost recovery through increases in landing charges. Patrick said the changes originally proposed by the home affairs minister Peter Dutton could see fares from Whyalla increase by $54 to $70 per passenger.
Continue reading...Air travel bosses want assurances that science is driving the move, and that a clear exit strategy is in place
A two-week quarantine period for all travellers arriving in Britain risks devastating an aviation industry already crippled by the Covid-19 outbreak, Boris Johnson is being warned.
It is understood that the 14-day quarantine period will be announced by the prime minister, alongside a slight loosening of the lockdown measures that were introduced to slow the spread of the virus. Mass quarantine upon arrival has not previously been used as part of Britain’s response.
Continue reading...Stringent quarantine measures to be announced to prevent second wave of coronavirus
Travellers into the UK will be quarantined for two weeks when they arrive as part of measures to prevent a second peak of the coronavirus pandemic, Boris Johnson is expected to say on Sunday.
In his address to the nation, when he will present his roadmap out of the lockdown, he will announce the introduction of quarantine measures for people who arrive at airports, ports and Eurostar train stations, including for Britons returning from abroad.
Continue reading...Environment groups insist conditions must be attached to Covid-19 rescue plan for sector
Airlines are seeking €26bn (£22.7bn) in state aid to deal with the economic fallout from coronavirus, according to environmental campaigners, who accuse governments of failing to attach binding climate conditions to negotiations.
My flight to Europe is cancelled. All I’m being offered is an alternative flight or vouchers. Is this legal?
Continue reading...European carriers including Easy Jet and TUI secure loans free of binding environmental conditions, analysis reveals
Airlines in Europe have applied for €12.8bn (£11.3bn) government support since the start of the coronavirus pandemic with no binding environmental conditions attached, according to an analysis of the sector’s bailout pleas.
By Tuesday this week, airlines including easyJet, Scandinavian Airlines and Tui had secured loans and other financial support amounting to €3.36bn. A further €9.47bn is being sought by other airlines, data tracking by Transport & Environment, Greenpeace and Carbon Watch reveals.
Continue reading...As travel restrictions in response to the pandemic savagely cut the number of flights, airlines are scrambling to find places to park their redundant planes
Continue reading...Multimillionaire ‘king of the good times’ Vijay Mallya faces allegations of £1bn fraud
The Indian multimillionaire businessman Vijay Mallya has lost his appeal against a decision to extradite him to India to face allegations of a £1bn fraud at his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
High court judges on Monday rejected Mallya’s appeal against a 2018 decision granting his extradition, ruling that there was a “prima facie case of fraud by false representation”.
Continue reading...An animated graphic released by an international aviation organisation shows the dramatic impact the lockdowns have had on air travel. Eurocontrol, which manages flight networks across Europe, said the continent's largest airports had 90% fewer flights compared with April 2019
Continue reading...Airport’s forecast comes as numbers shrank by 52% in March after Covid-19 lockdown
Heathrow airport expects passenger traffic to plunge by 90% in April, as demand is mainly limited to airlines focusing on repatriating citizens stranded abroad during the coronavirus outbreak.
The airport said passenger numbers had already tumbled by 52% to 3.1 million in March, compared with a year earlier, after the UK government advised against all but essential travel. Meanwhile, the total number of flights landing and taking off at Heathrow – covering passenger planes and cargo – fell 35% to 25,798.
Continue reading...Key questions around the government’s plan to rescue 300,000 stranded Britons
The government has announced a £75m rescue mission to repatriate an estimated 300,000 British stranded abroad because of the coronavirus outbreak. How will this work and who will be selected for a flight home?
Continue reading...Company becomes first major employer in the country to stop forcing dress code on women
Female flight attendants working for Japan Airlines will no longer be required to wear high heels or skirts, the airline has said, in a rare victory for Japan’s #KuToo campaign against workplace dress codes for women.
The airline is the first major Japanese company to relax its regulations in response to complaints from women that having to wear high heels was uncomfortable and often left them in considerable pain.
Continue reading...Thousands of travellers frantically trying to fly back to Australia after government warning over coronavirus pandemic
• Australia coronavirus live: NSW now has 307 confirmed cases, up 40 since yesterday
More than 170 Australians trapped in locked-down Peru have been advised by the government to find a commercial charter flight to get out of the country.
Some passengers have been able to get on chartered flights to the US, while others have been offered a dedicated charter flight from Lima to Sydney, but at a cost of more than $5,000.
Continue reading...Striker’s family criticise Civil Aviation Authority for length of investigation into death
The family of the footballer Emiliano Sala, who died in a plane crash 14 months ago, has strongly criticised the length of time it is taking the UK aviation regulator to investigate the tragedy.
Relatives of the Argentinian striker are also angry at what they see as a lack of teeth from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in prosecuting the sort of unlicensed flight that Sala was taking at the time of his death.
Continue reading...Transport secretary says senior figures will gradually return to UK as regulatory powers revert to CAA
The UK is to withdraw from the European Union aviation safety regulator (EASA) after the Brexit transition period, Grant Shapps has confirmed.
The transport secretary said many of the most senior figures at the organisation headquartered in Cologne, Germany were British and that they would gradually return to the UK throughout this year as regulatory powers reverted to the Civil Aviation Authority.
Continue reading...To supporters, they are the solution to congestion. To critics, they’re just billionaires’ toys. So are they the answer to urban travel?
It’s right up there with meal pills, jetpacks, robot butlers and colonies on Mars. Since at least 1962, when the TV cartoon characters George, Jane, Elroy and Judy Jetson first took to the skies, flying cars have been a staple of speculative visions of the future. Designs for dozens of small, affordable, personal flying machines were unveiled in the latter half of the 20th century. Few became airborne and none took commercial flight.
Now, however, a form of flying car is set to escape the clutches of eccentrics and the confines of science fiction. A handful of well-funded startups, some backed by major aviation and car companies, have carried out test flights of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Piloted air taxi and shuttle services are expected before 2025. Uber says it expects to be operating aircraft without pilots by around 2030.
Continue reading...IATA warns Covid-19 will cost airlines up to $113bn in revenue this year, as regional airline Flybe collapses, and experts fear others will follow
HSBC has confirmed that an employee has tested positive for the coronavirus, and that some colleagues from its research department have been sent home while the office is deep-cleaned.
A spokesperson says:
We have been informed that one of our employees at 8 Canada Square has been diagnosed with COVID-19. This colleague is under medical supervision and has self-isolated. We are working closely with the health authorities.
We are deep-cleaning the floor where our colleague worked and shared areas of the building. Colleagues on that floor, and others who came into contact with him, have been advised to work at home. Based on medical and official advice the building remains open and operates as normal.
Back at the British Chambers of Commerce annual meeting today, health secretary Matt Hancock said he was working with the Department for Work and Pensions on a way to extend sickness benefit to all workers.
That could including contract workers and the self employed, my colleague Phillip Inman reports.
“It is vital that the same approach applies to all workers,”
Related: PM: workers with coronavirus will get sick pay from day one
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