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Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2021 1:38 am
by 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

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2021 8:02 pm
by Woody
This weeks rumour control has BA leaving IAG and also picking up the Ex Norwegian long haul fleet B-)

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2021 8:08 pm
by G-CPTN
Woody wrote:
Sat Jan 16, 2021 8:02 pm
BA leaving IAG.
A divorce?

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2021 6:18 pm
by 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.

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Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2021 6:41 pm
by Rwy in Sight
Who pays for the vaccine and will there be enough to go around for all employees?

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2021 7:20 pm
by 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

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2021 7:49 pm
by Rwy in Sight
Some companies try to source their own vaccine - outside governmental contracts

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:34 pm
by Woody
Maybe this should be on the Boeing bad news thread :-?

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

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:38 pm
by PHXPhlyer
Between Singapore and Emirates kind of a wash, since the 777X is still at least a few years away.

PP

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 4:29 pm
by Woody
For those of you who can’t wait to get away :D

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

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 5:09 pm
by ian16th
Woody wrote:
Sat Feb 20, 2021 4:29 pm
For those of you who can’t wait to get away :D

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/trav ... newcomment
As usual, no mention of ZA.

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 6:36 pm
by 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.

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 6:38 pm
by larsssnowpharter
Should be in totally useless snippets thread.

Humble apologies.

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 7:10 pm
by PHXPhlyer
Maybe you'll get an aviation related case. :))

PP

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:17 pm
by Woody
BA flights to CPT put back again, May 1st is the scheduled restart date at the moment X(

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2021 10:12 am
by Ex-Ascot
Keep hearing and seeing on radar the LHR-JNB-LHR flight. Is this daily again?

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2021 10:21 am
by Woody
Ex-Ascot wrote:
Mon Mar 01, 2021 10:12 am
Keep hearing and seeing on radar the LHR-JNB-LHR flight. Is this daily again?
Cargo only I’m afraid :((

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 5:31 pm
by PHXPhlyer
Truck driving, warehouse work, food stamps: How pilots have survived Covid travel slump

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/busine ... d-n1260541

Truck driving, warehouse work, food stamps: How pilots have survived Covid travel slump
“I can’t afford to sit and wait for a flying job to come around, so I chose this to pay the bills in the meantime,” said one pilot who now works at a lumber warehouse.

March 11, 2021, 9:13 AM MST
By Ben Popken
Downsized commercial airline pilots are turning to medical evacuation work, truck driving and even warehouse jobs to feed their families during the cataclysmic drop in air travel over the past year.

The $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package passed Wednesday contained $15 billion in payroll support for airlines, extending that program until the end of September. That’s on top of the $50 billion provided to the industry in previous stimulus packages.

It’s a welcome relief for a beleaguered industry that saw passenger totals drop 60 percent during 2020, according to recent figures from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency.

But it’s too little, too late for many pilots who were already placed on furlough, nudged out of the cockpit and forced to get creative with their income.

Pilots interviewed by NBC News said they have been holding on, trying to make ends meet in whatever way they can, while holding out hope that vaccines, declining infection rates and pent-up consumer demand will usher in a brighter tomorrow, eventually.

Joshua Walden, 32, of Phoenix, says he was one of the lucky ones. His employer, Compass Airlines, a regional carrier for several larger airlines, completely shut down in March after losing its major contract.

He immediately began “shotgunning” résumés to friends and family, which led to one landing on the desk of a chief pilot who was hiring. Within a week, Walden was medevacing Covid-19 patients out of Arizona's Show Low Regional Airport, near several Native American reservations.

He took a pay cut. He also had three separate Covid-exposure events, took 23 Covid-19 tests and two of his roommates got the coronavirus. He did not. But the gratification he got from pitching in was worth it, Walden said.

“I could choose to be a victim of my circumstance — or get out there and go fly medevac,” he said.

After getting laid off from a commercial airline in March, pilot Joshua Walden said he was lucky to land a job doing medevac duty during the pandemic at a small regional airport in Arizona near several Native American reservations.

Pilots who got their notice later in the pandemic fared worse, hitting the job market en masse, with fierce competition for the best jobs. The preferred gigs involved flying, from cargo planes to flight instruction to charter jets.

If that failed, pilots started to look for other work that involved their main skill set: steering a piece of heavy machinery around. Some ended up in trucking, mining or rail transportation.

Others have gotten by however they can.

“I’ve been burning through savings and using SNAP and partial unemployment to keep a roof over my family’s head and food on the table,” David Venci, a pilot for a low-cost carrier, said in an email. “The company has paid us minimum training pay.”
Further down the experience list, pilots took whatever jobs they could.

“The [flight] school I used to work for closed down, and other schools are filled up with airline pilots who were furloughed, which gives newer people like myself slim chances,” said a 26-year-old former flight instructor and father of one, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve his job prospects.

“I work at Lumber Liquidators now as an assistant manager,” he said. “I can’t afford to sit and wait for a flying job to come around, so I chose this to pay the bills in the meantime.”

Airlines say they’re doing what they can and are reliant on vaccination efforts, government support and guidance as they make recovery efforts.

“We are grateful to governments — including the U.S. — that have stepped up to help protect workers’ jobs with payroll support and other measures,” Perry Flint, spokesperson for IATA, an airline trade association, said in an email. “Now, as testing and vaccination programs gather pace, we need governments to build and share their plans, benchmarks and timetables for reopening borders to travel.”

While the airline industry is used to weathering ups and downs, aviation still comes with a certain cosmopolitan mystique. You get to ride the skies and see new places. But time away from home, dealing with management and regulations, and high upfront out-of-pocket training costs can all take a toll. As does the uncertainty that you might get furloughed during the next downturn.

So until effective and widespread vaccinations among the traveling public is achieved, aviation will likely continue to suffer.

“The solution is social isolation. And that’s the antithesis of aviation,” said Adam Pilarski, senior vice president at Avitas, an aviation consultancy.

He predicts the industry will return to its 2019 levels by 2024. But even then, pilots will face significant headwinds. Business travel, the primary driver of profits for airlines, may be forever dented by the more widespread use of video conferencing and other technologies popularized during the pandemic. And pressure will only grow for expanding the use of automation.

“If we fly the same number of people in early 2024 as we did in 2018, how many additional pilots do you need?” he said. “The answer is not that many. As negative as it sounds, we can’t pretend that it’s different.”

PP

Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 3:09 pm
by Woody
Never been my favourite aircraft as SLF, but still poignant [-(


Re: Impact of coronavirus on aviation industry.

Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2021 4:21 am
by llondel
I would like to fly in one before they finally get turned into soda cans. Sadly Concorde didn't survive until I had enough spare cash to fly in it (and still don't) but I'd like to try this one.