An Air India flight from Sydney to Delhi was forced to return empty on Monday after a crew member tested positive. While the entire crew had tested negative in Delhi before departing for Sydney, one member tested positive upon arrival in Australia. Australia has banned all travel to and from India will effect from Tuesday. According to Times of India, the incident occurred on an Air India flight AI302 on Saturday, 24th April. As required, all passengers and crew were required to take a pre-departure test in Delhi before flying to Sydney. All crew tested negative and were allowed to operate the 12-hour journey to Australia. Upon arrival in Sydney, all crew members were required to take another COVID-19 test. In this test, one crew member (a cabin crew) was found positive and was immediately isolated. Under Australian rules, no passengers were allowed to fly on the return leg due to the risk of other crew being infected too. A change of crew is needed to operate the fresh leg. However, Air India opted to fly the 787 back without passengers, carrying cargo and important medical freight instead. Considering the dire health crisis in India, foreign medical aid is proving to be invaluable now. Air India flight AI1302 returned to Delhi at 05:40 AM local time on Tuesday morning. Both legs were flown by a 256-seat Boeing 787-8, registered VT-NAA. Just one day after this incident, Australia announced that it was banning all travel from India from 27th April until at least May 15th.

Boeing is working hard to fix the issues with its 787 Dreamliner, and says that the process of undertaking the rework is getting more efficient every day. With this, the planemaker says that it intends to deliver the majority of the 100 aircraft in its inventory before the end of the year. But with COVID-induced border restrictions causing logistical problems, is this a realistic target? The 787 Dreamliner has been something of a thorn in the side of planemaker Boeing, particularly in recent months. The problems with the fit and finish with its fuselage joins have seen deliveries halted, something Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun described during the planemaker’s earnings call today as “nagging problems.” However, Boeing has worked hard to get these issues fixed once and for all. With deliveries restarted last month, the Dreamliner output is back online. Speaking at today’s earnings call, Calhoun set out his ambitions for the stored inventory of 787 Dreamliners. He said,“We have delivered a total of nine 787s since restarting deliveries last month with potentially a couple more by the end of this week. What we know today is that we still expect to deliver the majority of the 787 aircraft currently in inventory by the end of the year.” The stored inventory of 787s is not insubstantial. Boeing estimates that around 100 aircraft are awaiting delivery to customers. While that’s nothing like the number of 737 MAX the manufacturer is working on getting out of the door, it still represents a substantial backlog.

IATA director general Willie Walsh has described as a “step in the right direction” comments from European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen indicating the EU would grant unrestricted access to vaccinated visitors from the USA.
In an interview with The New York Times on 25 April, von der Leyen said that the US authorities' use of European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines would enable free movement and travel to the EU. "All 27 member states will accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by EMA," she said. Transatlantic traffic has been running at about 10% of 2019 levels during the first half because of continued travel restrictions. IATA, in deepening its losses outlook for the airline industry this year, is projecting some pick-up of transatlantic operations during the second half because of the progress of vaccination programmes in the USA and Europe. However, it still sees traffic at around only 50% of 2019 levels later this year. While encouraged by von der Leyen's comments, Walsh says details of the Commission's intentions are essential. "To be fully prepared, it is imperative that the EC works with the industry so that airlines can plan within the public health benchmarks and timelines that will enable unconditional travel for those vaccinated, not just from the US but from all countries using vaccines that are approved by the European Medicines Association. "Equally critical will be clear, simple and secure digital processes for vaccination certificates," Walsh adds, highlighting IATA's Travel Pass as one of the initiatives that can facilitate this. "But we are still awaiting the development of globally recognised standards for digital vaccine certificates. As a first step, it is vital that the EU accelerates adoption of the European Green Certificate. President von der Leyen's comments should add urgency to this work," says Walsh. The IATA chief adds that travel should not be blocked for those who are unable to be vaccinated, arguing that presentation of a negative rapid antigen Covid-19 test should also enable travel. "The freedom to travel must not be restricted to only those who have access to vaccinations," says Walsh. "Vaccines are not the only way to safely reopen borders. Government risk-models should also include Covid-19 testing."