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Virgin Atlantic has today announced that they have agreed to a private £1.2bn recapitalisation deal which will allow the airline to secure its future post-COVID-19. By 2022 the airline plans to fly the same number of flights as they did in 2019, albeit from smaller operating bases at the UK's London Heathrow and Manchester Airports; this follows the suspension of operations at London Gatwick Airport for the forseeable future.

The country will introduce new measures from 13 July, including the re-introduction of a ban on alcohol sales, to help contain the spread of COVD-19 and take pressure away from its health system. A night-time curfew will also be in place, and the wearing of face masks outdoors is now mandatory.

Kuwait's government has announced in a statement on Twitter that it advises its citizens and residents against travelling overseas at the moment due to the instability of the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, last month Kuwait’s communications office said that commercial flights at Kuwait International Airport will resume from 1 August.

The Dubai-based airline have announced that they will shortly resume flights to a further six cities: Geneva, Los Angeles, Dar es Salaam, Prague, Sao Paulo and Boston. This will take the airline’s network to 58 cities by mid-August, including 20 destinations in Europe and 24 destinations in the Asia-Pacific region.

The airline has published their summer flight schedule for this year through to the end of October, when their capacity will double from 20% to around 40% of normal levels, with flights to over 60 destinations. They are also set to increase capacity on most routes from September.

The South African hotel brand has announced the re-opening of select hotels following the country's move to COVID-19 alert level three; they've also opened all booking channels for their hotels into 2021. Re-opening in a phased approach, hotels will operate with selected services and new 'Premier CleanCheck' protocols in place.

Air New Zealand advises that following a request from the country's government, a hold has been placed on all new bookings for international flights into New Zealand - this is effective immediately until at least 26 July. The measure has been put in place in order to ease pressure on quarantine facilities.

Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad has published details surrounding the collection of COVID-19 PCR test charges for all passengers travelling from the UAE to Beirut, Lebanon; since 1 July, negative PCR test results have been required by Lebanon either before and/or after departure depending on whether testing facilities are available in the passengers' country of origin. Etihad will bear part of the costs payable for arriving testing, but will also add an additional US$50 fee as a tax charge to new and existing tickets.

Following the re-opening of Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport on 1 July, passengers arriving in the airport are required to comply with testing and self-isolation measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Depending on the availability of PCR testing in the passengers' country of origin, they will be required to either present a negative result prior to travel and/or complete a testing procedure on arrival in Lebanon; all testing undergone on arrival will be chargeable, but in some cases the fees will be covered by airlines at their discretion.

The Indian low-cost airline SpiceJet is currently operating 25 flights under India's national repatriation drive, known as the Vande Bharat Mission (VBM). The airline will help bring back close to 4500 Indians stranded in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman under the initiative. SpiceJet has so far operated six of the scheduled special flights, bringing back over a thousand Indian nationals; it will operate another 19 flights this month from Ras Al-Khaimah, Jeddah, Dammam, Riyadh and Muscat.

Dubai-based airline Emirates has now resumed passenger flights to and from Pakistan, after a temporary suspension of eight days finishing on 1 July; all passengers arriving in Dubai from Pakistan must, though, carry a negative COVID-19 test result from a branch of Chunghtai Labs, an approved laboratory which will share the results directly with the airline. Branches of the laboratory can be found within all big cities in Pakistan, and passengers must take along their passport and confirmed booking within 96 hours of their departing flight.

Passengers flying with Qatar Airways are now required to wear a face shield throughout their flight, in addition to a face mask or covering. Face shields will be available at check-in at Doha's Hamad International Airport, where the airline is based. If passengers are travelling on Qatar Airways flights from other destinations, face shields will be distributed at the boarding gate.

The airline has announced that it will resume flying to more destinations across its network throughout July 2020. Across the UK and Europe, the airline will return to more short haul destinations by the end of July including Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey. Domestic flights will resume between London and Belfast, Inverness, Jersey, Manchester, Newcastle and Newquay and the airline will move to double daily services to Edinburgh and Glasgow. Long-haul services set to resume include flights to a number of U.S. cities, the Caribbean, Toronto and Tokyo.

Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, a joint venture between Etihad and Air Arabia, is Abu Dhabi's first low-cost airline and will take to the skies from 14 July. It will begin operations with direct flights connecting Abu Dhabi with Alexandria and Sohag in Egypt. The inaugural flight will take off from Abu Dhabi to Alexandria on 14 July followed by flights to Sohag the next day.

American Airlines will move its London Heathrow operations into the airport’s Terminal 5 on 7 July, where joint venture partner British Airways is based. The move will facilitate smoother connections between the four daily Heathrow flights American Airlines is currently flying and British Airways’ domestic, European and global networks.

The South African regional airline has published updated information on everything that passengers need to know in order to travel domestically, including: social distancing at the airport, airport access, drop-off, pick-up and parking; thermal screening, boarding procedures, hygiene on shuttle buses and procedures on board the plane.

Airlines within the Lufthansa Group have published their summer flight schedule from July through to October 2020, when they will return to over 90% of short and medium haul destinations and 70% of long haul destinations compared to the same periods last year. Included within the list of destinations to which flights will resume are Indian cities New Delhi and Mumbai.

Airlink have announced that it will expand its flights on domestic South African routes to other inland and coastal cities from 6 July. Among the additional services are flights to Bloemfontein, Nelspruit, Upington and Pietermaritzburg.

The country resumed international flights and re-opened major tourist attractions including the Great Pyramids of Giza on 1 July after over three months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic; on the first day of re-opening, 16 flights took off from Cairo International Airport.

Air New Zealand has announced that due to Australian government restrictions, the airline will not operate passenger flights from Auckland to Melbourne from 1-14 July. This follows the news that all flights into Melbourne are due to diverted or suspended during this period, due to a spike in COVID-19 cases within the city.