Emirates ground crews give an emotional send-off to last passenger flights

Emirates made this announcement:

Emirates ground crews around the world have bid farewell to their last operating flights back to Dubai. EK 005 to London Heathrow, which departed at 1605hrs on March 24 was the last flight to take off from Dubai. EK 262 from Sao Paulo, which landed at 2235hrs (local time) was the last flight to arrive on March 25 into Dubai.

Emirates’ outstation airport teams from 39 stations including Prague, Newark, Seoul, London Stansted and Zurich devotedly sent of their last passenger flights before the suspension took effect. Over the next weeks Emirates’ operational teams will focus on preparing for service resumption.

As per UAE government directives to protect communities against the spread of COVID-19, Emirates has temporarily suspended all passenger flights from March 25, 2020. The airline will resume passenger services as soon as it is possible to do so.

In the meantime, Emirates is still busy deploying its fleet of Boeing 777 freighters, bolstering international air cargo links for the transport of vital goods, including medical supplies and food, around the world.

All photos by the airline.

IATA: European airlines revenue losses mount – urgent government support required

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) strengthened its call for urgent action from European governments to provide financial relief to airlines. The latest IATA scenario for potential revenue loss by European carriers is US$76 bn and passenger demand (measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometers) is projected to be 46% below 2019 levels. A decline of this magnitude puts at risk about 5.6 million jobs and $378bn in GDP supported by air transport.

Some of the impacts at national level include:

United Kingdom
113.5mn fewer passengers resulting in a $21.7bn revenue loss, risking almost 402,000 jobs and around $32.7bn in contribution to the UK economy.

Spain
93.7mn fewer passengers resulting in a $13bn revenue loss, risking 750,000 jobs and $49.4bn in contribution to Spain’s economy.

Germany
84.4mn fewer passengers resulting in a $15bn revenue loss, risking 400,000 jobs and $28bn in contribution to Germany’s economy.

Italy
7mn fewer passengers resulting in a $9.5bn revenue loss, risking 256,000 jobs and $67.4bn in contribution to Italy’s economy.

France
65mn fewer passengers resulting in a $12bn revenue loss, risking 318,000 jobs and $28.5bn in contribution to France’s economy.

To minimize the sweeping damage across the European economy that these losses would have, it is vital that governments step up their efforts to aid the industry. Some European governments have already acted, including Norway, Sweden, Finland, Spain, and Italy. But more help is needed. IATA is calling for a combination of:

Direct financial support,
Loans, loan guarantees and support for the corporate bond market
Tax relief

“The air transport industry is an economic engine, supporting up to 12.2 million jobs across Europe and $823 billion in GDP. Every job created in the aviation industry supports another 24 jobs in the wider economy. Governments must recognize the vital importance of the air transport industry, and that support is urgently needed. First, this will keep airlines financially viable during the present lockdown, preserving jobs, maintaining essential connections to repatriate citizens, and carrying life-saving air cargo supplies. Secondly, this would avoid broad economic damage by ensuring that airlines can rapidly scale-up operations when travel restrictions are lifted, jump-starting the European and global economies,” said Rafael Schvartzman, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Europe.

In addition to financial support, IATA called for regulators to provide relief measures. Key priorities in Europe include:

An urgent temporary amendment to the EU261 passenger rights regulation. Short-term flexibility is needed immediately. Permitting the use of vouchers instead of refunds, as has been allowed for some tour operators, would give airlines breathing space to repair cash flows.
Providing a package of measures to ensure air cargo operations, including fast track procedures to obtain overflight and landing permits, exempting flight crew members from 14-day quarantine, and removing economic impediments (overflight charges, parking fees, and slot restrictions).

“Some regulators are taking positive action. We are grateful to the European Council for insisting on a full-season waiver to the slot use rule. This will enable airlines and airports greater flexibility for this season and greater certainty for next summer. But there is more to do on the regulatory front. Amendments are urgently needed to give more flexibility for EU 261. And they must take measures to keep air cargo moving,” said Schvartzman.

NATION	REVENUE IMPACT (US$, BILLIONS)	PASSENGER DEMAND IMPACT (ORIGIN-DESTINATION VOLUMES, MILLIONS)	POTENTIAL JOBS IMPACT	POTENTIAL GDP IMPACT (US$, BILLIONS)
France	-12	-65	-318,000	-28.5
Germany	-15	-84.4	-400,000	-28
Greece	-3.2	-21.5	-193,000	-8.3
Ireland	-2	-15.2	-62,000	-8.9
Italy	-9.5	-67.7	-256,000	-17.4
Netherlands	-4.4	-23.4	-128,400	-10.5
Norway	-2.8	-20	-81,000	-8.7
Portugal	-3	-21.3	-141,000	-6
Russia	-7.1	-51.7	-330,000	-7.7
Spain	-13	-93.7	-750,000	-49.4
Sweden	-2.3	-17	-86,000	-8
Turkey	-5.5	-44.7	-427,000	-19
United Kingdom	-21.7	-113.5	-402,000	-32.7

Qatar Airways expands flights to Australia to help get people home

Qatar Airways is expanding operations to Australia to help get people home. From March 29, Qatar Airways will add an extra 48,000 seats to the market to help stranded passengers get home. The airline will operate the following flights:

Daily Service to Brisbane (Boeing 777-300ER)
Double daily service to Perth (Airbus A380 and Boeing 777-300ER)
Double daily service to Melbourne (Airbus A350-1000 and Boeing 777-300ER)
Triple daily service to Sydney (Airbus A350-1000 and Boeing 777-300ER)

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “We know there are many people who want to be with their families and loved ones during this difficult time. We are thankful to the Australian Government, Airports and staff for their support in helping us to add additional flights to get people home, and in particular, to bring flights to Brisbane.

“We continue to operate around 150 daily flights to more than 70 cities worldwide. Sometimes governments put in place restrictions that mean we simply cannot fly to a country. We are working closely with governments around the world, and wherever possible we will reinstate or add more flights.”

As an airline, Qatar Airways maintains the highest possible hygiene standards, which include the regular disinfection of aircraft, the use of cleaning products recommended by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), and thermal screening of crew.

In addition, Qatar Airways’ aircraft feature the most advanced air filtration systems, equipped with industrial-size HEPA filters that remove 99.97% of viral and bacterial contaminants from re-circulated air, providing the most effective protection against infection. All the airline’s onboard linen and blankets are washed, dried and pressed at microbial lethal temperatures, while its headsets are removed of ear foams and rigorously sanitized after each flight. These items are then sealed into individual packaging by staff wearing hygienic disposable gloves.

Qatar Airways aircraft photo gallery:

Avianca starts Boeing 787 all-cargo flights

Avianca has made this announcement:

Amid the extraordinary situation facing the world by the spread of COVID-19, Avianca Cargo is providing uninterrupted freight transport service now with the support of aircraft and passenger crew, to contribute to the supply of food, medical equipment, toiletries, and medicines. Early today, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, dedicated to passenger transport, made its first cargo flight, carrying nearly 20 tons of essential goods on each journey in its “belly.” With this flight, the cargo operation has already been transported 15,000 tons in the means of the crisis.

The flight took off at 01:30 local time in Colombia, with 4 pilots being part of Avianca and landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport at 07:30 hours. The cargo was carried at the bottom deck of the aircraft, the section dedicated to this purpose.

To operate this flight full of cargo, but with empty seats, it was necessary to take additional measures for the care and protection of onboard and ground personnel. The company established protocols to minimize physical contact, as well as provided cleaning kits and protective items to employees, antibacterial gel, gloves, and digital thermometers to the crew and staff members who have contact and are exposed to the public. Also, it has delivered alcohol and towels for cleaning keyboards and accessories in the offices and carried out additional disinfection work in bathrooms and offices of the cargo terminals.

Avianca Cargo currently has six Airbus A330-200F freighters, plus five aircraft from its affiliated company AeroUnion, three A300-600s, and two Boeing 767-200s. The fleet of this operation serves the international market covering Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Miami, Madrid, Brussels, and major Latin American cities.

From March 16 to the 22 alone, Avianca Cargo mobilized more than 6 million kilograms of cargo. Of this volume, 600 tons were food such as fish, fruits and vegetables, and another 250 tons of medicines, medical equipment, and toiletries. These volumes were achieved thanks to the operation of 138 freighter flights, of which 3 were charter service, supplemented by the capacity of the bellies of 720 passenger flights before the operation was restricted.

Avianca aircraft photo gallery:

South African Airways cancels all domestic flights

South African Airways has made this announcement:

South African Airways (SAA) announced its decision to suspend all its domestic flights with effect from Friday, March 27 until April 16, 2020 (inclusive). The decision came after government announced a nation-wide lockdown for 21 days aimed at combatting the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

SAA supports this national effort as announced by the government, to retard, contain, manage and disrupt the rate of transmission of the COVID-19.

Last Friday, SAA announced the suspension of all intercontinental and Africa regional flights. All these flights remain suspended until May 31, 2020.

South African aircraft photo gallery:

Lufthansa and Eurowings introduce further physical distancing measures

Lufthansa has made this announcement:

Neighbouring seat blocked on all flights from Germany
Arrivals and departures only at gate positions in Germany where possible
New measures coordinated between German Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer and Carsten Spohr, CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG

Lufthansa and Eurowings are introducing further measures to ensure physical distance between passengers during their journey. From tomorrow, March 27, 2020, neighboring seats on board in Economy Class and Premium Economy will be blocked and remain free on all flights from Germany. This also applies to flights within Germany.

This regulation does not apply on flights to Germany, because the airlines top priority remains returning as many people as possible to their home country.

In addition, from now on all Lufthansa and Eurowings flights at domestic airports will only be handled at building positions wherever possible given the existing airport infrastructure and official regulations. This measure intends to help pas-sengers avoid having to take bus trips. Where this is not possible at short notice, twice as many buses will be operating, which has also been the case for the last few days.

Both measures will apply until April 19, 2020.

Lufthansa and Eurowings have already taken numerous measures to increase the distance between passengers along the entire travel chain, for example at check-in counters or when boarding and disembarking from the aircraft. The service on board has also been adapted regarding the current physical distancing measures.

Eurowings aircraft photo gallery:

Ryanair announces a limited schedule for coming days to keep skies open

Ryanair has made this announcement:

Dear Customers,

All of the team at Ryanair are working hard to provide repatriation and rescue flights for many EU Governments. We are also offering our aircraft for emergency medical flights, including to/from China. Our pilots, engineers, and other airline professionals will keep trying to assist EU Governments where we can through this Covid-19 crisis.

As most EU countries have imposed flight bans or other restrictions, over 90% of Ryanair’s aircraft will be grounded for the coming weeks. We will comply with these restrictions at all times. We are all working with EU Governments to try to keep some minimum flight links open for emergency reasons, even though the passenger loads on these flights will be very low.

For the next week (Friday, March 27 to Thursday April 2), Ryanair will operate daily or weekly flights on the following routes;

To/From Ireland		To/From the UK
Dublin – London (STN)		London (STN) – Dublin
Dublin – London (GAT)		London (GAT) – Dublin
Dublin – Birmingham		Birmingham – Dublin
Dublin – Bristol		Edinburgh – Dublin
Dublin – Edinburgh		Bristol – Dublin
Dublin – Glasgow		Glasgow – Dublin
Dublin – Manchester		Manchester – Dublin
Dublin – Amsterdam		London (STN) – Eindhoven
Dublin – Brussels		London (STN) – Lisbon
Dublin – Berlin		London (STN) – Cork
Dublin – Lisbon		London (STN) – Berlin
Dublin – Cologne		London (STN) – Budapest
Cork – London (STN)

All these aircraft are disinfected daily. With low loads and no trolley service, social distancing will be optimised on-board, and we ask all passengers to cooperate fully with our crews who are doing their best in difficult times to maintain vital links to/from Ireland and to/from the UK to facilitate our passengers and their families to deal with emergencies that may require urgent travel over the coming days and weeks.

Ryanair apologizes sincerely for the unprecedented grounding of our aircraft fleet, and any schedule disruptions this may have caused, but we must all work together with EU Governments to minimise the impact of Covid-19 on our citizens and our health services

As we all work to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, let’s take care of ourselves, each other, our families, and our communities.

Yours sincerely,

Michael O’Leary
Group CEO

Ryanair aircraft photo gallery:

Swiss performs repatriation flights and cargo-only flights

Swiss International Air Lines made this announcement:

Swiss is to operate its first flight to Santiago (Chile), as part of Swiss and Edelweiss’s support of the unprecedented repatriation program that has been initiated by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).

The outbound Boeing 777 flight is expected to depart from Zurich on Friday 27 March. The return flight from Santiago will arrive on Sunday 29 March with up to 330 passengers on board. The aim of the flight is to bring Swiss travelers blocked abroad back to Switzerland. Further repatriation flights by Swiss and Edelweiss on the FDFA’s behalf are being planned, with a particular focus on destinations in Latin America, Asia, Oceania and Africa.

Any persons who are interested in taking such a repatriation flight because they have been unable, despite their best efforts, to arrange their own transport home should contact their local Swiss diplomatic representation. The FDFA also urges all Swiss nationals abroad seeking to return home to Switzerland to register their desired travel as soon as possible on the corresponding FDFA Travel Admin app.

With immediate effect, Swiss will also be using its passenger aircraft to perform pure cargo flights. Two aircraft will depart for Hong Kong this week transporting only freight, and further such flights are currently being planned.

Swiss aircraft photo gallery:

Delta pilot talks about taking an Airbus A321 to storage in Victorville, CA

Delta pilot Chris Dennis detailed how it felt flying a Delta Airbus A321 to storage at Victorville, CA on March 23 on social media.

All photos by Chris Dennis.

Virgin Atlantic Airways operates its first all-cargo flight

From the Virgin Atlantic blog. By Michael Oakes.

On the surface of it, flight VS698 looked like any other flight to New York. Parked at Terminal 3’s Gate 13, G-VSPY, one of our Boeing 787-9s, had an 11:25 departure scheduled on Saturday, March 21, 2020. The aircraft was connected to the gate by an airbridge, had a full load of fuel, a flight plan to take it across the Atlantic, and had passed all final safety checks. This flight was Virgin Atlantic’s first ever cargo-only charter. The flight was going to depart with two pilots, one cabin crew member, and a belly full of pharmaceutical and medical products.

The Covid-19 crisis has created unprecedented levels of disruption which have hit the airline industry particularly hard. Travel restrictions being introduced around the world now prevent the majority of passengers from flying as freely as they usually do. Thousands of flights have been cancelled and aircraft have been grounded, including here at Virgin Atlantic. We’re currently only able to operate a handful of flights until the situation improves.

The cargo is security screened and picked ready for the flight

Loading onto the lorry which will take it to the aircraft side

But out of crisis, innovation is born. Although the medical crisis has led to a temporary decrease in passengers wanting to fly, cargo demand remains strong. With so many airlines cancelling flights, there has also been a dramatic decrease in cargo space available. Airline capacity across the Atlantic is a fraction of what it was a few months ago, but global trade continues, and vital supply chains need to be maintained.

Loading the Boeing 787-900

The Virgin Atlantic Cargo team spotted the opportunity and rose to the challenge. Every year, Virgin Atlantic transports over 200,000 tonnes of cargo on its global network. If you’ve ever flown with us, chances are you were sitting above all sorts of goods and products being shipped around the world. We bring salmon from lochs in Scotland to plates in Los Angeles, pharmaceuticals from scientists in Tel Aviv to patients in Lagos, fruit from farms in South Africa to mouths in London – the list goes on.

Global trade depends on airlines like Virgin Atlantic to get things from A to B, and that hasn’t stopped, even during the crisis we now face. Our Cargo team swung into action and found a way to help customers, new and old, keep their freight moving while at the same time keeping some of our beautiful aircraft in the skies.

Captain Steve Wrigley, Senior First Officer James Bennett and Dominic Kennedy, Managing Director, Cargo.

Flight VS698 on 21 March was our first ever cargo-only charter flight. Captain Steve Wrigley and First Officer James Bennett were joined by just one other person, Cabin Service Supervisor Katie Lang. No passengers were onboard, but in the hold was 11 pallets of cargo being sent to the US by a UK-based pharmaceutical company. The aircraft will turn around in JFK and fly back to the UK full of inbound cargo.

Strapped in and ready to go…

“I must say, standing out on the ramp at an eerily quiet Heathrow today really brought home to me the scale of what’s happening here – and added to my feeling of immense pride as I watched our inaugural cargo-only charter get airborne, knowing the aircraft would have otherwise been sat on the ground if not for the herculean effort by our cargo team in making this happen, especially at such short notice and in these challenging times”. – Dominic Kennedy

You may be wondering why we’re able to fly cargo but not passengers. That’s a good question. Many of the Covid-19 travel restrictions that have been introduced have special exemptions for pilots and cabin crew operating flights. One of the reasons for this is because of the critical nature of what they do – without them, aircraft wouldn’t fly and global air freight would grind to a halt. Because of this, we’re able to fly aircraft in and out of airports.

Dom chats to cabin services supervisor Katie Lang just before departure.

So, what happens on a flight with no passengers? This isn’t actually an unusual sight – training flights, positioning flights (when we need to get an aircraft from, say Gatwick to Manchester), and maintenance flights (when our aircraft get some TLC with engineers) happen regularly. However, we’ve never operated a flight like VS698 before. For our pilots, there are no major changes. They need to make a few technical adjustments for weight – an aircraft full of passengers is quite heavy. For our cabin crew, just because there are no passengers doesn’t mean they get to kick back in Upper Class and watch a film on Vera. Cabin crew are busy throughout the entire flight, taking care of things ranging from performing regular safety checks and liaising with the flight crew.

Our all cargo flight ready to push back on its way to New York

But as cargo charters are virgin territory for Virgin Atlantic, it still takes some getting used to. This flight was possible thanks to the efforts of many people at Virgin Atlantic, including our commercial, engineering, airports and operations teams. Before getting called for this flight, Katie was on standby, ready to help customers get back home on rescue flights. On VS698 she was looking forward to getting to know Miss Moneypenny and help our cargo customers maintain access to global markets.

Until we’re able to welcome you back onboard, we’ll continue to fly cargo to destinations around the world. The next time you look up from self-isolation and see one of our aircraft in the sky, why not guess what’s onboard?