DUBLIN - The aircraft leasing industry is on the brink of its biggest shake-up in almost a decade as top two players AerCap and General Electric's GECAS discuss a deal to forge an industry titan with over 2,000 jets, financial sources said on Monday.

BANGKOK - Thailand will from next month reduce its mandatory quarantine from 14 to seven days for foreigners arriving in the country who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, its Health Minister said on Monday.

ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopian Airlines is set to take a lead role in ferrying COVID-19 vaccines around the world and expects demand for the service to last for up to three years, its head of cargo services said on Sunday.

MANCHESTER - Aer Lingus has received tentative US DoT approval for nonstop flights to the United States out of Manchester.

BRUSSELS -  European airlines renewed a push to relax refund rules as EU auditors started separate probes into air passenger rights and whether they were being respected. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic a year ago, carriers sought to suspend EU rules requiring refunds for cancellations.

WASHINGTON - A United Airlines Boeing 777 plane with a Pratt & Whitney engine that failed on Feb. 20 had flown fewer than half the flights allowed by U.S. regulators between fan blade inspections.

ROME - Rome and Brussels will start talks next week to iron out technical details for the revamp of ailing carrier Alitalia, three Italian ministers said after what they referred to as a "positive and constructive" first meeting between the two sides on Friday. The new airline might restart soon after.

PARIS - The disappearance of billions of dollars worth of orders from troubled budget carrier Norwegian Air has left Europe's Airbus with more cancellations than orders so far this year, company data showed on Friday.

NEW YORK - American Airlines said on Friday that a Boeing 737 MAX bound for New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport declared an emergency after the captain shut down one engine over a possible mechanical issue. American's Flight 2555 from Miami with 95 passengers and six crew landed safely at Newark without incident.

PALMA - Eurowings will offer flights from Birmingham and Manchester to Majorca this summer as vaccination progress lures the Lufthansa airline into the British market.

LONDON - Almost four months of public consultation regarding proposed changes to arrival routes into London Luton Airport have now ended. New flight paths will "simplify and modernise" approaches into Luton and segregate arriving inbound traffic from Standsted corridors, the airport said.

LONDON - Britain and the United States on Thursday agreed a four-month suspension of retaliatory tariffs imposed on goods like Scotch whisky over a long running aircraft subsidy row, saying they would use the time to resolve the dispute.

LONDON - British Airways has struck a deal with a COVID-19 testing kit provider as airlines prepare for the desperately-needed restart of summer travel, which is likely to include tests for passengers. After months of lockdown, airlines hope Britain will give the go-ahead from mid-May for holidays to restart.

BOCA CHICA - The third time appeared to be the charm for Elon Musk's Starship rocket - until it wasn't. The latest heavy-duty launch vehicle prototype from SpaceX soared flawlessly into the sky in a high-altitude test blast-off on Wednesday from Boca Chica, Texas, landed upright - and blew up.

LONDON - The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) has is "absolutely dismayed" by the fact "that aviation was ignored in the Budget announcement" of the Government.

LISBON - Portugal's aviation regulator this week refused to evaluate a plan to build a new airport in Lisbon, in the latest setback for one of the country's largest infrastructure projects, but the government said it would push for a solution to keep the airport project alive.

FRANKFURT - Lufthansa may permanently ground more planes to emerge leaner from the coronavirus pandemic, the German airline group said on Thursday as it posted record losses for 2020. The group, which includes the Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Eurowings brands, trimmed its 2021 capacity plans.

LONDON - Britain's aviation minister said that restarting travel after Covid-19 lockdowns needs to be done by countries working together and that the government hoped holidays would be allowed as soon as possible after May 17.

LONDON - Road to recovery: Ryanair hopes to fly up to 70 percent of 2019 passenger numbers this summer, thanks to Covid-19 vaccines and more coronavirus testing, provided travellers who have been vaccinated or had negative tests are made exempt from quarantine rules.

PARIS - Boeing  has raised concerns over the design of arch-rival Airbus' newest narrow-body jet, the A321XLR, saying a novel type of fuel tank could pose fire risks. According to industry sources, certification delays over fuel tank safety could push the EIS of the new longrange Airbus from 2023 to 2024.

PALM COAST - The pandemic has reshaped the global travel landscape and U.S. no-frills carriers are pouncing. As legacy airlines shrink to contain costs, budget carriers Spirit Airlines, Allegiant Travel and privately-owned Frontier Airlines are resuming pilot hiring and expanding networks to seize turf dominated by larger rivals.

JERUSALEM - Israelis returning home from abroad have a new option that will exempt them from being sent to a quarantine hotel: They can wear a bracelet monitor that will notify authorities should they violate a mandatory isolation period.

LONDON - Passenger numbers at Wizz Air plunged 87% in February compared to the same month last year, as the pandemic's impact on travel worsened again.

LONDON - The UK will allow global flights by May 17 again as PM Boris Johnson is eager to open the country. The London - Dubai route - at one point the most vibrant passenger service during the pandemic - might take months to recover its traffic as travel restrictions continue to curb demand.

DUBAI - State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) plans to order 70 airliners from Airbus and Boeing, Saudi news outlet Maaal reported on Monday, citing unidentified sources.

MILAN - Italy's new government must act quickly to break the deadlock over the revamp of Alitalia, the trade union representing the airline's pilots and flight attendants said ahead of state talks with the European Union.

LONDON - The UK Civil Aviation Authority approved new passengers service fees that will help Heathrow airport to cope with the financial consequences of the Covid-19 drop in traffic. This includes a new "airport cost recovery charge" of 8.90 pounds on each departing passenger levied through the remainder of 2021.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said late on Saturday it has approved the use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine for use by pilots and air traffic controllers.

LONDON - British Airways-owner IAG is counting on digital health passes to help "unlock the market" and spur a travel recovery this summer, after the pandemic pushed the airline group to a record 7.4 billion euro ($9 billion) loss last year, when it ran just a third of normal flights.

OSLO - Norwegian Air has cancelled all the 88 narrow-body jets that remained on order from Airbus, a Norwegian Air spokesman said on Friday.

PARIS - European planemaker Airbus on Friday joined a growing list of companies outlining the environmental impact of their products, as aviation aims to reshape itself after the coronavirus crisis. Airbus says it is the first planemaker to do so. Aviation produces 2.5% of human-induced CO2 emissions and 12% of CO2 from transport, the industry says.

KUALA LUMPUR - AirAsia X's net loss widened by 82% in the fourth quarter, it said in a stock exchange filing on Friday, for a seventh straight quarterly loss as operations remain grounded because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MONTREAL – The 36-State governing body of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the ICAO Council, has appointed Juan Carlos Salazar as the new Secretary General of the Organization.

SYDNEY - Australia's competition regulator proposed to re-authorise a joint venture between Qantas Airways Ltd and American Airlines Group Inc on Friday, extending it for another five years.

OSLO - Norwegian Air said on Friday its examinership process in Ireland and reconstruction process in Norway were progressing as planned and were expected to end during the second quarter.

LONDON - British Airways-owner IAG plunged to a record 7.43 billion euro loss last year as pandemic travel paralysis saw it burn through cash, and it warned on Friday it could not say when normal flying conditions would return. The airline group claims it will sustain the crisis without any additional funding.

MOSCOW - A Rossiya Airlines Boeing 777 cargo plane made an emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Friday due to a problem with an engine control sensor, said airline said.

DUBLIN - Irish airline Aer Lingus said on Thursday that it has appointed Lynne Embleton, the head of its parent company’s cargo unit, as its new chief executive.

HOUSTON - United Airlines had planned a big increase in flights on its Boeing 777-200 planes next month, suggesting the grounding of the Pratt & Whitney-powered jets could create some scheduling headaches for the airline.

WASHINGTON - Boeing will pay $6.6 million to U.S. regulators as part of a settlement over quality and safety-oversight lapses going back years, a setback that comes as Boeing wrestles with repairs to flawed 787 Dreamliner jets that could dwarf the cost of the federal penalty and last several years.

DUBLIN - Boeing is not engaging with Norwegian Air’s restructuring proceedings in Ireland or Norway, a lawyer for Norwegian said on Wednesday, a decision that may complicate the airline’s efforts to recover from the brink of collapse. The airline struck a deal with Airbus to cancel orders for 88 aircraft.

FRANKFURT - Lufthansa is adding more holiday destinations to its summer flight schedule from Germany in anticipation of a strong rebound in bookings, it said on Thursday, betting vaccines and testing will soon make vacation travel possible.

LONDON - The chief executive of British defence company BAE Systems said the outlook for the Eurofighter Typhoon military jet was the best it had been since he took on the tob job in 2017.

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia Group has postponed its fourth-quarter earnings release by about a month, just as its shuttered Japan unit commences bankruptcy proceedings.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Transportation Department's inspector general faulted "weaknesses" in U.S. government certification of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that was grounded for 20 months after two crashes killed 346 people, according to a report released Wednesday.

LONDON - Global airline industry body IATA warned that the outlook for airlines had weakened since its December forecasts, and due to tightening travel restrictions it now expected the sector to still be bleeding cash by the fourth quarter of this year.

BANGKOK - Thai authorities are preparing a plan to ease restrictions for travellers vaccinated against the coronavirus, senior officials said, as the country looks to revive a tourism industry battered by travel curbs.

BERLIN - German braking systems maker Knorr-Bremse said its majority shareholder Heinz Hermann Thiele, who shaped the company since buying it from his then-employer in 1985, has died unexpectedly at the age of 79.

CHICAGO - United Airlines has warned of possible disruptions to its cargo flight schedule in March as it juggles its fleet after its decision to ground 24 Boeing 777-200 aircraft, according to a notice sent to cargo customers.

LONDON - Heathrow Airport plunged to a 2 billion pound annual loss after passenger numbers collapsed to levels last seen in the 1970s during the pandemic. Heathrow called on the government to agree a common international travel standard to allow travel to restart in the summer and to provide tax breaks for airports.