Search alerts

The airline has announced that it will start to offer rapid airport COVID-19 testing for passengers travelling from San Francisco to Hawaii from 15 October; this is the first such pilot program announced by a U.S. airline. Passengers should schedule their tests ahead of time, which will be conducted in the terminal and yield results within 15 minutes. There will also be a mail-in test option available.

The airline said yesterday, 23 September, that it will not further expand its flight offering at this time, instead maintaining a restricted schedule during the winter months, including operating at around 55% of capacity in November.

The airline has optimised their schedules in order to offer flights facilitating same-day business trips in Europe during October; they are now offering a selection of pre-09.00 outbound and post-17.00 (GMT+1) inbound flights between London Heathrow in the UK and key destination cities in Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland, among others.

The airline has said today that it will resume direct flights to China from the Nordic region from 29 September, following their suspension in January. Weekly flights from Copenhagen to Shanghai will operate initially, with flights to Beijing expected to resume by the end of October.

The airlines of the Lufthansa Group have signalled their intentions to start making rapid COVID-19 antigen tests available to passengers from October, and may consider opening dedicated test centres at airports in the U.S. and Canada. Although rapid antigen tests are thought to be less accurate than PCR testing, they are able to yield results within around 15 minutes.

The middle eastern airline is set to further increase its network in the coming month; among the highlights, in mid-October Qatar will resume flights to Seychelles and Windhoek, Namibia. The airline will also increase frequencies to Clark International Airport and Manila in the Philippines; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Madrid, Spain; Manchester, UK and Stockholm, Sweden.

The airline has announced five new routes due to launch from 17 December, which aim to primarily serve leisure travellers. Alaska Airlines will fly seasonally until 12 April 2021 between: Los Angeles and Cancun; Palm Springs, California and Boise, Idaho; Palm Springs, California and Reno, Nevada. The airline will also fly daily, year-round between Los Angeles and Reno and twice-daily, year-round between Palm Springs and San Jose, California. In addition, last month the airline said it would end change fees long-term on all flights for fare classes other than Saver.

The national airline of Rwanda has announced that flights from the country’s capital, Kigali, are set to resume from 3 October; a twice-weekly service on twin-aisle A330 aircraft will operate from the UK's London Heathrow until 25 October, when it will become three-times weekly.

The country's government has confirmed that South Africa will move into COVID-19 alert level one on 21 September, and international travel will resume from 1 October; international travel within Africa will be permitted, however travel outside the continent will depend on the assessed risk of each country. International business travel from countries deemed 'high-risk' may though be allowed with government approval. Effective from October 1, all travellers will be required to present a valid certificate of a negative COVID-19 test obtained a maximum of 72 hours before the date of travel. Travellers who fail to present proof of a negative test will be required to quarantine at their own cost.

The airline has published its latest long haul network schedule for October 2020.

The government of Namibia has said that it will resume international travel from 18 September as it ends a six-month long state of emergency, which came to an end at midnight on 17 September. From 18 September, travelling in and out of areas including the capital of Windhoek, and the surrounding towns of Okahandja and Rehoboth, will also be permitted.

The government of Switzerland has moved South Africa onto its list of countries whose citizens do not need to quarantine for a mandatory 14 days upon arrival. Switzerland's list of countries from which arrivals are required to undergo mandatory quarantine is updated regularly based on a number of factors, including the number of active cases over the past seven days. Switzerland has declared South Africa - along with Ecuador, Faroe Islands, and Guatemala - free from this constraint.

South Africa will enter alert level one as of 00.01 (local time) on 21 September; there will be a gradual easing of restrictions placed on international travel for business and leisure purposes as of 1 October. Travellers will only be permitted to travel to and from Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport, Cape Town International Airport and King Shaka Airport, and a negative COVID-19 test result must be presented on arrival, obtained a maximum of 72 hours prior to departure. Should a COVID-19 test not be presented, passengers will be required to enter mandatory quarantine at their own cost.

Qantas has announced that it will help maintain critical transport links to key regional cities in Australia, following Virgin Australia's decision to exit a number of markets. Subject to state borders re-opening, Qantas will launch a new flight from Brisbane to Port Macquarie, which will operate up to five times per week with the airline's Q400 turboprop aircraft, adding more than 700 seats to the route each week.

The U.S. airline has announced that it will offer two new Indian routes, which will commence flying in the coming months. A daily flight between Chicago and New Delhi will operate from December; a flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru, which will be the first non-stop service between the U.S. and South India, will also operate from Spring 2021.

The national airline of Qatar has confirmed that it will resume flights to Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, from 10 September. The four-times weekly service to Africa’s largest city will be operated by Qatar Airways’ Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft featuring 22 seats in business class and 232 seats in economy. With the addition of Lagos, Qatar Airways’ network in Africa will expand to 10 destinations served by 44 weekly flights.

The U.S. airline has confirmed that it is extending its recent long-term elimination of change fees to include those on flights to Mexico and the Caribbean; previously, United Airlines had planned to cut the fee for domestic U.S. flights only.

The U.S. airline has announced that it will launch summer 2021 services from New York's Newark to Hawaii’s Maui, and from Chicago to Kona on Hawaii’s Big Island. Each flight will operate four times weekly, and are among a combined total of seven new domestic and international services announced by the airline yesterday, 9 September.

The national carrier of Oman has confirmed that it will return to operating scheduled flights to 16 cities in 12 countries from 1 October. The airline will connect Oman's capital Muscat with London, Istanbul, Frankfurt, Cairo, Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi, Dubai, Doha, Dar Es Salaam, Zanzibar, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Lahore and Islamabad, with more destinations to be added soon.

Virgin Australia has announced they are making some adjustments to their domestic Australian network, withdrawing domestic services from Ayers Rock (Uluru), Albury, Tamworth, Hervey Bay, Port Macquarie, Mildura and Cloncurry for the foreseeable future.