Scrambling to Escape COVID-19 on Private Jets

Small Caribbean countries are taking extreme measures to halt international travel in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. Those accustomed to private jet travel are used to demanding what they want and getting it. As a result, private jet flights escaping from and running to resort countries, such as those in the Caribbean, are currently in high demand—and they do not always occur under the most unlawful of circumstances. 


The most wealthy among us are trying to get around flight bans with private jet flights as they are desperate to get into or home from Caribbean countries, many of which have partial or full international travel bans. Those with complete bans include Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. Partial international travel bans are in effect for Belize, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbados, Saint Lucia, Grenada, and Venezuela. These countries are home to many affluent expatriates. The money some of them spend on private jet flights is staggering.

One round trip to Europe in a Gulfstream 550 jet from the United States with five passengers can easily cost …Read more here:

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32675/the-rich-are-scrambling-to-escape-covid-19-on-private-jets

AVIATION NEWS MARCH 2020

It's hard to comprehend and keep up with the cancellations, lay-offs and the dire situation the aviation community is in - worldwide... here is only a handful of these:

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Canada
More than 5,100 Air Canada flight attendants to be laid off amid massive COVID-19 slowdown. About half of flight attendants for the main airline and Air Canada Rouge will be affected. WestJet and Porter are in the same boat.
https://lnkd.in/g_dQWpC
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United Airlines To Reduce Capacity by 50% and to Cut Jobs
Even with this reduced schedule, the airline expects a load factor of only
20 – 30% over the next two months.
https://simpleflying.com/united-airlines-job-and-capacity-cuts/

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South West Airlines
The FAA has launched an investigation to uncover the cause of a crack that developed in the fuselage of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 mid-flight on Monday. The crack has led to a gradual loss of cabin pressure and forced the pilots to make an emergency descent.
https://simpleflying.com/southwest-737-skin-crack/

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Coronavirus: China airline passenger numbers fall 84.5%
The global airline industry is facing a massive downturn in passenger numbers due to travel restrictions. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said it will provide subsidies to Chinese airlines and give additional funding for international flights. Take-off and landing charges are also being reduced to help carriers cut costs during the downturn
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51813483

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No-Show Rates at Airlines
Last-minute airfares drop as coronavirus count rises
https://lnkd.in/grZu5DJ

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Bell’s New Helicopter It May Look Strange, But It Could Reduce Accidents And Noise - Made in Mirabel, Quebec. The four small electric fans in the back are a dramatic change from the way a traditional tail rotor works.
https://www.fliegerfaust.com/bell-helicopter-2645326212.html

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Coronavirus: Delta Air Lines will park up to 300 aircraft. Cancellations are rising dramatically with net bookings now negative for travel over the next four weeks.
https://aeronewsglobal.com/coronavirus-delta-air-lines-will-park-up-to-300-aircraft/

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VIDEO  A message from Frecce Tricolori:  Stay strong, Italy!
The wife of Cesc Fabregas has shared on Twitter an emotional video of Frecce Tricolori passing overhead as Luciano Pavarotti’s “Nessun Dorma” can be heard in the background, especially the part “We are going to win”.
https://aeronewsglobal.com/video-a-message-from-frecce-tricolori-stay-strong-italy/

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John C. Tune Airport
Nashville International's sister airport in West Nashville, "sustained significant damage due to severe weather. (WTVF via NNS). Tornado Damage Includes Destroyed Airport, Collapsed Homes As Death Toll Climbs. As daylight broke across the greater Nashville area Tuesday, the devastation from a tornado that tore through parts of the city under the cover of darkness was revealed. At an airport, small jets were tossed. Power lines were down. Dozens of buildings had collapsed.
https://www.fliegerfaust.com/nashville-tornado--2645375593.html

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Our airline's well-being has become grave overnight:
WestJet attendants expect mass layoffs due to COVID-19
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/westjet-flight-attendants-layoffs-covid-19-1.5497037

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Saudi Arabia Suspends All International Flights
In a drastic move, Saudi Arabia has decided to suspend all international flights for two weeks. The move comes as the country has seen a steady rise in coronavirus cases in the last few weeks. The new rule will came into effect on Sunday, March 15
https://simpleflying.com/saudi-arabia-suspends-flights/

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Slots
The European Union is suspending a rule that forces airlines to run most of their scheduled services even if there is no demand for them.  Up to now, EU law required airlines to fill at least 80% of their landing slots at airports – or risk losing them.  With demand for flights flat-lining due to the coronavirus outbreak, the rule saw some airlines flying almost-empty planes around the continent.
https://www.newstalk.com/news/coronavirus-eu-ghost-flights-980529

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John C. Tune Airport
Nashville International's sister airport in West Nashville, "sustained significant damage due to severe weather. (WTVF via NNS). Tornado Damage Includes Destroyed Airport, Collapsed Homes As Death Toll Climbs. As daylight broke across the greater Nashville area Tuesday, the devastation from a tornado that tore through parts of the city under the cover of darkness was revealed. At an airport, small jets were tossed. Power lines were down. Dozens of buildings had collapsed.
https://www.fliegerfaust.com/nashville-tornado--2645375593.html

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WestJet attendants expect mass layoffs due to COVID-19
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/westjet-flight-attendants-layoffs-covid-19-1.5497037

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Saudi Arabia Suspends All International Flights
In a drastic move, Saudi Arabia has decided to suspend all international flights for two weeks. The move comes as the country has seen a steady rise in coronavirus cases in the last few weeks. The new rule will come into effect on Sunday, March 15
https://simpleflying.com/saudi-arabia-suspends-flights/

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UK & Ireland Added To US Travel Ban By Trump - starting March 16
In a surprising reversal, the US has opted to add the UK and Ireland to its travel ban from Europe. The original ban, announced Wednesday, excluded the two countries based on their assumed containment of the virus.
https://simpleflying.com/us-travel-ban-uk-ireland/

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Flybe
British airline Flybe ceased operations on 4 March with the final flight touching down shortly before midnight. After receiving special tax dispensation and an injection of shareholder cash in January, the airline warned of fresh financial difficulties this week and was seeking a £100 million loan from the United Kingdom government. Flybe operated service at airports throughout the UK and western Europe and carried a significant amount of the UK’s domestic passenger traffic.
https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/flybe-ceases-operations-enters-administration/

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Private Jet Boom
Coronavirus triggers boom in private jet inquiries
Private jet operators have seen a big spike in requests from passengers wanting to charter their own planes during the coronavirus outbreak.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51527042

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Coronavirus Outbreak to Cost Airlines More Than $30bn
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts demand for air travel will fall for the first time in more than a decade. Airlines in China and other parts of the Asia Pacific region are expected to take the vast majority of the impact.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51499779#

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Citing Climate Commitments
U.K. Court Blocks New Runway At Heathrow Airport.
In its judgment Thursday, the three-justice panel concluded that the plans failed to satisfy the government's stated commitments on combating climate change.
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/27/809936006/citing-climate-commitments-u-k-court-blocks-new-runway-at-heathrow-airport

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Air New Zealand
They sell an unusual economy seat that can turn into a couch. Here's why they are a bit disappointing, but still worth it.
https://www.businessinsider.com/air-new-zealand-economy-skycouch-review-2019-4

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Iran 
Stops Flights to Europe as Coronavirus Death Toll Climbs
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2169211/iran-stops-flights-europe-coronavirus-death-toll-climbs

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More News:

• Water-Bomber
• The first CL-415 EAF is scheduled to be delivered to an unnamed launch customer in the first quarter of 2020. Calgary-based Viking Air has moved within months of inducting the first of 11 CL-415 Enhanced Aerial Firefighter (EAF) airframes into modification.
• Norwegian Air Shuttle will cancel 3,000 departures between mid-March and June, as well as lay off staff on a temporary basis. The cancellations amount to 15 percent of its overall capacity.
• United will cut domestic flights by 10 percent and international flights by 20 percent next month with executives reportedly planning “similar reductions” in May.
• Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly is taking a 10 percent pay cut.
• Delta will park planes and cut international capacity by up to 25 percent, and domestic capacity by 15 percent. It will also defer $500 million in capital expenditures.
• Alaska Airlines is reportedly eyeing capacity cuts of 3 percent in May but will hold firm during March and April.
• Virgin Atlantic has retired its three last Airbus A340 jets, effective 9 March.
• Ryanair has canceled all flights to Italy until 8 April.
• All this news comes a day after Australian flagship Qantas announced dramatic cutbacks to its schedule.

https://thewofa.com/2020/03/airline-cuts-latest-american-united-and-norwegian-scale-back/

Bessie Coleman, an Aviatrix That History Forgot

Bessie Coleman wanted more out of life. Her parents were sharecroppers in rural Texas, and she had spent her childhood picking cotton and doing laundry for white people. It was 1915. Opportunities were scarce for African Americans—let alone women of color.

If Coleman wanted more, she realized, she had to go north. She moved to Chicago as part of the Great Migration and took a job at a barbershop. In her free time, Coleman began to read about flying.


She read about Harriet Quimby, the first American woman to earn a pilot’s license. She learned of the European women who served as combat pilots during World War I. Inspired by their stories, Coleman resolved to become an aviator. She applied to every flying school in the United States, but, because of widespread race and gender discrimination, she was rejected from all of them.


Coleman refused to take no for an answer. She found sponsorship from the black-owned newspaper ‘The Chicago Defender’, taught herself French, and moved to France. She earned her license from France's lauded Caudron Brother's School of Aviation in just seven months. specializing in stunt flying and parachuting. In 1921, Coleman became the first black woman to earn a pilot's license.


A PBS film, part of a larger series about pioneering American women called Unladylike2020, illuminates Coleman’s achievements through interviews and colorful animation.


“Like many Americans, the only woman pilot I had ever heard of was Amelia Earhart,” Charlotte Mangin, who produced the film, told me. “I certainly never imagined that a woman of color was able to obtain a pilot’s license in the 1920s, let alone take the country by storm as an aviator.”


What surprised Mangin most about Coleman, however, was the spirit of activism that the pilot brought to her flying shows. “She refused to perform in air shows where African Americans were not allowed to use the front entrance and sit in the stadium with white spectators,” Mangin said. “I can only imagine the courage and determination it took to be an activist in this way, at a time when discrimination and violence against people of color were rampant across America.”

At age 34, Coleman’s life was cut short in a plane crash caused by an engine malfunction. In 1929, Coleman’s dream of opening a flying school for African Americans became a reality when William J. Powell established the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in Los Angeles. The school educated and inspired many outstanding black pilots, including the Five Blackbirds and the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II.

Today, only 7 percent of all pilots in the U.S. are women - 

and less than 1 percent are black women.

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