Business Insider: Southwest Airlines passengers dance and cheer as couple accused of refusing to wear masks gets thrown off flight. “A TikTok video shows an entire plane clapping and cheering after a couple is escorted off a Southwest Airlines flight, Newsweek reported. In the video shared by user Brendan Edler, a woman is seen arguing with a crew member.”
BBC: Qantas boss: Governments ‘to insist’ on vaccines for flying. “The boss of Australian airline Qantas has told the BBC that ‘governments are going to insist’ on vaccines for international travellers. Coronavirus vaccines are seen as crucial to reviving an industry that saw worldwide passenger numbers fall 75.6% last year.”
CNET: Fear and COVID in hotel quarantine: What it’s like flying overseas right now. “No one wants to travel internationally right now, especially to Australia, which has one of the toughest quarantines in the world. Yet in late December, just as the disease was peaking worldwide, I traveled to the country of my birth from New York. With a kid in tow, a trip halfway across the world would be a challenge in the best of times, but in a pandemic the hurdles were that much higher. I never envisioned spending New Year’s Eve sounding party whistles within earshot of a government guard, but that’s only one of the side effects of flying at the height of a global lockdown.”
BBC: Airline removes boy, 4, with autism for not wearing Covid mask. “A four-year-old boy with autism was removed from a flight in the US after the airline refused to recognise his disability and insisted he should wear a face mask, his mother said. Spirit Airlines told US media that all their passengers except those aged under two must wear a mask.”
BBC: Covid-19: British Airways plans app-based travel pass. “British Airways is planning to make it easier for passengers to prove they are safe to travel once they have been vaccinated against Covid. Under the plans, people who have had both jabs will be able to register their status on BA’s smartphone app.”
Colorado Sun: Colorado man accused of refusing to wear mask, then urinating on Denver-bound flight. “A Colorado man accused of disrupting an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Denver by refusing to wear a mask and then standing up and urinating in the cabin faces a federal charge of interfering with a flight crew and attendants that carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine.”
Gizmodo: Hackers Just Looted Passenger Data From Some of the World’s Biggest Airlines. “SITA, a data firm that works with some of the world’s largest airlines, announced Thursday that it had been the victim of a ‘highly sophisticated cyberattack,’ the likes of which compromised information on hundreds of thousands of airline passengers all over the world.”
BBC: Covid: Qantas launches ‘mystery flights’ to boost tourism. “The day-trips, where passengers don’t know the destination when boarding, were popular in the 1990s. Airlines across the region are coming up with different strategies to tackle the pandemic-induced travel slump, with Thai Airways announcing this week it will slash its workforce by 50%.”
Lifehacker: Use This Website to Predict Potential Turbulence on Your Next Flight. “If you’re someone who likes to get all the details on your flight ahead of time, you may be interested in a new website that predicts whether an upcoming flight has a decent chance of turbulence. Here’s what to know.”
Wired: The art and science of boarding an airplane in a pandemic. “Delta, which previously boarded passengers according to ticket classes and mileage club memberships, is loading the airplane back to front, so that flyers don’t pass by others as they make their way to their seats. After preboarding families and passengers that need extra time, United is going back-to-front too. Even Southwest, famous for letting passengers choose their seats, is only letting 10 passengers on at a time, instead of the usual 30. The process is certainly slower, but Southwest, and other airlines, have far fewer passengers these days.”
Simple Flying: Lufthansa Set To Ban Cloth Masks Onboard From February. “Flying with airlines is typically seen as relatively safe given that most have mandatory mask policies and hospital-grade HEPA filters onboard. However, governments and airlines have become increasingly alarmed by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is once again bringing European skies to a standstill. As such, Lufthansa is changing its mask policy in line with the latest government recommendations in Germany.”
BBC: Aditya Singh: Man found ‘living in airport for three months’ over Covid fears. “A man too afraid to fly due to the pandemic lived undetected in a secure area of Chicago’s international airport for three months, US prosecutors say. Aditya Singh, 36, was arrested on Saturday after airline staff asked him to produce his identification. He pointed to a badge, but it allegedly belonged to an operations manager who reported it missing in October.”
BBC: Covid: Belgium and Netherlands ban flights from UK over variant. “A number of European countries have or are considering banning travel from the UK to prevent the spread of a more infectious variant of coronavirus. Both the Netherlands and Belgium have suspended flights. Trains to Belgium have also been banned. Germany and France are reported to be considering similar action.”
USA Today: New Zealand study details COVID-19 spread on long-haul flight despite tests. “The 12-page report…follows a cluster of coronavirus cases linked to one passenger traveling on an 18-hour flight from Dubai to New Zealand in September. Though the traveler tested negative with a PCR test before the flight, researchers concluded that ‘at least four in-flight transmission events of SARS-CoV-2 likely took place’ as the pre-symptomatic yet contagious person infected at least four others. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.”
