Airports Council International (ACI) World and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reinforced the urgent call for governments to use testing as a means to safely re-open borders and re-establish global connectivity and to prevent the systemic collapse of the aviation industry with non-debt generating financial support. The dual measures would protect countries from the […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

In September 2020, Frankfurt Airport (FRA) served some 1.1 million passengers – an 82.9 percent decline compared to the same month last year. Cumulative traffic at FRA during the January-to-September 2020 period fell by 70.2 percent. The low passenger demand resulted from persisting travel restrictions and the uncertainties for travel planning in the wake of […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

According to the Italian government decree signed on the evening of October 9 by the four ministers of Economy, Transport, Economic Development, and Labor, the company statute, annexed to the decree, confirms that the Alitalia name will no longer exist. The new company, Italia Trasporto Aereo SpA, will be based “in the Municipality of Rome,” […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Southwest Airlines Co. today announced plans to expand its footprint in Chicago and Houston. Chicago O’Hare International Airport Work is underway to add new service from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), alongside existing service from the carrier’s longtime Chicago home, Midway International Airport (MDW). Midway remains one of the busiest airports in Southwest’s network. Since […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Emirates, the largest airline of the United Arab Emirates, announced that it will to resume its flights to Budapest, Hungary on October 21, Bologna, Italy on November 1, Dusseldorf and Hamburg, Germany on November 1, and Lyon, France on November 4, expanding its European network to 31 destinations, and offering customers around the world convenient […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

The Civil Aviation Organization of Islamic Republic of Iran announced today in a statement that airline ticket price hikes announced last week by the Association of Iranian Airlines (AIA) would be halted until at least early December. Iran’s chief civil aviation regulator said that the country’s air carriers would not be allowed to raise airfare […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

The global tourism industry had a rosy outlook for 2020 continuing a historic rise in the industry in recent times. However, at the beginning of the year, it became apparent that COVID-19 had turned the world upside down and global tourism effectively came to a collective halt. According to latest data, the projected tourism revenue […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Traffic fell in September, with a loss of 5.5 million passengers over the course of the month. Just over 1.2 million passengers traveled through Heathrow in September, down 82% compared to 2019. Most travel is to the remaining European destinations on the UK’s travel corridors list. However, the number of countries on this list has […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Emirates, the largest airline of the United Arab Emirates, announced that it will to resume its flights to Budapest, Hungary on October 21, Bologna, Italy on November 1, Dusseldorf and Hamburg, Germany on November 1, and Lyon, France on November 4, expanding its European network to 31 destinations, and offering customers around the world convenient […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

The private jet industry felt similar shockwaves to the rest of the aviation sector at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a promising rebound in recent months looks set to recover some of those losses as wealthy leisure passengers switch to private flights to reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19. According to the latest […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Airbus and Koniku Inc. have made a significant step forward in the automated and contactless detection of chemical, biological and explosive threats for the aviation industry. In partnership with the Mobile, Ala. Police Department, the canine squad from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and FBI bomb technicians, Airbus led a series of field tests evaluating […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

In the current year, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group have so far reimbursed over three billion euros to a total of over seven million customers (as of 30 September 2020). The number of ticket refunds still open fell to around 700,000 transactions worth around 350 million euros. Constantly changing travel restrictions and current political […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

United Airlines today announced it plans to resume service on nearly 30 international routes in November, including flights to cities in Asia, Europe, and South America. Additionally, the airline continues to strategically rebuild its domestic and international network by offering customers service to popular leisure destinations in the Caribbean, Hawaii, Central America and Mexico. Even […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

With less than 90 days to go before the year-end holiday season, European aviation bodies have intensified their call to replace quarantine measures with passenger testing. This will provide far greater assurance and ability for cross-border travelers to plan family reunions or vacations during this important holiday period. It will also serve as a lifeline […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Beginning October 8 American Airlines is to increase nonstop service to Key West International Airport (EYW) from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT) on 76-seat Embraer E175 regional jets and from Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) on 128-seat Airbus A319 planes. American’s increased service is to include 19 weekly flights from CLT, with three daily flights to […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) has updated its plans and schedule for non-stop wide-body flights between Kyiv & New York. UIA is planning to resume flights as the Spring season takes hold in both cities. Plans include flights in time for the Easter holidays in 2021. Numerous factors have to be considered when planning these flights, […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

TAP Air Portugal is returning to Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and San Francisco International (SFO) airports this weekend, on October 2 and 3 respectively, with nonstop service to Lisbon from each.   To begin, each market will start with one round-trip weekly. TAP’s first flight to Chicago arrives today, Friday, October 2, and returns to Portugal on […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Ahead of the resumption of all scheduled and non-scheduled passenger flights in and out of Entebbe on 1st October, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Government of the Republic of Uganda issued directives regarding the resumption of international flights. They were contained in a letter signed off by Fred Bamwesigye Ag. Director-General, the Uganda […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

US-China relations are at an all-time low. US President Trump blames China to be responsible for the spread of COVID-19, while he himself was diagnosed with the virus. On the other side, a US Airline is restarting flights between the United States and the Peoples Republic China launching its non-stop from San Francisco to Shanghai. […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Dubai based Emirates Airlines has announced it will resume flights to Budapest (from 21 October), Bologna (1st November), Dusseldorf (1st November), Hamburg (1st November) and Lyon (4th November), expanding its European network to 31 destinations, and offering customers around the world convenient connections via Dubai. The addition of these five destinations takes Emirates’ global network to 99 destinations, as […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Today, WestJet and the Vancouver International Airport (YVR) announced WestJet’s newest aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner, is now operating five-times weekly between Vancouver and Toronto. Vancouver joins Calgary and Toronto as another domestic destination served by the airline’s award-winning aircraft. “The Dreamliner offers our guests the highest safety and health standards as well as an extremely […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A., Brazil’s largest domestic airline, announces today preliminary air traffic figures for the month of September 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. During September, GOL operated an average of 270 flights per day, reopened three bases (Juiz de Fora, Londrina and Presidente Prudente) and added 1,383 frequencies at the Guarulhos […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

The Seychelles Islands is now more accessible to European visitors since Sunday, September 27, 2020, with the return of direct flights from Europe to Seychelles. The Swiss airline, Edelweiss Air, the first European direct commercial flight to land at the Seychelles International airport of Pointe Larue since the destination has reopened for tourism in August […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency announced that Russian airlines received permits for regular flights to 24 countries, as well as for charter flights to six more countries. “Russian airlines received admission to open countries: Belarus, Great Britain, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, UAE, Turkey and Tanzania. Among the closed countries, the admission to which has already […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Singapore’s flag carrier, Singapore Airlines, announced that it will resume and increase the frequency of flights on a number of destinations by the end of the year. “It is expected that by the end of the year the company will bring the volume of flights to 15% of the usual,” Singapore Airlines’ statement said. According […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Flyers Rights President Paul Hudson issued the following response to the DOT’s refusal to promulgate a mask rule after DOT General Counsel Steven Bradbury issued a letter denying Flyers Rights’ rulemaking petition: eTurboNews published the full letter two days ago Mr. Bradbury, This horrible decision will no doubt encourage bad actor airlines and airports to […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Ahead of the G20 summit of the world’s largest economies, which includes a dedicated tourism segment, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), as the two parties work together to restart global tourism. Highlighting UNWTO’s unique status as a bridge between the UN system […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that the airline industry will burn through $77 billion in cash during the second half of 2020 (almost $13 billion/month or $300,000 per minute), despite the restart of operations. The slow recovery in air travel will see the airline industry continuing to burn through cash at an average […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Airbus Corporate Jets has won its first orders for the ACJ TwoTwenty totalling six aircraft following its launch. While Comlux has revealed an order for two aircraft, four further jets were ordered by undisclosed customers. Entry into service of the first ACJ TwoTwenty by Comlux Aviation is targeted for early 2023. The new ACJ TwoTwenty […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Considering the current situation across the aviation industry, Czech Airlines Technics (CSAT) has decided to join forces with FlyTech Aviation Services and expand the range of aircraft maintenance and parking services at several international airports in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The new business initiative targets a very interesting market segment, currently most intensively demanded […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, S.A.B. de C.V. (ASUR), an international airport group with operations in Mexico, the U.S. and Colombia, today announced that total passenger traffic for September 2020 decreased 58.6% when compared to September 2019. Passenger traffic decreased 48.7% in Mexico, 47.9% in Puerto Rico and 86.2% in Colombia, impacted by severe downturns in business and […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Eastern Airways will commence up to six flights a week from George Best Belfast City Airport to Welsh capital Cardiff from 11th January 2021, while also having recently increased frequency on routes to Southampton and Teesside International Airport. The service, the only direct air link to Wales on the entire island of Ireland, not only […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Airports Council International (ACI) World and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have today made a joint call for a globally-consistent approach to testing international passengers as an alternative to quarantine measures. The global shut down of air transport as a result of COVID-19 travel restrictions has had a catastrophic impact on employment. Some 4.8 […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Veteran NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore will join astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, the inaugural crewed flight of the CST-100 Starliner launching to the International Space Station in 2021. Wilmore will take the place of Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson on the flight test as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Ferguson […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Minutes before President Trump departed by helicopter to Walter Reed Medical Center for hospitalization following his COVID diagnosis, on October 2nd, the Department of Transportation (DOT) denied Flyers Rights’ emergency rulemaking petition requesting the DOT mandate a mask rule for all persons on airplanes and at airports, with some health, disability, and operational exceptions.   The […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Southwest Airlines Co. today primed its winter flight schedule for seekers of sun and snow with service details for new destinations in Florida, California, and nestled in the Colorado Rockies. The carrier announced new seasonal service to Montrose Regional Airport (Telluride) on the Western Slope of Colorado, begins Dec. 19, the same day as previously […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

ExecuJet Haite Aviation Services China announced the completion of China’s largest business jet inspection and first 96-month check on an Embraer Lineage 1000.  The aircraft was delivered in exactly eight weeks to meet a demanding delivery schedule which included all defect rectification work and service bulletins. The completion of this project was even more impressive […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) demonstrated the low incidence of inflight COVID-19 transmission with an updated tally of published cases. Since the start of 2020 there have been 44 cases of COVID-19 reported in which transmission is thought to have been associated with a flight journey (inclusive of confirmed, probable and potential cases). Over […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

Middle East Airlines (MEA) has taken delivery of Airbus’ A320 Family aircraft with manufacturer serial number 10,000. MSN10,000 is the third A321neo to join the all Airbus MEA fleet, taking the fleet size to 18 aircraft. MEA received its first A321neo aircraft earlier in 2020 and will be taking another six A321neos over the coming […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

In the current year, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group have so far reimbursed over 3.2 billion euros to a total of over 7.3 million customers (as of 7 October 2020). The number of open ticket refunds fell to around 650,000 transactions worth less than 300 million euros, despite the fact that flights had to […] - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News