The US Federal Aviation Administration is allowing pilots to receive Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, so long as they wait 48h before returning to the cockpit. “The FAA has determined that pilots may receive the vaccine under the conditions of their FAA-issued airman medical certification,” the agency says on 12 December. “FAA air traffic controllers, who are subject to FAA medical clearance, may also receive the vaccine.” Last week, pilot union Air Line Pilots Association, International urged the FAA to fast-track its approval. The US Food & Drug Administration approved the vaccine with an emergency authorisation on 11 December. “To maintain the highest level of safety in the national airspace system, the agency will require aviation professionals with medical certifications or medical clearances to observe a period of 48h following the administration of this vaccine before conducting safety-sensitive aviation duties, such as flying or controlling air traffic,” the FAA adds. The 48h waiting period applies to both the first and second required doses of Pfizer’s vaccine. The FAA has required so-called “wait times” for pilots receiving immunisations to other diseases, such as those for tuberculosis and typhus, it says. “The agency’s medical professionals will continuously monitor the initial distribution of the novel vaccine and documented clinical results and will adjust these recommendations as needed,” adds the FAA.

New Zealand and Australia could announce a travel bubble in early 2021, but plans are tempered by fears of a possible Covid-19 resurgence. New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern says discussions are underway with Canberra, and barring “significant changes in the circumstances of either country,” a bubble will be announced for a re-launch of quarantine-free trans-Tasman air travel. One concern raised by Ardern is the possibility of a coronavirus resurgence in Australia. The two countries were on the verge of opening a travel bubble in mid-2020, but a Covid-19 outbreak in Australia’s Victoria state pre-empted these plans. “If there is an outbreak for instance in Australia – and it’s not a hypothetical, there have been several – we would need to make arrangements to have potentially thousands of New Zealanders brought back to New Zealand in numbers that we wouldn’t be able to facilitate necessarily in managed isolation,” says Ardern. “Making sure we have contingencies for how that would work safely is a key part in us finally being allowed to finalize these arrangements.” Other considerations include how passengers using the bubble arrangement will be segregated at airports, and how airlines will handle the logistics involved in a travel bubble. Separately, on 11 December Singapore decreed that passengers arriving from Hong Kong will now have to undergo 14 days in quarantine upon entering the city state owing to a resurgence of coronavirus there. Previously, Hong Kong arrivals had only to serve seven days at their place of residence. This followed news on 1 December that the long-planned Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble, originally planned to start on 24 November, has been pushed back to 2021. Singapore, however, will allow visitors from Taiwan to enter Singapore without serving quarantine from 18 December. It cited Taiwan’s strong record managing coronavirus and the lack of local transmission on the island. Countries where Singapore has unilaterally lifted border restrictions are Australia, Brunei, mainland China, New Zealand, and Vietnam.

London Heathrow airport is to keep Terminal 4 non-operational until the end of next year as a recovery in air traffic continues to falter. Passenger numbers fell by 88% in November at Europe’s biggest hub over the previous year as it handled just 747,000 passengers. That marked a decline on the 1.24 million passengers Heathrow had in October – which was itself down 82% on the same month in 2019. National lockdown restrictions were tightened over much of the UK during November, compounding demand already hit as a result of increased travel restrictions across Europe. ”Based on current forecasts and continued decline in passengers, the decision has been taken for Terminal 4 to remain non-operational until the end of 2021,” the airport says. Heathrow airport has handled just under 21 million passenger numbers across the first 11 months of the year – down almost 72% on the same period last year. The airport handled just under 81 million passenger in 2019.