YCLOAK

From a seaside perch overlooking the hustle and bustle of ships coming and going at Port Canaveral on Florida’s east coast, Dale Ketcham reflects on decades of history with nostalgia.

 

“I moved here and learned how to walk on Cocoa Beach three years before NASA was created” in 1958, he said.

 

Not only can Ketcham trace his life alongside the U.S. space program, he’s had a firsthand view of the transformation of the economies of communities surrounding NASA’s Kennedy Space Center several times since the 1950s.

 

“The space program continued to progress, but it was always government-focused,” said Ketcham, adding that the configuration did not bring long-term stability to the local workforce.

“For 50 years roughly, Florida’s Space Coast was the place for launch” but not production of spacecraft, said Brian Baluta of the Economic Development Commission (EDC) of Florida’s Space Coast.

 

Most of the equipment used in the Apollo and space shuttle programs in the last half of the 20th century was shipped to Florida for assembly.When Atlantis touched down in 2011 on the final shuttle mission, it marked the end of an era in human spaceflight, with painful economic consequences for the Space Coast.

 

“The job losses started to pile up, and that happened to coincide with the Great Recession,” Baluta said.“And that was really a one-two punch for this area. In 2011, unemployment was 12% at that point. The economy and its outlook (were) not that strong.”

 

Baluta’s organization responded by forging a plan to boost the fortunes of the area’s workforce — permanently.

 

“It started with taking the unusual step of reaching out to the companies who were likely to produce the successor to the space shuttle,” he said.“At the time, it was called the Crew Exploration Vehicle, and there wasn’t a contract for it yet,” he said. “But we reached out to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing — the companies that would likely compete and win for that contract. And we made the unusual pitch of, ‘If you win the contract, not only should you consider launching from Cape Canaveral, but you should consider assembling your spacecraft here.’”

Diversify products 

 

The concept took off.

 

“Just like diversifying a portfolio, if you diversify the area and your products, you can ride through those lows,” said Lockheed Martin’s Kelly DeFazio. Her company won the contract to create NASA’s next-generation spacecraft transporting humans back to the moon.

The Crew Exploration Vehicle, now called Orion, is the crew capsule of the upcoming Artemis missions. Instead of making them elsewhere, some of Orion’s key components are pieced together at Lockheed Martin’s new STAR (Spacecraft, Test, Assembly and Resource) Center near Titusville, Florida, which is the former home of Space Camp and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

“This particular center here was an 18-month, $20 million investment by Lockheed Martin, and that is helping to expand the manufacturing footprint for the Space Coast and allowing us to increase throughput (output) over time to support the lunar mission,” said DeFazio, who is also a longtime resident of Florida’s Space Coast. She now oversees the work at STAR Center, which includes creating wiring harnesses and the application of thermal tiles that will protect the Orion capsule.

Amid all the activity at STAR Center, DeFazio said local excitement is building.

 

“I think that it will start to become very clear with the launch of Artemis 1 that there is a difference,” said DeFazio. “And you know what? We’re going to take humans farther than they have ever gone before.”

 

“When I was growing up with the original seven astronauts, it was really a frontier town,” Ketcham said. That Wild West frontier town description is also how he characterizes the present-day Space Coast, with government contractors and private companies jockeying for real estate and launch access. 

“In many ways, we’re going back. … The workforce is younger, particularly with Space X. They aren’t afraid to fail,” Ketcham said. 

‘The more the merrier’ 

 

Space X, Blue Origin, and the Airbus and One Web partnership are just a few of the growing number of companies now with facilities near the rocket launch pads at Kennedy Space Center, thanks in part to the efforts of the EDC and organizations like Space Florida, where Ketcham now serves as vice president.

 

“We just had an announcement this week that there will be a small launch company called Astra coming here to build small rockets for small satellites, which is a big new component of the space industry,” said Ketcham. “But we’ve also got Firefly, Relativity coming — and others will be coming after that.”

 

The more the merrier said Ketcham, who believes the flurry of activity not only helps the local economy but also keeps the United States competitive globally in what he sees as a new international space race.

China leading the race 

“The Chinese will put more rockets into orbit than we will because the Chinese are competitive, very smart, very capable, very well-resourced and very committed. And they are the major competitors in space,” Ketcham said. 

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson agrees.

 

During a U.S. House of Representatives appropriations hearing conducted remotely last year, he signaled alarm over the recent successes in the Chinese space program, including landing a rover on the surface of Mars, and is concerned that their ambitions are not limited to the red planet.

“They want to send three big landers to the south pole of the moon,” Nelson told members of Congress. “And that’s where the water is. And we are still a year or two away from a much smaller lander going there.”

 

Nelson wants U.S. lawmakers to increase NASA’s funding so the agency can complete the Artemis program, which plans to return humans — including the first woman — to the moon, with Mars as an eventual destination.

 

“I think that’s adding a new element as to whether or not we want to get serious and get a lot of activity going on landing humans back on the surface of the moon,” he said. 

 

 
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The common cold can provide some protection from COVID-19, according to new research led by Imperial College London, which says the findings provide a blueprint for future vaccines that could offer immunity to all variants of the coronavirus. 

Since the start of the pandemic, scientists have questioned why some people are able to resist coronavirus infection despite prolonged exposure, while others are easily infected. The researchers set out to test a theory that a type of white blood cells called T cells, produced by the human body to fight the cold, could offer some protection.

“Previous infection with common cold coronaviruses — these are distantly related cousins of SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19 — infection with those might induce T cells that would be able to cross-recognize and then attack the SARS-CoV-2 virus. That was the theory that we set about to test,” report co-author Ajit Lalvani, chair in infectious diseases at Imperial College London, said in an interview with VOA.

The study began in September 2020 before any mass vaccination programs and before most people had been infected with COVID-19.

Scientists sampled the blood of 52 people who lived in the same household as they would someone infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The sampling took place immediately after the COVID-19 diagnosis was confirmed.

Exactly half of those sampled contracted COVID-19, while the others did not. 

“Those contacts who had preexisting T cells that were induced by common cold coronavirus (and which could) cross-recognize and attack SARS-CoV-2 people with such T cells didn’t get infected,” Lalvani said.

Current COVID-19 vaccines are designed to trigger an immune response that targets the spike proteins on the outside of the coronavirus, which are easily able to mutate and escape immunity.

“In contrast, the T cells we discovered that mediate this protection are directed against proteins in the core of the virus, internal proteins,” Lalvani said. “And these proteins are much less changeable. So essentially, our findings provide the blueprint for producing a universal T cell-inducing vaccine to protect people against current and all future variants of COVID-19.”

Development of such a vaccine remains some way off. Meanwhile, the report’s authors emphasize that no one should rely on a common cold infection to provide immunity against COVID-19. 

“Not least because the coronavirus only causes a proportion of the common cold. Maybe one-fifth or so of common colds are due to coronaviruses, and the remainder due to other types of cold-causing viruses,” Lalvani said. 

“And in any case, whether you’ve had a coronavirus common cold or not — and you’d have no way of knowing — you should still get double-vaccinated and have your booster,” he said. 

 
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U.S adults usually catch one or two common colds a year. They’re usually little more than an annoyance, but new research suggests they may offer some protection from a virus that’s much more dangerous. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have forgotten about that age-old winter sickness: the flu. But it is flu season, and some unlucky people are getting hit with both illnesses. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera – Vazgen Varzhabetian.
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A snowy owl apparently touring iconic buildings of the nation’s capital is captivating birdwatchers who manage to get a glimpse of the rare, resplendent visitor from the Arctic.

Far from its summer breeding grounds in Canada, the snowy owl was first seen on January 3, the day a winter storm dumped eight inches of snow on the city. 

Since then, it’s been spotted in the evenings flying around Washington’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, landing on Union Station, the National Postal Museum, various Senate buildings, and Capitol Police headquarters. 

Late last week about three dozen people in thick coats trained their binoculars on the football-sized bird with bright yellow eyes as it perched on the stone head of Archimedes, a famous ancient Greek mathematician, carved above the train station entrance.

The nocturnal hunter appears to be targeting the city’s plentiful downtown rat population. 

“Snowy owls are coming from a part of the world where they see almost nothing human, from completely treeless open Arctic tundra,” said Scott Weidensaul, a researcher at the nonprofit Project SNOWStorm, which tracks snowy owl movements.

Some owls migrate south out of the Arctic every winter, but the number fluctuates, he said. About every 3 to 5 years, a spike in the population of lemmings, their chief food source, results in a larger number of surviving owl chicks. In those “irruption” years, more birds migrate and migrate farther. 

Most winters, North American snowy owls don’t go much below the Great Lakes or Cape Cod area, Weidensaul said. 

However, “in irruption years, they tend to go farther south than they usually would,” he said. “A lot of the snowy owls we’re seeing now in the East and Upper Midwest are young birds, on their first migration.” 

On eBird, a nonprofit platform used by birdwatchers, snowy owls have been reported this winter in Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina and Maryland.

Since it was first seen, the Capitol Hill owl has attracted a few dozen birdwatchers each night hoping to spot the same owl species that delivers messages to Harry Potter.

The onlookers have included new birdwatchers and those who have been doing it for decades, like the Swiss ambassador to the U.S., Jacques Pitteloud. Many are hoping for a “lifer” — the first time a birdwatcher has seen a particular bird.

Last Thursday, the owl perched on a bronze eagle atop a flagpole. Then it soared, its 5-foot white wingspan silhouetted against the inky night sky, to land on a large stone orb held by carved birds, part of an ornate fountain. 

Pitteloud picked up his camera tripod and ran through the grass to get a better view. When he later posted on Facebook, the 50-year veteran birdwatcher wrote, “The Superstar of Union Station! Snowy owl, a lifer for me in a very, very unlikely setting!” 

Kerry Snyder, who lives in Washington, said she recently became an avid birdwatcher. “I got into birding during the pandemic — it’s a great way to connect with people outdoors, when that’s been the safest place to be.”

She reminded other onlookers not to use flash photography or approach the owl too closely, lest the bird feel startled or threatened — good practices for viewers observing any bird of prey. 

Scientists consider snowy owls to be “vulnerable ” to extinction and estimate the total global population to be less than 30,000 birds. 

Weidensaul said that threats to snowy owls include urban hazards — in particular, vehicle collisions and poisons used to kill prey animals like rats, which can also kill raptors — as well as climate change.

“The climate is changing more dramatically in the Arctic than anywhere else on Earth,” he said, and that may make sightings like this one even rarer. In some parts of the Arctic, thinning ice is already reducing the number of boom years for lemmings.

After decades studying snowy owls, Weidensaul still feels awe: “This is a piece of the Arctic in downtown D.C. — you’re not going to see a polar bear walking in front of the White House.” 
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Starting Saturday, private health insurers will be required to cover as many as eight home COVID-19 tests per month for people on their plans. The Biden administration announced the change Monday as it looks to lower costs and make testing for the virus more convenient amid rising frustrations.

Under the new policy, first detailed to the AP, Americans will be able to either purchase home testing kits for free under their insurance or submit receipts for the tests for reimbursement, up to the monthly per-person limit. A family of four, for instance, could be reimbursed for up to 32 tests per month. PCR tests and rapid tests ordered or administered by a health provider will continue to be fully covered by insurance with no limit. 

President Joe Biden faced criticism over the holiday season for a shortage of at-home rapid tests as Americans traveled to see family amid the surge in cases from the more transmissible omicron variant. Now the administration is working to make COVID-19 home tests more accessible, both by increasing supply and bringing down costs. 

Later this month, the federal government will launch a website to begin making 500 million at-home COVID-19 tests available via mail. The administration also is scaling up emergency rapid-testing sites in areas experiencing the greatest surges in cases. 

The insurer-covered testing would dramatically reduce costs for many Americans, and the administration hopes that by easing a barrier to more regular at-home testing, it can help slow the spread of the virus, get kids back into school more quickly and help people gather safely. 

“This is all part of our overall strategy to ramp up access to easy-to-use, at-home tests at no cost,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “By requiring private health plans to cover people’s at-home tests, we are further expanding Americans’ ability to get tests for free when they need them.” 

Biden announced the federal requirement late last year, and it kicks in on January 15, but the administration had been silent until now on details of the plan. 

The administration is trying to incentivize private insurers to cover the tests up-front and without a cumbersome reimbursement process. Insurance plans that work with pharmacies and retailers to cover the up-front costs of the tests will be required to reimburse only up to $12 per test if purchased through an out-of-network retailer. Plans that don’t move proactively to set up a network of pharmacies would have to cover the full retail price that the customer paid — which could be more than $12 per test. 

There was no immediate reaction from insurers, or details yet on potential insurer and retailer partnerships ahead of Saturday’s effective date. 

Only tests purchased on or after January 15 will be required to be reimbursed, the administration said. Some insurers may choose to cover the costs of at-home tests purchased earlier, but they won’t have to. 

Mina Bressler, a mother of two and a therapist in San Mateo, California, was able to buy rapid test kits online and shared some with a parent who works in the service industry and doesn’t have time to “sit at her computer every hour refreshing the Walmart page to see when tests are in stock.” 

“Just like vaccines becoming available really shone a light on the inequity of what’s going on in this pandemic, I think testing is the new flashlight for that because who’s going online stalking Walmart? It’s not the most vulnerable people in the country,” Bressler said. 

Americans on Medicare won’t be able to get tests reimbursed through the federal insurance plan, but Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program plans are required to cover the cost of at-home tests fully. Those who are not on a covered insurance plan can receive free tests through the forthcoming federal website or from some local community centers and pharmacies.
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Satellite measurements show that 2021 was one of the warmest years on record, with the past seven years being the hottest period recorded globally.

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said Monday that last year was the fifth-warmest year according to records dating back to 1850. It said average global temperatures in 2021 were 1.1 to 1.2 Celsius warmer than in the pre-industrial period from 1850 to 1900. 

The hottest years on record were 2020 and 2016, according to the group. 

C3S, which tracks global temperatures and other climate indicators, also reported that levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere continued to rise last year, hitting new highs. 

The group found that 2021 was Europe’s hottest summer on record. It followed an unusually cold April that wiped out fruit crops in some countries, including France and Hungary. 

Scientists say higher temperatures can cause the air to absorb more moisture and lead to extreme rainfall. Last year saw flooding in several European countries, including Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. 

Countries that signed the 2015 Paris Agreement have pledged to try to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures. Scientists say that would help the world avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

To reach that goal, the world would need to limit emissions by about half of current levels by 2030, according to scientists. However, the C3S said that emissions tracked higher in 2021, with the level of CO2 in the atmosphere reaching 414.3 parts per million, up 2.4ppm from 2020. 

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Despite having the highest number of COVID infections in Africa, nearly two years into the pandemic, fewer than half of South African adults have been vaccinated. The government has been reluctant to order vaccine mandates, but private companies are to encouraging people to get the jab. Linda Givetash reports from Johannesburg.
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India began administering booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines to vulnerable groups on Monday, as infections surge to their highest levels in seven months fueled by the omicron variant and crowded cities like New Delhi and Mumbai reimpose restrictions to battle the third wave of the pandemic.

Health care and frontline workers and senior citizens with comorbidities lined up Monday to get what India is calling a “precautionary shot.”

“We raised the demand for boosters for health care workers and doctors four months ago,” said J.A. Jayalal, who was president of the Indian Medical Association until December.“The government has taken the decision a little late, but at least now they will get some protection. That is necessary to ensure that we have sufficient doctors to take care of patients.”

In recent days, as India’s COVID-19 infection rate climbed steeply, hundreds of doctors and health care workers have contracted the virus according to reports in local media. That has led to warnings of staff shortages in hospitals.

Early studies suggesting that booster shots may provide more protection against the highly transmissible omicron variant have prompted several countries to expand booster programs.

In India, with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, roughly two-thirds of adults have been fully vaccinated while over 90 percent have received one shot. Last week, the inoculation program was also extended to those between 15 and 18 years old.

India’s vaccination program picked up pace after the country was devastated by a deadly second wave last summer. At that time authorities had been strongly criticized for mismanaging the crisis – most people were unprotected when the delta variant tore through the country while acute shortages of oxygen and hospital beds had overwhelmed the health care system.

As numbers surge again, authorities say they are better equipped to fight the third wave of infections — oxygen facilities have been ramped up and hospital beds set aside to cope with a new wave.

Most of the infections are also reported to be milder this time, giving rise to some optimism.

“Rising COVID cases are a matter of concern but there is no need to panic. Very few people are getting hospitalized,” Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Sunday.

In the past week, as numbers have grown exponentially, worst hit cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, are bringing back restrictions – cinema halls, gyms, schools and colleges that opened just months ago have been shut and large events cancelled. Delhi has also imposed a weekend curfew.

However, authorities have announced that they will hold elections to choose local governments starting next month in five states, including the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh.

But the Election Commission has temporarily banned political rallies – it faced strong criticism last year for allowing massive rallies during a regional election even as cases of COVID-19 were spiraling in the country. The rallies had been flagged by public health experts as super spreader events.

On Monday, India reported 179,723 new cases of COVID-19. India is the world’s second worst affected country by the pandemic – it has so far recorded more than 35 million COVID-19 cases and about 484,000 deaths from the virus, although many believe that the toll could be much higher.
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At the start of 2022 most measures show the U.S. economy is booming, with an unemployment rate that is approaching record lows and a demand for goods that has imports from the rest of the world surging.

On Friday, the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate had fallen to 3.9% in December, even as the economy produced a smaller-than-expected increase of 199,000 new jobs. The report came a day after the Commerce Department announced that U.S. imports in November had increased by 4.6% over the previous month to $304.4 billion.

The rising level of imports contributed to a trade deficit of $80.2 billion for the month, which is close to the record high of $81.4 billion set in September. While a large trade deficit is seen as a negative by many, particularly former President Donald Trump, who went to great lengths to close the gap between imports and exports, economists say it points to a U.S. economy that is leading the global recovery from the pandemic-induced recession.

“When we do better than everybody else, we get a bigger trade deficit,” said economist Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

US as economic engine

It’s a popular misconception that a trade deficit is a sign of bad economic times in the United States, Hufbauer told VOA. “Not at all. It’s an indicator of great times in the U.S., relative to other countries. And that’s exactly where we are. We’re doing very well, relative to other countries, so the dollar tends to be stronger, that tends to increase the trade deficit, because demand is greater.”

The benefits of a strong U.S. economy are felt around the world, as other countries find U.S. consumers eager to purchase their goods.

 

China, as usual, was the largest net beneficiary of the U.S. trade deficit, selling U.S. consumers $28.4 billion more than it purchased. The U.S. ran a significant trade deficit with other trade partners as well, including the European Union, at $19.4 billion; Mexico, at $11 billion; Germany, at $6.1 billion; and Canada, at $5.4 billion.

The U.S. runs a trade surplus with only a few partners. The largest is a $4.5 billion surplus with all of Central and South America. The only other surpluses of $1 billion or more are with Hong Kong, at $1.6 billion, and Brazil, at $1.0 billion.

Job growth continues

The monthly jobs report from the Department of Labor, released Friday, told a similar story of an economy that continues to demonstrate a strong recovery from the pandemic recession. The 199,000 figure for the month of December was lower than expected but contributed to an average of about 537,000 jobs per month over all of 2021.

All told, the unemployment rate fell from 6.4% at the beginning of the year to 3.9% in December.

Not all of the decline in unemployment can be attributed to job growth. Millions of American workers dropped out of the labor force, largely as a result of the pandemic. That means that even though the unemployment rate is low, there are still about 3.6 million fewer workers in the U.S. than there were in the months prior to the beginning of the pandemic.

 

“We still have aways to go in terms of absorbing the labor force, and people who’ve left the labor force, as well as population growth, but it’s certainly a positive sign,” said Elise Gould, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.

On a more sobering note, the report revealed that when it comes to employment, the economic recovery has not been evenly distributed. From November to December, the unemployment rate among Black Americans rose from 6.1% to 6.5%. The problem is particularly acute among Black women, who face an unemployment rate of 5.6%, double the rate of white women.

Omicron is wild card

What the most recent economic data cannot yet tell us is the degree to which the surging omicron variant of the coronavirus has had on U.S. employment. The Labor Department uses a “reference week” each month when calculating job numbers, and the reference week in December was unusually early, encompassing Dec. 5-11, before the omicron surge began in earnest.

“Most of it happened in the second half of the month,” Gould told VOA. “So, it’s really not being reflected here at all. On February 4, when the January data comes out, I’m sure we will see a pretty big impact — hopefully a short-lived one — but probably a significant impact on the labor market.” 

 
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International business groups are urging Hong Kong to restart international flights after a ratings group warned the travel restrictions, imposed last week because of COVID-19 outbreaks, could have dire effects on the territory’s economy.

Fitch Ratings said, “A new wave of restrictions on various social activities within Hong Kong and a further tightening of controls on international travel … are likely to dampen economic growth prospects.”

Some Hong Kong executives who traveled out of the territory for the winter holidays found that they could not return to Hong Kong because of the new restrictions that are designed to be in place for at least two weeks but may last longer. Fitch said, “We believe the tightening of restrictions on international arrivals will create further obstacles to the territory’s ability to serve as a regional headquarters” for foreign multinational companies.

The Cyprus Mail reports that a University of Cyprus scientist and his team have discovered a new COVID variant. Dr. Leontios Kostrikis told the publication that deltacron has the genetic background of the delta variant and some of the mutations of omicron.

“The frequency of the mutations was higher among those in hospital which could mean there is a correlation between deltacron and hospitalizations,” Kostrikis told the Mail.

Australia’s New South Wales state reported 16 deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, its deadliest day in the two-year pandemic. The state, Australia’s most populous, already has 200,000 people in isolation, and reported more than 30,000 new cases.

On Sunday, New South Wales Health issued a statement allowing essential workers to return to work if they do not have any symptoms, if their employer says they are needed. They must wear a mask and pass a daily rapid antigen test. Some employers are reporting as many as half their workers are staying home because they have had contact with an infected person.

Victoria, Australia’s second-largest state, reported more than 44,000 new cases and four deaths, Reuters reported. The entire country will surpass 1 million infections sometime Sunday, according to the Australia Broadcasting Corp.

Saturday, more than 100,000 people took to the streets across France to protest proposed new restrictions that will require proof of vaccination to eat out, travel on intercity trains or go to a cultural event. The turnout was four times the government’s estimate of 25,000 protesters who marched on Dec. 18, Agence France-Presse reported.

 

Protesters also marched in several German cities Saturday, demanding a halt to restrictions on those who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus. The main demonstrations occurred in Duesseldorf, Frankfurt and Magdeburg.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Friday that proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test will now be required to enter bars and restaurants in the country. Currently, proof of vaccination is required to enter many public venues.

Protests of government coronavirus restrictions also took place Saturday in Turin, Italy, and Beirut.

Global surge

The United Kingdom’s death toll from COVID-19 since the pandemic began topped 150,000 on Saturday, more deaths than any other European country except Russia. Britain reported a record of 146,390 new cases on Saturday.

“Coronavirus has taken a terrible toll on our country and today the number of deaths recorded has reached 150,000,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement. “Our way out of this pandemic is for everyone to get their booster or their first or second dose if they haven’t yet.”

India’s capital, New Delhi, was shut down Saturday to halt the spread of the coronavirus, after a nearly fourfold nationwide spike in infections in the last week alone. Most shops were closed, but some essential services remained open.

More than 140,000 new cases across the country were reported Saturday, the most since the end of May, the health ministry said. It also reported more than 280 new deaths, for a total of nearly 484,000 since the pandemic began.

The surge in infections in India is fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant as political rallies attended by tens of thousands of people continue to be held by candidates before state elections are held later this year.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 

 

 
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The European Union is under increasing pressure to further ease rules on airport take-off and landing slots to cut the number of “ghost flights” airlines are running to retain them.

Carriers say the requirement for them to use 50% of their slots — down from 80% in pre-pandemic days — or lose them is forcing them to operate empty or half-empty flights.

A sluggish return to air travel, as travelers shrink away from the omicron COVID variant and quickly changing rules for passengers, is dragging out the practice longer than they planned.

Belgium’s Brussels Airlines, for instance, says it will have to operate 3,000 under-capacity flights up to the end of March.

Its parent company Lufthansa warned last month it expected it would have to run 18,000 “pointless flights” over the European winter.

Belgium’s transport minister, Georges Gilkinet, has written to the European Commission urging it to loosen the slot rules, arguing the consequences run counter to the EU’s carbon-neutral ambitions.

The current reduced quotas were introduced in March last year in a nod to the hardship airlines faced as COVID washed over Europe for a second year running, shriveling passenger numbers.

In December, the commission said the 50% threshold would be raised to 64% for this year’s April-to-November summer flight season.

“Despite our urgings for more flexibility at the time, the EU approved a 50%-use rule for every flight schedule/frequency held for the winter. This has clearly been unrealistic in the EU this winter against the backdrop of the current crisis,” a spokesperson for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) told AFP.

He said the commission needed to show more “flexibility … given the significant drop in passengers and impact of omicron numbers on crewing planned schedules.”

But a commission spokesperson on Wednesday said the EU executive believed “the overall reduced consumer demand… is already reflected in a much-reduced rate of 50% compared to the usual 80%-use rate rule.”

The spokesperson, Daniel Ferrie, said: “The Commission expects that operated flights follow consumer demand and offer much needed continued air connectivity to citizens.” 

 
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