Free movement around Europe is being compromised by the failure of some EU member states to harmonise their Covid-19 entry requirements, holding back the travel industry's recovery, IATA has warned. The airline association's research finds that 30% of states using the EU's Digital Covid Certificate do not accept rapid testing, while 19% do not exempt children from testing, and 41% do not allow vaccinated travellers from non-EU 'white list' countries to enter. Additionally, 11% of countries only accept paper versions of passenger locator forms, while a similar proportion have no locator forms at all. “It's essential that European states come together on Covid-19 travel procedures," states IATA's regional vice-president for Europe, Rafael Schvartzman. "The good work done by the Commission and the states to develop the DCC is being wasted by a mess of unharmonised regulations." He adds: "How can passengers travel with confidence when the rules are so different in each country within the European Union? They can't be sure if their children need to be tested or not, or if they need to fill in a form on paper, online, or not at all. It's one Europe Union. People reasonably expect a united approach to managing travel." IATA is urging all countries to accept rapid testing instead of PCR versions, exempt children from testing, and allow passengers from low-risk countries to enter Europe. "The experience over the European summer shows that a standard digital certificate is not enough: the travel processes around Covid-19 must also be harmonised and smoothed out," argues Schvartzman. "We urge European states to sort out the current mess and give hard-pressed passengers greater certainty over their travel plans."

Ryanair group chief executive Michael O'Leary has highlighted increasing "strains" in managing pilots and flight attendants with separate UK and EU licences as a result of what he terms the "madness that was Brexit". During a 31 August press briefing in London, O'Leary noted that Ryanair needed to recruit pilots and cabin crew with UK Civil Aviation Authority licences for its UK-based operation, especially for flights to nations outside the European Union, such as Morocco and Tunisia. O'Leary describes the CAA licences as "not that valuable" compared with European Union Aviation Safety Agency licences, which are valid on aircraft registered in any EASA system member state. "We can operate with both," O'Leary says. "What we want is well-trained, hard-working pilots and cabin crew." But he adds that the process of recruiting crew members from different regulatory regimes and managing their deployment is "getting more and more difficult" across the airline's operations. "Increasingly, all of the Brexit strains that are emerging in various supply chains also apply over here [crew management]." He highlights concern that a divergence of CAA and EASA training regulations for pilots and cabin crew could further complicate the situation for the airline. O'Leary took the opportunity to express his wider view on the UK's post-Brexit situation. "We know Brexit has been a stunning success. All of the people over here, the leading political figures of the day who told you [that] you would get the money back from the European Union, and no barriers of trade, that it would be easy, have been completely vindicated," he says, sarcastically. Ryanair's group chief remains confident that the UK and EU will build again closer relations over time and overcome barriers that have emerged as a result of Brexit. He describes the UK's departure from the European student exchange programme Erasmus, which enables participants to study across the bloc without visa requirements, as a "huge loss for young people" in particular. "That's why I think ultimately [in 10 or 20 years] Brexit will get reversed. I don't think the UK will join the European Union again. But I think they renegotiate a deal where all the barriers come down, because I don't think the young people here in the UK are going to put up with the bullsh*t that we no longer have free movement between here and Europe. "I think they will want it back again. So I am ever optimistic that the madness that was Brexit and the stupidity of [prime minister Boris] Johnson, Gove and all the others will eventually be seen through and replaced with something less incompetent than they are."

Philippine Airlines is hoping to make a filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 3 September (New York time). An email sent to lessors at the end of August, states that while there are "still some logistical and other processes to be completed with the local banks and shareholders in the next day or two", the airline is "anticipating" to make a filing on that date. It adds that its lawyers Norton Rose Fulbright will be "reaching out" to lessors and their lawyers "once this is confirmed to notify everyone and ask for the release of signature pages". "We wanted to give this heads up to keep you appraised as we have undertaken to do," it states. It was reported on 1 September that PAL had managed to find a replacement for the $75 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing it lost when the bank that was going to provide it pulled out. Another local bank in the Philippines has now agreed to provide that portion of the financing, out of a total of $505 million. The end-August email confirms this, although it does not name the bank, stating: "We appear to have now overcome the main obstacle that was preventing the filing, namely the availability of the last $75 million of funding for the DIP A tranche." The airline has been in discussions with its lessors about a potential bankruptcy protection filing since last year. Alongside its lawyers, it is being advised by restructuring specialist Seabury Capital. PAL and its advisors have previously provided projections for when it expected to file for Chapter 11, only to let those dates slip and revise the filing to a later timeframe. As it is attempting a pre-arranged filing, it requires consent of a certain portion of creditors ahead of the filing. Given these previous delays, people with a stake in the process are unsure whether the airline will file on 3 September, but some feel they have cause for optimism as they understand the company now has most of what it needs to proceed with the filing.