Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

[PHXPhlyer]

Qatar Airways to retire half of its A380 planes

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/qata ... index.html

Qatar Airways to retire half of its A380 planes
Maureen O'Hare, CNN • Published 14th January 2021

(CNN) — It was once the all-conquering superjumbo, but today it's more likely to be viewed as a white elephant.
As the latest nail in the coffin for the world's largest passenger airliner, Qatar Airways has confirmed it will be retiring half of its fleet of 10 Airbus A380s, which have already been grounded since March last year.
The Qatari flag carrier's CEO Akbar Al Baker told an aviation industry forum this week that the decision is motivated by concerns over environmental impact.
"The A380, I think, is one of the worst aircraft when it comes to emissions that is flying around today," Al Baker said, speaking at the CAPA Live aviation event on January 13.
"This is why we have decided that we will not operate them for the foreseeable future and even when we operate them, we will only operate half of the numbers we have."
The mammoth double-decker crafts have capacity for 853 passengers, although a typical seating arrangement means they usually accommodate up to 525.
Popular with air travelers but expensive to operate at the best of times, the four-engine crafts are simply too large for current demand in the pandemic era.
However, the plane's cards had been marked for some time already. Airbus overestimated airlines' appetite for the superjumbo.
When Airbus announced back in 2019 that it would stop deliveries of the A380 in 2021, the European manufacturer had delivered just 234 of the craft -- less than half of the 600 it had predicted when the double-decker was introduced in 2007.
The last ever superjumbo is currently undergoing its final touches at France's Toulouse-Blagnac Airport.

However, the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 outbreak means superjumbo fleets are disappearing from our skies sooner than expected.
Airlines including Lufthansa, Qantas, British Airways and Air France all grounded their superjumbos when the pandemic hit last spring.
Qatar Airways tells CNN that "until passenger demand recovers to appropriate levels, Qatar Airways will continue to keep its A380 aircraft grounded."
Speaking at CAPA Live, Al Baker lauded the performance of smaller, more economical long-range aircraft.
"The A350s and B787s are very efficient aircraft when it comes to emissions, especially the A350-1000, which exceeded our expectations with its efficiency that it is producing today," he said.

Qatar Airways has a fleet of 53 A350 aircraft which service more than 45 destinations in the airline's network, including Johannesburg, London, Melbourne, New York, Paris, Sao Paolo and Singapore.
The airline has launched a program enabling passengers to voluntarily offset the carbon emissions associated with their journey at the point of booking their ticket.
The airline is part of the Oneworld airline alliance, alongside carriers including American Airlines and British Airways, which has committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

PP

[Woody]

This weeks rumour control has BA leaving IAG and also picking up the Ex Norwegian long haul fleet

[G-CPTN]

BA leaving IAG.

A divorce?

[PHXPhlyer]

United Airlines CEO wants to make Covid vaccine mandatory for employees

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/un ... s-n1255433

United Airlines CEO wants to make Covid vaccine mandatory for employees
"I think the right thing to do is for United Airlines, and for other companies, to require the vaccines and to make them mandatory," Scott Kirby said.

United Airlines may make the Covid-19 vaccine mandatory for employees, and other companies should do the same, United Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby told workers at a meeting on Thursday, according to a transcript reviewed by Reuters.

A United spokeswoman confirmed that the company was "strongly considering" making vaccines compulsory, though it isn't a policy yet.

"I think the right thing to do is for United Airlines, and for other companies, to require the vaccines and to make them mandatory," Kirby said.

"If others go along and are willing to start to mandate vaccines, you should probably expect United to be amongst the first wave of companies that do it."

CNBC had earlier reported the news of Kirby wanting to mandate the vaccine for employees.

Private U.S. companies can require employees to get vaccinated against Covid-19, but are unlikely to do so because of the risks of legal and cultural backlash, experts have said.

Companies are still in the early stages of navigating access and distribution of vaccines against the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but inoculation is considered the key to safely resume operations at crowded warehouses, factory lines and on sales floors.

PP

[Rwy in Sight]

Who pays for the vaccine and will there be enough to go around for all employees?

[PHXPhlyer]

The vaccinations are supposedly free here.
Don't know how vaccines would be sourced.
At my former company, they have not mandated vaccinations, yet.
They are, however, demanding that pilots get the vaccine on there own time as the FAA has mandated 48 hours between vaccination and flying.
Plenty of companies are trying to get their employees to the head of the line. The list includes Amazon, airlines, food processors, grocery stores etc.

PP

[Rwy in Sight]

Some companies try to source their own vaccine - outside governmental contracts

[Woody]

Maybe this should be on the Boeing bad news thread

https://www.ifn.news/posts/singapore-ai ... -to-777-9/

[PHXPhlyer]

Between Singapore and Emirates kind of a wash, since the 777X is still at least a few years away.

PP

[Woody]

For those of you who can’t wait to get away

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/trav ... newcomment

[ian16th]

For those of you who can’t wait to get away

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/trav ... newcomment

As usual, no mention of ZA.

[larsssnowpharter]

Must have been about 15 C today whereas, not much more than a week ago, it was minus 10 C. A 25 C change! That's why we Brits talk about weather.

Received a court summons today. One is to serve as a juror for 10 days. Señora Larss somewhat frightened thinking that I was to be tried and sent to jail.

[larsssnowpharter]

Should be in totally useless snippets thread.

Humble apologies.

[PHXPhlyer]

Maybe you'll get an aviation related case.

PP

[Woody]

BA flights to CPT put back again, May 1st is the scheduled restart date at the moment

[Ex-Ascot]

Keep hearing and seeing on radar the LHR-JNB-LHR flight. Is this daily again?

[Woody]

Keep hearing and seeing on radar the LHR-JNB-LHR flight. Is this daily again?

Cargo only I’m afraid