CAPA News Briefs

United Airlines Holdings informed (08-Jul-2020) approximately 36,000 employees of plans to reduce its workforce. The notice is as a part of United's strategic realignment and reorganisation of its structure, following the COVID-19 pandemic. Actions as a result of the notice will take effect from 01-Oct-2020, and may continue until the end of 2020. The company expects to recognise approximately USD300 million in employee separation charges related to voluntary terminations in 2Q2020, with a cash amount of approximately USD50 million. [more - original PR]

Emirates Airline, via its official website, reported (08-Jul-2020) tourists travelling with Emirates to Dubai from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Sudan, Tanzania and certain destinations in the US must carry a negative COVID-19 test certificate issued by an approved laboratory in order to be accepted for travel, effective 10-Jul-2020. Certificates must be issued no more than 96 hours before departure.

New York John F Kennedy International Airport launched (08-Jul-2020) a COVID-19 recovery campaign focusing on five key areas: hygiene and sanitation, health and wellbeing, social distancing, transactions, and communications. The airport has installed sanitisation stations, touchless sanitary receptacles and social distancing decals. It has also introduced several initiatives including vending machines for personal protective equipment, new robotic cleaning technology, and a series of contactless transaction systems. [more - original PR]

Air Namibia, via its official Twitter account, stated (09-Jul-2020) the suspension of its service licences was "upended" by the High Court. The airline will continue to operate all domestic services according to its published schedule. Earlier reports stated the Transportation Commission of Namibia had suspended the airline's scheduled air services licence, effective 08-Jul-2020, due to the airline's financial status (The Namibian/Reuters, 08-Jul-2020). The commission had given the airline until 22-Jul-2020 to provide "evidence of having obtained funding to meet the requirements of the air services acts".

Dana Air, via its official Facebook and Twitter accounts, confirmed (08-Jul-2020) plans to resume domestic operations on 09-Jul-2020. The airline will initially operate Abuja-Lagos service and will announce the date for the resumption of Owerri and Port Harcourt services "soon".

Aero Contractors, via its official Twitter account, confirmed (08-Jul-2020) plans to resume operations on 09-Jul-2020. The airline opted to resume services one day after the official domestic resumption date of 08-Jul-2020 "to ensure that airport facilities were not stretched beyond COVID-19 protocol guidelines".

PT Angkasa Pura I director Faik Fahmi reported (08-Jul-2020) the company implemented a "standalone technology service that can detect a series of indicators such as passenger body temperature, heart rate and implement online customer service services to reduce physical contact between passengers and our officers". [more - original PR - Indonesian]

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced (08-Jul-2020) to the National Cabinet plans to slow the arrival of incoming passengers at international airports, and has "been discussing that with Premiers over the last sort of 24 hours". Mr Morrison stated: "The fact is that New South Wales has been bearing the largest burden of people returning to Australia and they're people, they're Queenslanders, they're Western Australians, they're Tasmanians and New South Wales has done the heavy-lifting on that and foot the bill for it too". [more - original PR]

airBaltic announced (08-Jul-2020) plans to operate 82 routes in summer 2021, representing 21% year-on-year network growth. The carrier will launch or resume the following 15 services from Riga, postponed in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic:

• New services:
  • Bergen: Twice weekly from 30-Mar-2021;
  • Yekaterinburg: Twice weekly from 31-Mar-2021;
  • Stavanger: Twice weekly from 27-Apr-2021;
  • Yerevan: Twice weekly from 02-May-2021;
  • Trondheim: Twice weekly from 01-Jun-2021;
  • Manchester: Four times weekly from 02-Jun-2021;
• Resumptions:
  • Almaty: Three times weekly from 28-Mar-2021;
  • Aberdeen: Twice weekly from 30-Mar-2021;
  • Rhodes: Weekly from 24-Apr-2021;
  • Baku: Twice weekly from 28-Apr-2021;
  • Venice: Twice weekly from 01-May-2021;
  • Palma de Mallorca: Weekly to twice weekly from 02-May-2021;
  • Kazan: Twice weekly from 03-May-2021;
  • Thessaloniki: Twice weekly from 11-May-2021;
  • Olbia: Weekly from 22-May-2021.

The carrier will also increase frequencies, including Barcelona, Dublin, Paris and Rome frequencies. [more - original PR]

Korea Airports Corporation reported (07-Jul-2020) the following traffic highlights for Jeju International Airport for Jun-2020:

• Passengers: 1.8 million, -33.5% year-on-year;
  • Domestic: 1.8 million, -27.3%;
  • International: 826, -99.6%;
• Cargo: 12,172 tons, -38.6%;
  • Domestic: 12,155 tons, -30.0%;
  • International: 17 tons, -99.3%;
• Aircraft movements: 11,811, -20.0%;
  • Domestic: 11,806, -11.7%;
  • International: 5, -99.6%. [more - original PR]

Tourism Research Australia stated (08-Jul-2020) New Zealand replaced China as Australia's top visitor market for the year ended Mar-2020. Chinese visitation decreased 19% to 1.1 million, while New Zealand visitor numbers decreased 2% to 1.2 million. Most services from China were suspended from Feb-2020 due to coronavirus. [more - original PR]