South African carrier Comair’s rescue practitioners are still trying to work through the details of an expression of interest for the airline, and are seeking further postponement of the publication of a business plan. They are requesting creditor approval to push back the publication date from 30 June to 28 July. After receiving the expression of interest on 21 June, the practitioners have been engaged in examining “certain legal complexities” necessary to develop it, they state. They add that, until these issues are clarified and resolved with the interested party, no business plan can be published that will have all the information necessary to assist with a decision on whether to accept it. Comair entered the business rescue process on 5 May. The airline is unlikely to resume services until near the end of this year, and its fleet will probably be heavily cut.

Source: Cirium

Lufthansa has teamed up with Fraport and disease diagnostics company Centogene to provide an onsite Covid-19 testing facility at Frankfurt airport. The walk-in centre is located near the main terminal building at Frankfurt. Passengers can either take a test the day before they are due to fly out of Frankfurt or use the same-day service upon arrival at the German airport. Results are delivered via a secure digital platform and connected to their tickets, say the three companies. Travellers can also opt into an identification confirmation service, which lets the authorities know that a passenger's identity corresponds with their test result. The test costs €59 ($67) for results within six to eight hours, or €139 for results within three to four hours, and it must be paid for by the passenger, says Fraport. It is available to all passengers arriving at or departing from Frankfurt, regardless of which airline they use. If the result is negative, travellers can "avoid quarantine in Germany, Austria and many other countries", says Lufthansa. The initiative takes immediate effect and is set to run until 31 July 2021. Centogene chief information officer Volkmar Weckesser describes the service as "a quick, accurate and secure end-to-end solution that safely reopens air travel and further supports a return to a new normal for our societies and economies".

French investigation authority BEA is to carry out the download and read-out of information from flight recorders retrieved from the Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 shot down over Tehran. The work is set to commence on 20 July, following a request from Iranian investigators, states BEA. It will cover repair and data download from both the cockpit-voice and flight-data recorders from the Ukraine International Airlines aircraft that came down on 8 January, a few minutes after departing Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport. ICAO’s Council states that it has been formally advised by Iranian representatives that the recorder work will be carried out in France. The decision appears to end nearly six months of political impasse regarding the analysis, after Iran’s government unexpectedly admitted – some three days after the crash – that it had accidentally shot down the 737. ICAO states that its advisors will “continue supporting all parties” during the investigation. Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation remains the lead investigation agency into the loss of flight PS752. Canadian representatives are participating in the inquiry, and Transportation Safety Board of Canada says it has been informed of the recorder decision. It states that it has been invited to participate in the download and plans to deploy a team of investigators specialising in such analysis. Iran’s foreign affairs ministry advised a few days ago that it had told the Canadian government it planned to send the recorders to France.

Source: Cirium