United Airlines' pilots' union has ratified an agreement that will delay involuntary furloughs of pilots until June 2021. The Chicago-based airline and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) on 16 September had tentatively agreed the deal. United had stated on 28 August that it would furlough 2,850 of its 13,000 pilots by the end of 2020, beginning after 30 September, when US CARES Act workforce conditions expire. In addition to the postponement of furloughs for all of United's pilots, those pilots age 50 or older who have at least 10 years of experience will receive via the agreement a second round of early separation options.“We’ve worked for months on creative solutions to mitigate massive pilot layoffs,” Capt. Todd Insler, union chairman for United's pilots, states. “With this agreement now solidified, we will turn our focus back to Congress to secure a much-needed CARES Act extension to keep our industry solvent until we recover from this pandemic.”

Source: .Cirium

Research indicating that dogs are capable of detecting evidence of coronavirus infection is being tested in a practical sense at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. The University of Helsink has studied the use of dogs in coronavirus testing and a Finnish organisation called Wise Nose specialising in sniffer-dog training, has started large-scale work to produce ‘corona dogs’. Finnish airports authority Finavia has started a trial at the capital hub, expecting the dogs to “speed up” the identification of passengers infected by the virus. “As far as we know, no other airport has attempted to use canine scent detection on such a large scale against [this disease],” says Finavia airport director Ulla Lettijeff. Passengers undergo a sample swipe on their skin, which is then given to the dog in a separate booth, avoiding direct contact and preserving anonymity. French researchers undertook a proof-of-concept study, published in June, to evaluate whether coronavirus could be traced in sweat by sniffer dogs. Most of the dogs used were Belgian Malinois shepherds, mainly because the breed is well-represented in French working-dog circles. But the study says: “Lots of canine breeds or mongrel dogs could develop the same olfactive detection qualities.” Eight dogs were used to perform 368 trials, during which they were tasked with finding a positive sample in a line containing several other negative samples. Four dogs achieve a 100% rate, with the others’ successes ranging from 83-94%. The study says this is “significantly different” from the result which would be obtained purely by chance, and concludes that there is “very high evidence” that the sweat of coronavirus patients differs from uninfected individuals’ and that dogs “can detect” sufferers. Preliminary results from another study from German institutions, notably Hannover’s University of Veterinary Medicine, have shown similarly promising results. It used eight dogs trained for a week to detect saliva or tracheobronchial secretions of coronavirus-infected patients. Presented with 1,012 randomised samples, the dogs achieved an overall average detection rate of 94% with 157 correct positive indications and 792 correct negative rejections. The remaining 63 were either false-positive or false-negative, split almost equally. “Obtaining [current virus-testing] results is time-consuming and can be cost-prohibitive, especially for developing countries,” the study says. “There is therefore a need for an additional faster, reliable, non-invasive, and versatile screening tool – especially to identify asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic individuals.” Several Finnish institutes, including Wise Nose and research departments of a number of universities, signed a co-operation agreement in spring this year to carry out a collaborative study on dogs’ ability to detect coronavirus. Finnish veterinary operator Evidensia is funding training and experimental work, which has evolved into testing at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. “Training activities started on a voluntary basis and [corona] dogs do not have the status of a service dog, which has brought challenges to public funding of the training,” points out Wise Nose. Executive director Susanna Paavilainen says Wise Nose is working with Finland’s customs authority to prepare for a possible scenario in which customs personnel formally take over the sniffer-dog operation, although official testing with trained dogs requires a legislative amendment

Source: Cirium.

Qatar Airways Group has turned in a pre-tax loss of QR6.96 billion ($1.9 billion) and a net loss of just over QR7 billion, for a financial year that concluded before the airline industry felt the broad impact of the coronavirus crisis. The Doha-based carrier says that, at the end of the fiscal year on 31 March 2020, its accumulated losses had exceeded 50% of its share capital – requiring the convening of an extraordinary general meeting. This was held on 24 September, during which the Qatari government provided an advance of QR7.3 billion to the company through an issue of 730 million shares. While the coronavirus crisis has led to “significant operational restrictions” on the carrier, the company says that – based on the equity injection, the availability of external funding, and other measures taken – its management has prepared its accounts on a going-concern basis Qatar Airways Group generated passenger revenues of QR37 billion, up by nearly 9%, for the 2019-20 fiscal year, which ended about four weeks after Qatar’s government reported the first case of coronavirus in the Gulf state. Cargo revenues for the period declined slightly to QR9.9 billion. Qatar Airways Group’s overall operating income of QR51.1 billion was outweighed by expenditure amounting to QR52.2 billion, leading to an operating loss of QR1.3 billion, its newly-released financial statements for 2019-20 show. While the pandemic had only just started to affect air transport, Qatar Airways remained subject to a regional blockade by several Middle Eastern states during the year. The carrier had a fleet of 265 aircraft at the close of the year, comprising 212 passenger models, 28 freighters and 25 executive jets. At the time it had commitments for another 201 aircraft, with total capital commitments of QR208 billion for aircraft and engine purchase. Qatar Airways Group says the year was “one of the most difficult” in its history, owing not only to the blockade but the liquidation of Air Italy in which the company had been a shareholder. It claims that the group’s operating and net results would have improved on the previous year’s without the various exceptional items with which it has had to cope. Group chief executive Akbar Al Baker says the company has remained “resilient”, with a cash balance of QR7.2 billion at the end of the fiscal year. The company had total assets of QR127 billion and liabilities of QR99 billion. Qatar Airways Group says it has achieved “significant progress” with a three-year transformation plan, on which it had embarked before the coronavirus crisis. “I have every confidence that the Qatar Airways Group will emerge stronger from this difficult period and continue to innovate and set the standards that our competitors can only hope to emulate,” says Al Baker. Qatar Airways claims its network has never fallen below 30 destinations for the duration of the pandemic. But the carrier has parked its fleet of Airbus A380s, having turned to its fleet of nearly 80 Airbus A350 and Boeing 787s to maintain long-haul connections.

Source: Cirium