Germany is expected to announce this week that it will replace Covid-19 testing at airports for passengers from high-risk countries with a mandatory quarantine period of up to 14 days, prompting dismay from airline representatives. A spokesperson for the German health ministry confirmed to Cirium that federal health minister Jens Spahn had agreed with his counterparts at state level that "long-term" quarantine restrictions should be reintroduced after the summer.
"Testing obligations were necessary to control return traffic and prevent returnees from staying in quarantine for a long time," says the spokesperson. "With the end of the summer holiday season we return to long-term quarantine rules."
German chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to announce a final decision on the matter on 27 August. German aviation industry association BDL has described the plan to discontinue Covid-19 testing at airports as a "bitter setback", and is calling on the government to reconsider. "A blanket quarantine obligation is de facto a travel restriction that brings air traffic to a standstill," argues BDL, adding that the measure will result in 80% of destinations outside Germany being "blocked by blanket, disproportionate quarantine regulations". The association wants politicians to "find ways to use the available testing capacity more efficiently", and says that "dismantling the test infrastructure would be completely the wrong way to go". In a policy brief issued on 25 August, German carrier Lufthansa lamented the "global patchwork of travel bans, testing and quarantine restrictions" and reiterated its call for Europe and the USA to adopt a joint Covid-19 testing programme to enable transatlantic passenger flights to resume. Lufthansa made the request in July alongside American Airlines, IAG and United Airlines. Chief executives of the four carriers wrote a joint letter to US vice-president Mike Pence and European home-affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson, urging them to consider the option. "A transatlantic pilot project offers great opportunities," writes Lufthansa in its policy brief. "In addition to existing health-protection measures, mandatory negative Covid-19 tests that are not older than 48 hours and can be repeated upon arrival could be bilaterally recognised as an exception to the entry ban. "In addition, individual pilot airports can be defined, at which travel restrictions are relaxed in the first phase in order to gain further experience."

Source: Cirium

South Africa will reopen four further airports to domestic travel, bringing the total number of operational gateways in the country to 18. The airports being reopened are Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, Hoedspruit and Phalaborwa in Limpopo, and Margate in KwaZulu-Natal. South Africa relaxed its restrictions on movement slightly on 18 August to enable greater economic activity, although international air travel remains banned. Flight data shows that on 25 August just 64 flights departed from South African airports, against 448 a year prior – a decline of 86%. In terms of flight duration, departing services on that day accounted for a total 112 hours, compared to 950 hours a year before. However there is evidence that domestic activity is picking up. On 25 August, there was an 88% increase in flight hours against the same period last week, when just 34 flights departed South African airports. Current flight operations in the country are almost entirely domestic, with just six international services departing on 25 August.

Source: Cirium

Spirit Airlines’ pilots have agreed to work fewer hours as part of a deal that will prevent the airline from needing to lay off 600 of pilots. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) says nearly half of Spirit’s pilots will “temporarily work fewer hours each month” to prevent the layoffs, which would start as soon as 1 October. On that day, US airlines that received financial aid through a US government coronavirus relief bill can begin laying off staff. The bill prohibits airlines that took money from laying off workers until then. “Spirit Airlines’ pilots and management worked together to reach an agreement that mitigates the remaining furloughs planned for October 2020,” Scott Vallach, chairman of ALPA’s Spirit Airlines council, says. “Effective immediately, the 600 planned furloughs have been cancelled.” ALPA notes that airlines industry-wide have warned more than 11,000 US pilots that they may lose their jobs come October. More broadly, some 80,000 US airline industry jobs may be at risk due to looming downsizing, according to carriers. “Currently, dozens of other ALPA pilot groups are exploring various furlough mitigation plans to preserve as many jobs as possible until the industry recovers,” the union says.

Source: Cirium