Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce, said today the airline company was “hoping” to reach 50% of pre-COVID-19 domestic capacity by Christmas across its Qantas and Jetstar networks if interstate borders continued to be relaxed.Read More » "That will be great news for a lot of people in the travel and tourism industry as well,” Joyce said in a statement. Combined Qantas and Jetstar domestic capacity was less than 30%, Joyce said.
Boeing reported overnight a net loss of US$449 million for the three months to September 30, 2020 compared with a net profit of US$1.2 billion for same quarter last year. It was the company's fourth consecutive quarterly loss. Revenue declined 29%, to US$14.1 billion, Boeing said. "The deep impacts of COVID-19 on the commercial aviation market and our business are reflected in lower revenue, earnings and cash flow compared with this time last year," Boeing CEO, Dave Calhoun, said in a message to staff published on the company's website.
Calhoun forecast more job losses, telling staff the size of the workforce was expected to be 130,000 by the end of 2021, a reduction from 160,000 employees last January. In April, Boeing announced it would eliminate 16,000 jobs from its payroll which it increased to 19,000 in July. "Boeing expected to continue lowering overall staffing levels through natural attrition, voluntary and involuntary workforce reductions and recorded additional severance costs in the third quarter," the company said.
Boeing delivered 28 commercial aircraft in the third quarter of calendar 2020, down from 62 in the period a year ago. Revenue from the commercial airplane division fell 56%, to US$3.6 billion, "reflecting lower delivery volume primarily due to COVID-19 impacts as well as 787 quality issues and associated rework", it said.
Hawaiigovernor, David Ige, announced yesterday travellers from Japan to the U.S. island state would not be required to do 14 days of quarantine if they had a negative COVID-19 test result from 21 trusted testing partners in Japan. The test had to be taken no earlier than 72 hours before departure for Hawaii. The travel bubble will operate from November 6. “We believe we have created the safest travel testing program in the country. We are grateful to the Japanese government for assisting us in making our pre-travel testing program available to its residents,” Ige said. Japanese nationals travelling abroad are still required to complete 14 days of quarantine when they return to Japan, the statement said.
India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ruled the restriction on scheduled international flights would be extended until November 30. In keeping with the previous extension, the restriction would not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the DGCA. It added some international scheduled flights would be allowed to operate on selected routes on a case-to-case basis.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has suspended Air India's Mumbai-Hong Kong services until November 10 after five passengers on a recent flight tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival, local media has reported. It was Air India's fourth suspension for transporting passengers who tested positive on arrival in Hong Kong. Travellers from India to Hong Kong must have a negative result from a COVID-19 test taken no earlier than 72 hours before travel.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Tuesday it had suspended four flights operated by three carriers because of the number of positive tests for coronavirus registered by passengers on arrival at their Mainland destinations. China Southern Airlines' (CSA) Dhaka-Guangzhou and Manila-Guangzhou services and the Emirates Airline Dubai-Guangzhou flight each were suspended for a week. Ethiopian Airlines’ Addis Ababa-Shanghai flight has been banned from the route for five weeks.
