‘It’s Safe to Fly’ according to Flight Safety Foundation, Lufthansa launch online bag-tracing service & Malaysia Airlines to fold unless concessions are met

Flight Safety Foundation Says ‘It’s Safe to Fly’

After six months of data collection and research, the Flight Safety Foundation have announced that it is officially ‘safe to fly’.

Earlier this month, the foundation made a statement declaring that airports and aircraft are, contrary to popular opinion, very safe in the pandemic climate. Due to the increased hygiene and safety standards implemented in airports and aircraft across the globe, the risk of viral transmission has been greatly reduced.

“The latest evidence shows that aircraft and airports have very low levels of transmission,” said Dr. Hassan Shahidi, President and CEO of the Foundation.

“With the health and safety measures that airlines, airports and security personnel have now put in place, the risk of contracting this virus appears extraordinarily low, much lower than in other public places”

“Given these extraordinary measures, the traveling public should have increased confidence that it’s safe to fly.”

The Foundation analysed data from public health authorities, medical consultants and relevant authorities and industry bodies to ascertain the extent of Covid’s impact on the aviation industry. After finding very little evidence of transmission of the COVID-19 virus on flights or within airports, the conclusion was that the array of safety measures put in place are responsible.

Measures including high levels of hygiene, increased cleaning, social distancing, mask wearing and even in some instances cabin design have all contributed to the high levels of airport and aircraft safety found in the survey.

Based on the findings, the Foundation is hopeful that governments and authorities worldwide will begin to restore passenger confidence, opening borders and encouraging residents to safely travel again.

Capt. Conor Nolan, chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Governors, says governments need to “replace haphazard, restrictive international travel bans and blanket quarantines with better, smarter measures that are more uniform and focused on preventing spread of the virus through reliable testing”.

“Governments and industry need to coalesce around universally accepted testing standards to identify and prevent the spread of the virus until we get a vaccine.”

Industry bodies around the world have been appealing to authorities and governments to establish a unified testing system and global travel requirements in order to re-start the industry, which has already lost countless jobs and billions of dollars.

Lufthansa launches contactless bag tracing service

Here’s something positive for 2020 – fingers crossed all airlines pick this one up!

Lufthansa have recently launched a new service, allowing passengers to report lost or delayed baggage directly from their smart phone, allowing them to avoid the long queues and hassles of the baggage counter.

The ‘WorldTracer Self Service’ has been developed by SITA, and allows passengers to file a missing bag report in only a few minutes. Flight, baggage and passenger contact details are all submitted as part of the report, and passengers can then track their bags at every step, from when it is recovered to when it is due to be delivered.

“Fortunately, delayed bags are very rare. But in case this happens, we want to provide a comfortable and easy recovery experience – without waiting at the belt, queueing at the Lost & Found counter or calling the baggage hotline to trace the bag. We are proud that, with this new digital solution, we can provide this improved experience to our passengers.” Stefan Kapactsis, Director Digital Ground Services at Lufthansa Group.

The system has first been trialled at Munich airport, and following its success it will now be rolled out to Frankfurt airport, before being launched globally over the next few months.

The WorldTracer system is also going to be extended to SWISS and Austrian airline services.

Lost bags can be an expensive business – recent figures from SITA show that, although on the decline due to new technology, there were still over 25 million lost bags in 2019, costing the industry around $2.5 billion.

The WorldTracer system claims to save airlines $10 for every mis-handled bag as it streamlines the process of reporting lost baggage.

Malaysia Airlines May Fold If Lessors Don’t Accept Restructuring

Less positive news for the industry – there are now strong indications that the Malaysian Government are unlikely to provide any further assistance to the flailing Malaysia Airlines, unless the plane lessors accept concessions.

The assistance, which comes through the state fund Khazanah, may be re-routed to go through to the FireFly subsidiary. It is not clear what specific conditions or concessions the airline needs to adhere to in order to receive government assistance.

This isn’t the first time the airline has faced problems – Malaysia Airlines have already been rebooted once in the mid 2010’s, and after several incidents (including the infamous missing MH370 flight) there was concerns even prior to the COVID-19 disaster.

According to paperwork leaked to Reuters, the state fund Khazanah will force the airline into a ‘winding down’ process if restructuring talks are unsuccessful.

The funds will be redirected to FireFly (who currently fly tertiary routes), who would then acquire jets and fly domestically before acquiring widebody aircraft for regional and long-haul routes.

The pressure raises the stakes in already tense negotiations for a financial shake-up known as ‘Plan A’.