Australia’s Qantas Group will stand down around 2,500 frontline Qantas and Jetstar employees for an estimated two months in response to ongoing domestic border closures. The stand down is a temporary measure to deal with a significant drop in flying caused by Covid restrictions in Greater Sydney in particular and the knock-on border closures in all other states and territories, the group says in a statement today. No job losses are expected. Qantas says the decision will directly impact domestic pilots, cabin crew and airport workers, mostly in New South Wales but also in other states given the nature of airline networks. It adds that employees will be given two weeks’ notice before the stand down takes effect, with pay continuing until mid-August. Chief executive Alan Joyce says the difficult decision to trigger stand downs reflects the reality confronting many businesses operating in New South Wales. “Qantas and Jetstar have gone from operating almost 100% of their usual domestic flying [based on financial year 2019's capacity levels] in May to less than 40% in July because of lockdowns in three states. “Hopefully, once other states open back up to South Australia and Victoria in the next week or so, and the current outbreak in Brisbane is brought under control, our domestic flying will come back to around 50-60% of normal levels." He adds: “Based on current case numbers, it’s reasonable to assume that Sydney’s borders will be closed for at least another two months. We know it will take a few weeks once the outbreak is under control before other states open to New South Wales and normal travel can resume.” Joyce is hopeful that Australia's vaccine rollout will alleviate the situation in the domestic network and eventually bring back international travel. He says: "Higher vaccinations rates are also key to being able to fly overseas again, and finally getting all our people back to work."

Canadian carriers Air Transat and Sunwing Airlines both started to resume flights on 30 July after temporarily shuttering their operations amid restrictions on international and domestic travel aimed at halting the spread of Covid-19. Both leisure carriers began flights to Punta Cana, Mexico, as part of their initial service to cater to Canadians eager for travel to sun destinations. Ottawa in January negotiated with Canada's airline sector to halt flights to the Caribbean, Central America and South America. Sunwing's initial schedule includes routes from Toronto to Cancun, Punta Cana and Montego Bay; and from Montreal to Cancun and Punta Cana. Transat began service with flights from Montreal to Punta Cana and Vancouver. Canada's third-largest airline says it will operate 24 routes to 16 destinations during the summer season. Transat starting in November plans to operate a network of 50 destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America, the USA and Europe. WestJet and Air Canada during August will continue reintroducing routes and launching new ones. Porter Airlines is also recalling its staff and plans to restart flights on 8 September as international borders open to vaccinated travellers. The Toronto-based regional carrier shuttered its operations during the pandemic as local and federal travel restrictions in Canada damaged travel demand. Travel demand to Mexico has been relatively strong during the pandemic and trade group Airlines for America (A4A) notes that it was the top international travel destination for Americans throughout 2020. Ottawa plans to resume non-essential travel by vaccinated people arriving from the USA starting 9 August and will welcome vaccinated travellers from all nations starting 7 September. The USA, meanwhile, plans to keep travel restrictions in place for arrivals from other nations as the contagious delta variant of Covid-19 drives a spike of infections around the world. Canada's federal government is backing this airline restart by providing carriers with loans, including the C$270 million ($216 million) provided to Porter through the Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corporation (CEEFC). WestJet is the only major carrier in Canada that has declined federal loans, in part because it is owned by private equity firm Onex Partners. Ottawa during 2020 provided federal wage subsidies to companies impacted by the pandemic but not airline-specific financing on the scale of the USA or France.

Air New Zealand carried 901,000 passengers in June, a 150% increase year-on-year. The airline increased capacity, as measured in available seat-kilometres, by 141%, while the month's revenue passenger-kilometres was up by 165%, it says in a 2 August filing to New Zealand's Exchange. Passenger load factor improved 6.1 percentage points to 65%. On domestic routes, the carrier carried 787,000 passengers, up 132% year-on-year, whereas Tasman/Pacific routes saw an increase of 667% to 109,000 passengers. Capacity on domestic routes was increased by 107%, while revenue-passenger-kilometres rose 139%. For its Tasman/Pacific network, Air New Zealand increased capacity by over 551% and RPKs increased by 735%. Passenger load factor on domestic routes grew 10 percentage points to 78%, while the load factor on Tasman/Pacific routes gained nearly 14 percentage points to over 63%. The airline carried 5,000 passengers on long-haul routes, declining by 35% year-on-year.