US announced another measure to spur the recovery of its aviation sector which was badly hit by the pandemic slowdown, Reuters reported. The programme of the US Transport Department is intended to compensate up to half of wages of eligible aviation manufacturing companies. The support is envisaged to last for up to six months. The funds are estimated at some three billion dollars.

Naional lockdowns across Europe caused a number of serious issues for air carriers. The passengers with previously booked and even paid tickets were obstructed from traveling. The carriers suffered huge losses on top of which they had to offer refunds to customers. As time goes on many authorities have launched actions related to the lack of proper compensations.

UK major Heathrow airport announced changes and restructuring of its activity due to pressure by Covid-19 pandemic, BBC reported. The airport will have a special terminal dedicated to arrivals from countries that are considered to be risky and have a higher level of infections. Travellers arriving on direct flights from red list nations will now transit through existing Terminal 3. Heathrow said its top priority was protecting the public and helping reduce the risk of new variants.

The EU sanctions that followed the forced grounding of the Ryanair airplane in Belarus delivered a heavy blow over the plans of Minsk to upgrade the country’s state airline, Reuters reported. An airplane of the low-cost carrier Ryanair was forced to land last week in Minsk en route to Lithuania. The local police arrested an opposition journalist who was on board of the airplane. The European Union slapped the hijacking and imposed sanctions including a ban for Belarus airplanes to fly over EU territory.

The plane maker Boeing has stopped deliveries of its 787 Dreamliners, Reuters reported. This action will add new delays for customers after the end of recent five-month suspension due to production problems. It appears that Boeing has not resolved all safety concerns according to the US Federal air-safety regulators as more data from the company was requested more information about the plans to address the previously identified quality lapses, official report said.

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Iberia became the latest of a number of airlines to cancel flights to and from Israel amid rising tension of the escalating conflict in the region, Reuters reported. All companies stated that safety of crew and passengers is essential and will not be put on risk. "The safety and security of our colleagues and customers is always our top priority, and we continue to monitor the situation closely," British Airways said after cancelling its flights to and from Tel Aviv.

A French court ruled that Airbus and Air France must face charges, related to the death of 228 people on board of plane that crashed in 2009 during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, AFP reported. Flight AF447 crushed into the Atlantic Ocean during a storm on 1 June, 2009, the deadliest crash in the whole Air France history. Lawyers for Airbus immediately said that they would file an appeal.

With pandemic still dragging back the international transport links, UK biggest Heathrow Airport announced it was piling new losses, amounting at millions of pounds, BBC reported. Heathrow dipped a further £329m into the red in the first three months of the year, bringing total losses since the start of the pandemic to £2.4bn. Just over 1.7 million passengers travelled through the airport during the quarter, down 91% on the period in 2019.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has become yet another automotive producer that was forced to decrease and even stop production activities in its main facilities due to acute global semiconductor chip shortage, BBC reported. The chip shortage affects badly the car production sector as Covid-19 restrictions in most industrial countries have been eased and customer demand surges. However the car production sector has to compete with computer, telecoms and other hi-tech industries for the limited global chip supply.

American Airlines said Thursday that it lost $1.25 billion in the first quarter and continued to slash costs, including delaying delivery of new jets as it waits for air travel to recover from the pandemic.