Short Takes
April 9th 2020
Korean Air said in a statement some 70% of its 19,000 staff in South Korea would be placed on a six-month leave of absence starting on April 15 due to the deteriorating business environment caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Read More » Affected staff would have about 70% of their normal pay, the bulk of which would be funded by the South Korean government under a special scheme set up in response to COVID-19, the Agence France Presse news agency reported.
The International Air Transport Association [IATA] has postponed its annual general meeting and world air transport summit that was due to be held in Amsterdam on June 22-23. The association said on April 3 it would hold the event when it was safe and practical to do so, likely to be in the late third or early fourth quarter of 2020.
The Hong Kong government has extended the travel and transit ban that had been due to end on April 7 "until further notice". The extension, announced on April 6, noted that in the previous two weeks about 75% of confirmed cases involved either a person who had travelled during the incubation period or someone who had been in close contact with a traveller.
British Airways [BA] has suspended nonstop flights between the United Kingdom and Japan, the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office said on its website. The last service from Tokyo to London was on April 8.
Singapore's Changi Airport Group [CAG] will suspend operations at Terminal 2 from May for 18 months due to the steep decline in passenger traffic. Airlines that use the terminal would be relocated to one of the three other terminals at the airport. The company said on its website the closure of Terminal 2 would allow expansion works at the terminal to be accelerated and bring forward the expected completion date of 2024 of the upgrade by up to one year.
Some 50 Qantas staff members have tested positive for coronavirus, The Australian newspaper reported this week, including eight pilots, 18 or 19 flight attendants and 14 baggage handlers. Qantas medical officer, Dr Russell Brown, shared the figures with staff last week, the newspaper said, with the bulk of those infected from overseas.
Boeing said on April 6 it had extended the suspension of operations at its production facilities in Puget Sound and Moses Lake in Washington State that have been in place since March 23 "until further notice”. In related news, Boeing has announced work at the 787 Final Assembly Line at North Charleston in South Carolina also would be suspended until further notice.
Airbus said on April 6 it had paused production at its A220/A320 final assembly line at Mobile in Alabama until April 29. In Germany, the OEM has halted commercial aircraft production and assembly activities in Bremen until April 27. Production and assembly at Stade stopped on April 5 for a week.
