Not So Fast: Dubai Halts Finger Prick COVID Antibody Tests Due to Reliability Problems
1 Last month, Emirates became the first airline to administer a rapid COVID antibody testing kit in conjunction with the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), but it has now stopped. An analysis of test results in Spain showed that they appeared to only be accurate about 30% of the time instead of the 80% that had been promised. While being successful 30% of the time might get you into the Baseball Hall of Fame (or not), it’s nowhere near good enough for COVID antibody testing. To be honest, neither is 80%, so it’s surprising that was even considered acceptable previously.
DHA said it was “closely following global developments on COVID-19, including testing protocols for the disease… in order to provide the best diagnosis and healthcare for citizens and residents.” It said any use of “rapid antibody testing has not been universally adopted” and would not be used any longer.
While the idea of a rapid test to declare someone to be a low risk of getting the disease is a great idea, it’s going to be crucial that the science is there to back up the ambition. With temperature checks becoming part of a new-normal in Asia, and U.S. airlines pushing for them to be part of TSA screening, there’s a good chance that personal heath checks of some variety could be a part of the airport experience for the foreseeable future.
Delta Designing Safety Barriers for Check-In & Gate Areas
2 To add another layer of safety for Delta passengers and employees, Delta’s Delta Flight Products subsidiary is designing and manufacturing a custom plexiglass safety barrier especially for airport check-in lobbies, departure gates, and Delta Sky Club counters.
The Delta Flight Products team quickly created a practical design & worked with Airport Customer Service teams at its Atlanta hub to test their usefulness at keeping germs away from employees. The real test will be when these are installed at New York/LaGuardia to see if they protect employees from the angry rat gangs.
Full outfitting of the safety barriers at all check-in areas and departure gates is expected at Delta’s U.S. hub airports by June 1 and at all U.S. locations shortly after that. Sky Club installations are expected to be complete this summer with installation at Delta’s international stations to follow.
We eagerly await what we can only assume will be the next evolution of this product, an on-board version that would serve as a safety barrier to separate passengers seated near any of the riff-raff who dared to purchase basic economy tickets.
Qatar Amends Overly Generous Rebooking Policy
3 Last week Qatar announced the most generous rebooking policy in the history of rebooking policies and is now making modifications to prevent customers from gaming the system.
Qatar was allowing customers to make changes to itineraries at no charge provided the new origin and destination were within 5,000 miles of the original. This created massive opportunities for people to take advantage of the offering beyond its intended goal — and many did.
The cheapest route was to book a business class itinerary from Philadelphia to Kiev via Doha, which Qatar had priced at just $1638 in business class. You could then change that to any number of destinations, including Bangkok, the Maldives and others for no charge. In order to close that specific loophole, Qatar is no longer filing a fare between Philadelphia and Kiev.
While Qatar knew this was a possibility when it enacted the policy, it has since made revisions to make it more difficult to book with the sole purpose of making changes. The airline now requires a 14-day wait before you can make a change, and the same booking class must be available. Even with these modifications, the policy is still very generous and likely to be used by scores of passengers.
It’s quite possible that Qatar knew exactly what it was doing, hoping that some would take advantage which would lead media to shine a spotlight on the generous policy. If that was the case, it looks like Qatar played its hand just right and will reap the benefits of getting at least some new reservations on the books.
Optics Not Safety: Delta Adds June Flights to Keep Load Factors Low
4 In an effort to keep planes at or below 60% of capacity in the main cabin and 50% or less in first class, Delta is adding flights in June due to ever-so-slowly growing passenger numbers.
The addition of flights comes at a time when Delta is looking to reduce its daily cash burn to $50 million, so this seems like a policy that is in conflict with that idea. That being said, it is a great marketing opportunity that makes people feel comfortable even if it fails to enhance safety. Delta has said that it will maintain the capacity limit on its flights through June 30.
The airline is adding approximately 100 flights in June from its hubs in Atlanta and New York/JFK, including resumption of service from New York to Florida. It’s also hoping to resume passenger flights from Seattle to Shanghai (PVG) in June, pending Chinese government approval.
The Bright Side: Air France to Increase its Summer 2020 Schedule
5 Despite currently operating at approximately 3% of its capacity compared to a year ago, Air France expects to increase its schedule to as much as 15% of YoY capacity by June 30.
It plans to return service to a number of destinations, using 75 planes out of its current fleet of 224. Air France will serve 15 domestic destinations in France from its Paris/CDG hub along with another 10 domestic destinations from Lyon (LYS).
From Paris, it will also serve four French Overseas Departments, while restoring service to many of its short-haul European destinations, with 41 European locations receiving service on June 30 and beyond.
For long-haul, flights from CDG will operate to North & South America, Africa, and Asia. To North America, Air France will restore service to Chicago/O’Hare, Mexico City (MEX) and Montreal (YUL) in addition to the three it is currently serving: Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York/JFK.
Airline Potpourri
- Allegiant posted a 97% plunge in passengers in April 2020 vs. April 2019.
- Delta will restart two international routes this week, with 3x weekly service from Atlanta to Frankfurt and daily service from Detroit to London/Heathrow. The airline also completed a sale & leaseback agreement on six A321s.
- Eurowings is restoring 40 destinations from its German hubs to its June schedule
- Finnair expects to return to longhaul flying in July, first to East Asia. Flights to Delhi (DEL) and New York/JFK will follow in August.
- Jetstar Japan will continue its interim schedule through June, which includes just two routes from its Tokyo/Narita hub: 9x weekly service to both Fukuoka (FUK) and Sapporo/New Chitose (CTS).
- Ryanair accepted a $730 million loan from the UK government
- SAS named Magnus Örnberg as new Executive Vice President and CFO
- TAME, the state airline of Ecuador will go into liquidation as the Ecuadorian government looks to raise cash and cut its losses amid the virus outbreak.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
Leaving my house this morning, I was robbed by six dwarves. Not Happy.