Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) said today it was reducing planned domestic growth in August in response to slowing demand amid a recent rise in coronavirus cases in the country. The airline said it would operate 77% of originally scheduled domestic flights in August. While this projected capacity was up from about 50% in July, this latest August schedule was down 11 percentage points from the 88% ANA had proposed for August on July 14. Read More »
Since Saturday, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government has required inbound travellers from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and South Africa to provide evidence they had tested negative to COVID-19 within three days of their flights. And from Wednesday (July 29), individuals travelling from Kazakhstan and the U.S. also must supply documentation of a negative test. Passengers would still be tested upon arrival in Hong Kong and be subjected to a 14-day compulsory quarantine.
Also in Hong Kong, the government announced over the weekend it would tighten quarantine exemptions for air and sea crews as the city battled a recent spike in COVID-19 cases. The new rules, to apply from Wednesday, required air crews to have a negative nucleic acid test result for COVID-19 conducted at an ISO 15189-accredited laboratory, or one recognised by the government where the laboratory is located, no earlier than 48 hours before they departed for Hong Kong. "Otherwise, the air crew must take a nucleic acid test for COVID-19 at the Temporary Specimen Collection Centre (TSCC) on arrival at Hong Kong International Airport and wait for the test results there or at any other designated location," a government statement said.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) group said late last week it planned to restart nonstop flights to two destinations in August followed by two more in September. The airline group said SIA would return to Milan on August 20 and Taipei from September 2. SilkAir would add Cebu to its network on August 2 and Phnom Penh from September 1. "As a result, the Group’s passenger capacity in August and September 2020 will reach approximately 7% of its pre-COVID-19 levels, respectively. SIA and SilkAir will continue to adjust capacity to match demand for international air travel," the airline group said.
Singapore-based Jetstar Asia has said the majority of its scheduled services would remain suspended until "at least August 14", given border restrictions remained firmly in place across the region. All flights to and from China also were suspended until August 31, Singapore-Darwin until October 24 and the launch of a Colombo service pushed back to October 26. Since April 21, the LCC has operated a skeleton schedule of two return services a week to Bangkok, two return services a week to Kuala Lumpur and one return service weekly to Manila from its Singapore hub.
India-based Vistara said on Friday it had received its first A321neo, with the aircraft arriving in Delhi from Airbus's production facility in Hamburg, Germany. The A321neo, configured with 12 lie-flat business class, 24 premium economy and 152 economy seats, is the first of 50 A320 family aircraft Vistara has on order. “This new addition to our fleet reinforces our long-term commitment to international expansion plans, despite the challenges of the current times," Vistara CEO, Leslie Thng, said in a statement.
Airports Council International (ACI) World director general, Luis Felipe de Oliveira, has called for conditions to be attached to the waiving of the 80:20 slot rule for the upcoming Northern hemisphere late October to end of March winter season. In an interview with FlightGlobal, de Oliveira said airlines should have to give four weeks’ notice they were not using a slot for a waiver to apply. “We are not completely against the waivers, but [they] need to have certain conditions. If not, it would be incredibly unproductive and would raise the costs for the airports and raise costs for the whole industry. And you reduce the opportunity for all people to travel,” de Oliveira said.
