Source: European Commission European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskisand US Trade Representative Katherine Tai reached an understanding relating to large civil aircraft, transforming almost 17 years of disputes into a forward-looking, collaborative platform to address bilateral issues as well as global challenges. Both sides will now seek to overcome long-standing differences in order to avoid future litigation and preserve a level playing field between our aircraft manufacturers and will also work to prevent new differences from arising. The EU and the US also agreed to suspend application of harmful tariffs worth of USD 11.5 billion for a period of five years that hurt companies and people on both sides of the Atlantic. The two sides will  collaborate on jointly analysing and [...]

Source: US DOT   U.S. scheduled passenger airlines reported a first-quarter 2021 after-tax net loss of $4.2 billion and a pre-tax operating loss of $12.7 billion. While these first-quarter losses are the fifth consecutive quarterly losses, the extent of the losses is narrowing. The airlines reduced their losses in the first quarter from the fourth quarter of 2020. The first-quarter after-tax net loss of $4.2 billion was reduced from the fourth-quarter loss of $7.0 billion. The first-quarter pre-tax operating loss of $12.7 billion was increased from the fourth-quarter loss of $9.7 billion. U.S. airline financial reports are filed quarterly with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). See the tables that accompany this release on the BTS website for additional first-quarter [...]

Source: European Commission Today, the Presidents of the three EU institutions, the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission attended the official signing ceremony for the Regulation on the EU Digital COVID Certificate, marking the end of the legislative process. On this occasion Presidents David Sassoli and Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister António Costa said: “The EU Digital COVID Certificate is a symbol of what Europe stands for. Of a Europe that does not falter when put to the test. A Europe that unites and grows when faced with challenges. Our Union showed again that we work best when we work together. The EU Digital COVID Certificate Regulation was agreed between our institutions in the record [...]

Source: A4E At the annual A4E Aviation Summit today -- held virtually due to continued lack of EU coordination on COVID-19 travel restrictions, CEOs of Europe’s biggest airlines called on governments to restore freedom of movement for citizens and gradually lift all travel restrictions this summer, citing rising vaccination rates and tools such as the EU’s Digital COVID Certificate system, which is expected to be in place across the majority of EU Member States by 01 July. “The science is clear that unrestricted, safe travel is possible for many intra-European flights already – and this will only increase as the vaccine rolls out further. We all have a responsibility, including European governments, to ensure that European travel is accessible and [...]

Source: ICAO Delivering another important contribution to the international community’s efforts to realize a responsible and sustainable air transport recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, ICAO has announced the publishing of new technical specifications for a Visible Digital Seal (VDS) for non-constrained environments. The ICAO VDS stores datasets for test and vaccination certificates in a two-dimensional barcode which can be paper- or screen-based. Border control and other receiving parties can verify the data against established requirements efficiently and seamlessly, including through the use of traveller self-service kiosks and processes. The VDS barcode is digitally signed for security, with the signature being based on the same public key cryptographic infrastructure principles already used to support ePassport issuance and authentication by more than [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that domestic travel demand improved in April 2021 compared to the prior month, although it remained well below pre-pandemic levels, while recovery in international passenger travel continued to be stalled in the face of government-imposed travel restrictions. Because comparisons between 2021 and 2020 monthly results are distorted by the extraordinary impact of COVID-19, unless otherwise noted all comparisons are to April 2019, which followed a normal demand pattern. Total demand for air travel in April 2021 (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) was down 65.4% compared to April 2019. That was an improvement over the 66.9% decline recorded in March 2021 versus March 2019. The better performance was driven by [...]