Heathrow to Begin One-Hour Virus Testing
1 London/Heathrow Airport will begin to offer a rapid virus test to passengers flying through the airport with results available within an hour to those who say “pretty please.”
Testing will cost £80 (~$100), and the first airlines to participate are British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Cathay Pacific from their locations in Terminals 2 and 5. The testing program will last for four weeks, and appointments are required ahead of time.
This effort has the support of UK Transport minister Grant Shapps and the UK government, but it does not yet allow travelers to avoid the mandatory 14-day quarantine so it’s pretty useless. Shapps is currently working on a plan to bring the quarantine required upon entry to the UK from 14 days to just seven as part of a “test and release” program, but many in the UK aviation sector — and pretty much everyone else on Earth — believe that a 7 day quarantine is still too long.
The UK government has set December 1 as its deadline for a long-term plan with regards to testing and quarantines and — citing Brexit precedent — is expected to make no decisions when that deadline comes except to extend the deadline further.
Cathay Pacific to Eliminate 6,000 Jobs and its Dragon Brand
2 Cathay Pacific plans to announce the elimination of about 6,000 jobs worldwide and its Cathay Dragon brand on Wednesday.
The airline was previously expecting to layoff as many as 8,000 of its staff, but it was able to reduce the number by a quarter down to 6,000. Of those losing their job, nearly 5,000 of the employees are based in Hong Kong, with the rest being employees from around the world. The airline plans to operate at approximately half capacity through the end of 2021, compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Cathay Pacific suffered a $1.27 billion loss in the first six months of the year. As a part of the cutbacks, the Cathay Dragon brand and its 3,000 employees will be eliminated, with the staff and resources of the two airlines being merged. The airline plans to keep as many Dragon pilots as it can, most of whom were trained locally in Hong Kong.
Etihad Operates First Passenger Flight from UAE to Israel
3 Etihad Flight 9607 landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport from Abu Dhabi on Monday morning, marking the first commercial flight between the two nations. It also makes Etihad the first Gulf airline to operate a passenger flight to Israel.
The UAE and Israeli governments are expected to sign an agreement today to allow up to 28-weekly flights between the two countries that would begin in the coming weeks. Israel also signed an agreement on Sunday with Bahrain to establish formal relations between the two countries. Gulf Air, the flag carrier of Bahrain has expressed interest in service to Tel Aviv but has not yet made a formal announcement.
After the flight landed in Tel Aviv, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner returned to Abu Dhabi with an Israeli travel and tourism delegation on board. The delegation was en route to the UAE for a two-day trip to spread potato latke recipes and offer dreidels to UAE citizens in-time for Hanukkah.
Singapore to Resume World’s Longest Flight
4 Singapore Airlines plans to resume flying from Singapore to New York on November 9 – restarting the world’s longest nonstop flight. However, when the flight resumes next month, it will operate to New York’s JFK airport instead of Newark, where Singapore had been operating since 2018. Those three extra miles make this the new world’s longest. Take that, New Jersey.
In addition to swapping airports, Singapore is swapping aircraft on the route. Singapore wll operate a 253-seat Airbus A350-900 on the route instead of the previous 161-seat A350-900 ULR. The Newark aircraft had just 67 seats in business and 94 in premium economy, but this will now have 42 in business, 24 in premium economy, and 187 in old-fashioned economy. While the aircraft will not be equipped with Singapore’s first class Singapore Suites product, all those who take the flight in economy will receive a 10% off coupon to see a chiropractor upon arrival in New York.
The airline is moving to JFK in order to “better accommodate a mix of passenger and cargo traffic,” which is code for “anything is better than Newark…even JFK.”
Finnair Cuts 700 Jobs
5 Finnair has completed its internal review process that began in September, and it has resulted in the elimination of about 700 jobs. The redundancies will be completed by March but will not include flight attendants or pilots.
Of those losing their job, 600 of the 700 will be located in Finland with another 100 at Finnair posts worldwide. The 700 jobs represent about 12% of the airline’s total workforce.
The airline was able to save between 150 and 300 jobs, as up to 1,000 employees were initially targeted for layoffs. The airline is also continuing its program of temporary layoffs for most of its employees in Finland.
The temporary job losses are to continue indefinitely until demand returns. Those employees temporarily laid off receive a portion of their salaries from the government, with the amount based on how many years they’ve been with the company.
Airline Potpourri
- Air New Zealand will resume a second weekly flight between Norfolk Island (NLK) and Sydney beginning November 9.
- Enter Air has based a B737-800 at Basel (BSL).
- JetBlue unveiled its first A220 this week as it prepares to enter the aircraft into its fleet in early 2021.
- Virgin Atlantic is adding service to both Mumbai (BOM) and Delhi (DEL) from Manchester. Mumbai flights will be 3x-weekly, beginning December 19, while Delhi will be 2x-weekly, beginning January 5.
- Wizz Air Abu Dhabi has received its Air Operator’s Certificate from the UAE.
- ZIPAIR will begin passenger flights from Tokyo/Narita to Bangkok in November.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
I saw a ham sandwich walk into a bar and order a beer. The bartender kicked him out, “we don’t serve food here,” he said.