Hong Kong's government has done away with a mechanism that punishes airlines that fly too many Covid-19 positive passengers into the city by suspending flights on specific routes, but the city also plans to ratchet up testing requirements for inbound travellers. The scrapping of the so-called "route-specific flight-suspension mechanism", effective 7 July, is designed to make it easier for overseas Hong Kongers to visit the city during the peak July and August travel period, with a particular focus on facilitating the return of local students studying abroad, the government said in a 7 July press release. Those travellers, however, will be subjected to more Covid-19 tests, as the government says it now plans to require them to undergo an additional nucleic acid test on the third day of arrival, effective 8 July onwards. Earlier, it reinstated a requirement that travellers test on the ninth day of arrival in Hong Kong. The government believes that the "vast majority" of Covid-19 cases can be detected on arrival at the airport or in hotel quarantine, thus rendering the suspension of flights based on the number of Covid-19 positive passengers on board "not very cost-effective in avoiding the importation of cases". Hong Kong has been reporting around 1,000 to 2,000 cases of Covid-19 per day since mid-June, according to the government. During the same period, the percentage of confirmed cases from inbound travellers was around 1-3%, accounting for less than 10% of Hong Kong's overall number of cases. The government now says the risk of having community outbreaks induced by imported cases is "extremely low". A flight route being suspended for five days could see thousands of inbound travellers affected, the government says, adding that those travellers could also encounter difficulties in securing rooms in designated quarantine hotels. Hong Kong has some of the strictest Covid-19-related travel restrictions in the world and the city still enforces on-arrival quarantine. An undersupply of quarantine hotel rooms has been a long-running issue in the city that has plagued returning travellers. "The decision to implement the new measures was made upon careful review of relevant data, and the fact that it is currently the peak period for students studying abroad to return to Hong Kong," a government spokesperson states in the press release. "The relevant measures can help reduce the impact on inbound persons, and will particularly enable young people staying in overseas places to return to Hong Kong smoothly to reunite with their families during the summer holiday. The measures will also prevent the transmission of imported cases into the community in a more precise and effective manner, in order to maximise the anti-epidemic effectiveness with the lowest social costs."

Flybe is reducing its planned flying schedule between July and October because lessors from which it expected to receive aircraft are "unable to fulfil their commitments until after the summer". The UK regional carrier had planned to increase frequencies on existing routes and add new destinations including Aberdeen, Inverness, Newcastle and Southampton to its network this summer. However, in a letter to customers posted on its website, Flybe chief executive Dave Pflieger writes that the planned increase will be scaled back between 28 July and 29 October because "the two aircraft leasing companies who were contracted to provide our additional airplanes have now told us that they will be unable to fulfil their commitments until after the summer". Data shows that, currently, Flybe operates three Dash 8-400s leased from Nordic Aviation Capital and one De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 leased from Aergo Capital. The carrier is also listed as operating an Embraer 175 wet-leased from Greek ACMI and charter operator Marathon Airlines and an ATR 72-500 owned by Spain's Swiftair. "We were able to find and rent aircraft from two separate airlines in Greece and Spain, but those planes are not enough and the lack of additional aircraft needed for new flying means we need to adjust our future flight schedule," states Pflieger. "This new schedule will be fully supported by the aircraft we do have available, and we will still introduce more flights later this year – after we receive our delayed aircraft." He adds that the airline is "in daily conversations with all involved to see if anything might change that would allow us to resume our original plans at an earlier date".

Planned strike action by British Airways check-in staff at London Heathrow has been suspended after the airline reached a new pay agreement with unions. Over 700 BA check-in staff represented by the GMB and Unite unions voted last month to go on strike over the summer. Employee representatives had demanded the immediate reversal of a 10% salary cut imposed at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unite says in a 7 July statement that the strike has been suspended because BA "made a vastly-improved pay offer". The two sides reached an agreement on 6 July which will now be put to union members in a ballot. "We welcome that BA has finally listened to the voice of its check-in staff," says Unite general secretary Sharon Graham. "Unite has repeatedly warned that pay disputes at BA were inevitable unless the company took our members' legitimate grievances seriously."