Tag: corona virus crisis in aviation industry

The Wadia Group-owned GoAir has been put on cash-and-carry (pay as you fly) mode by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) over the pending dues. GoAir is the third such airline to go on this mode, after Air India and SpiceJet. GoAir has said there will be no impact on its flight operations. The Airports Authority of India’s letter dated August 10 stated the authority has put “GoAir on cash-and- carry mode for all AAI airports across the country from Tuesday (00:01hrs of August 11)”. GoAir is engaged in constructive discussions with AAI and would like to assure our customers ... Read more

Britain’s Heathrow Airport renewed its call for COVID-19 testing at airports on Tuesday as it reported an 88% plunge in July passenger numbers due to ongoing restrictions on travel which it said were strangling the UK economy. Heathrow, which is owned by a group of investors including Spain’s Ferrovial, the Qatar Investment Authority and China Investment Corp, said 60% of Heathrow’s route network remained grounded, requiring passengers to quarantine for 14 days on arrival, says a Reuters report. Despite thousands of Britons holidaying overseas after months of lockdown, the government has already reimposed quarantine on arrivals from Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, ... Read more

Alliance Air employees union president Binoy Viswam has questioned the Government’s decision to privatise Air India and introduction of the leave without pay policy for its employees. He stressed that over the past two years, the entire Air India organization has been severely affected by the Government’s decision to privatise the airline.  ”The uncertainty over the future as well as the Government’s decision to cut wages and introduced a leave without pay policy has caused great mental stress to all employees. In such circumstances, it is possible that the maintenance and safety of aircraft is also jeopardised and it is ... Read more

British Airways has announced that it will be operating five flights every week from Delhi and Mumbai, and four each week from Hyderabad and Bengaluru to London’s Heathrow airport from August 17. India and the United Kingdom had finalised their air bubble last month to rescue stranded nationals amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In its latest statement, the British Airways said that all passengers eligible as per the home ministry guidelines will be allowed to board the flights. “Wearing a facemask at all times and bringing enough to replace them every four hours for longer flights, ensuring they have everything they ... Read more

Brazil has reopened international air travel to foreign tourists, even as the country’s coronavirus outbreak ranks as the world’s second worst, according to a news report by Reuters. Air travel was suspended in March. Tourists from all countries may travel to Brazil as long as they have health insurance for the duration of their trip, the government said in a decree which did not explain the rationale for the decision. Brazil is reopening its air borders faster than other countries in the region with less severe outbreaks, such as Colombia, Argentina, Panama and Peru which remain closed to international commercial ... Read more

Europe’s airline and airport associations have written to Prime Ministers, Transport, Health and Home Affairs Ministers across the European Union, Schengen and the UK, stating their concerns over their failure to implement coherent and scientific approaches to travel restrictions. The letter, sent jointly from Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe), Airlines for Europe (A4E) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), is highly critical of the introduction of new restrictions relating to selected countries. Many of these restrictions, state the organisations, are inconsistent with the principles laid out by the World Health Organization(WHO) and theEuropean Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The aviation sector has been dealt a ... Read more

Air India has announced 12 additional flights from August 18-30 to Canada and Vancouver from Delhi under the 5th phase of the Vande Bharat Mission. Bookings for the flights are now open on the airline’s official website or booking offices. As India is set to begin the fifth phase, more bilateral air bubbles are expected to be announced with more countries. The fourth phase of the Vande Bharat Mission brought back as much as 2.5 lakh Indians from 53 countries around the world. Under phase 4, a total of 1,197 flights have been scheduled so far, including 945 international flights ... Read more

Kuwait’s international airport will resume commercial flights to 20 countries from August 1. The resumption will be carried out in a three-stage re-opening, five months after it suspended operations due to the coronavirus pandemic. Flights will initially cover eight countries in the Middle East, including the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Lebanon; six in Europe, including the UK, Germany and Switzerland; five in Asia, including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and the Philippines; and to Ethiopia as the lone African destination, Kuwait’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement. The government’s three-stage re-opening took into account the importance of ... Read more

India’s aviation regulator DGCA on Friday extended the suspension of scheduled international flights to and from the country till August 31. However, this restriction will not apply to international cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the DGCA. “The government has decided to extend the suspension on the scheduled international commercial passenger services to/ from India up to 2359 hours IST of 31st August,” the DGCA said in a statement.  DGCA, on July 3 had extended the ban on international flights until July 31 after it was suspended till July 15. According to senior government officials, the ban was extended ... Read more

Delta is continuing to make it easier for customers to book, change or cancel their travel plans, and to fly comfortably with more space for safer travel. Effective July 30: We’re extending our change-fee waiver to new flights purchased through August 31. We’re offering the ability to rebook travel for up to two years for customers who purchased flights prior to April 17, 2020, that are pending travel through the end of year. We’re implementing automatic seat blocks through at least September 30, which will automatically block seats adjacent to those selected by a customer once a reservation is complete ... Read more

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is urging African governments to unblock bottlenecks so that urgently needed financial relief pledged for air transport and tourism reaches the distressed businesses. As a consequence of the pandemic and associated restrictions, African airlines are forecast to lose $2 billion in 2020. Without urgent financial relief, the industry is at risk of collapse, putting about 3.3 million jobs and $33 billion in African GPD in jeopardy. To date, the governments of Sub-Saharan Africa Rwanda, Senegal, Côte D’Ivoire and Burkina Faso have pledged a total of $311 million in direct financial support to air transport. ... Read more

Air India’s northern regional office has formed a committee to identify “redundant” or “surplus” employees who would be asked to go on a compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to five years. P S Negi, Regional Director (RD), Northern Region, Air India, issued an order stating that an empowered committee is being constituted for the identification of such employees, news agency PTI has reported. Negi’s order, which has been accessed by PTI, said the general manager (personnel), general manager (finance) and departmental heads will be the members of the empowered committee. “GM (Personnel) will share the staff list with ... Read more

Airlines are taking extreme measures to survive the pandemic, with Asiana Airlines Inc. flying the world’s biggest commercial plane more than 20 times, going nowhere and carrying no passengers, just to keep trainee pilots certified, Bloomberg has said. Keeping crew flight-ready is one of the challenges carriers face as they grapple with the unprecedented crisis that keeps more than a third of the world’s fleet grounded. The empty Airbus SE A380 flew over South Korea for a few hours a day for three days in May to enable pilots of the 495-seat superjumbo to practice taking off and landing. The ... Read more

SpiceJet has been designated as “India’s scheduled carrier” to operate flight services to the UK from India, the Gurugram-based no-frills airline said in a regulatory filing on Friday. The announcement came just one day after it was picked to fly on India-US routes by the governments of the two countries under the bilateral air services pact, news agency PTI has reported. “We would like to inform you that in terms of the Air Services Agreement between the Government of India and the United Kingdom, SpiceJet has been designated as Indian scheduled carrier to operate on agreed services between India and the ... Read more

Eli Rozenberg, the 30-year-old scion of a New York family in the nursing home business, made his offer on Monday for control of El Al Airlines, Israel’s flag carrier. He said that he and his family were prepared to pay $75 million for an allocation of shares that would give him a 44.99% stake. According to a report by Haaretz, the stake is the maximum he can offer to achieve control of Israel’s flag carrier without having to make a general offer for all the shares, under Israeli regulations. The offer, which was presented to the Israel Companies Authority and the ... Read more