LONDON - Explosively rising Covid-19 infection rates and a double mutation in India cause Canada and Great Britain to suspend passenger air traffic with the country for the time being. Heathrow Airport rejected airline requests for additional flight shortly before the red list suspension took effect this Friday.

LONDON - Return path to a British license: the UK Civil Aviation Authority has launched a "simplified process" to allow pilots who transferred their licence and medical certificate to an EU member state in preparation for the end of the transition period to get their UK licence back.

MONTREAL - Aviation training specialist CAE said on Friday it will be ready to host mass Covid-19 vaccinations as early as Easter, becoming one of the first major Canadian publicly traded companies to carry out inoculations of workers and the public. Air Canada might also help speed up vaccinations.

LONDON - International travel from England will be banned until May 17 at the earliest, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday, prolonging the pain for airlines, airports and holiday companies. Vaccinated passengers will enjoy travel priviliges once international immigration restrictions are lifted.

LONDON - UK charter and freight airlines face Brexit headaches as EU rivals snap away lucrative business. Permits for ad hoc flights between UK and EU - a standard requirement under post-Brexit regulation - are issued faster by UK authorities than EU counterparts putting UK back-up airlines in disadvantage.

LONDON - Britain is looking at greater testing of all people who have arrived from abroad while they are self-isolating to defend against new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, a minister said. ITV reported that all international arrivals would have to be tested for
COVID-19 on the second and eighth days of their self-isolation.

LONDON - Britain is banning direct passenger flights to and from the United Arab Emirates from Friday, shutting down the world's busiest international airline route from Dubai to London. Connecting traffic to Asia and Australia concentrates on hubs of Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines in Doha and Singapore.

LONDON - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson indicated on Wednesday the Covid-19 lockdown in England would last until March 8 when schools could start to reopen as he said some travellers to Britain would have to quarantine in government-provided hotels. Borders will be closed for 22 countries.

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden will impose a ban on most non-U.S. citizens entering the country who have recently been in South Africa starting Saturday in a bid to contain the spread of a new variant of Covid-19, a senior U.S. public health official told Reuters. The European travel ban is upheld.

BUENOS AIRES - The German airline Lufthansa has asked the Argentine government for permission to overfly its country en route to the Falklands, Argentina said on Thursday, adding that the request implies recognition of Falklands "as part of Argentine territory," the Foreign Ministry said.

LONDON - Britain's airlines, airports and aviation manufacturers pleaded for immediate financial support from the government to "protect companies" and a longer-term recovery plan after the most recent Covid-19 outbreak stopped travel and new testing requirements dashed bounce-back hopes.

WASHINGTON - U.S. President-elect Joe Biden plans to quickly extend travel restrictions barring travel by most people who have recently been in much of Europe and Brazil soon after President Donald Trump lifted those requirements effective Jan. 26, a spokeswoman for Biden said.

MONTREAL - Canada did not extend a ban on flights from Britain after it expired on Wednesday because new measures to fight the coronavirus have made it unnecessary, Transport Minister Marc Garneau told reporters. Passengers still have to produce a recent negative Covid-19 test certificate to fly to Canada.

RIYADH - Breakthrough: Saudi Arabia will reopen its airspace and land and sea border to Qatar as of Monday, Kuwait's foreign minister said in televised comments, citing a deal towards resolving a political dispute that led Riyadh and its allies to impose a boycott on Qatar.

MADRID - Spain and Britain reached a preliminary agreement to keep the Gibraltar border open, just hours before full Brexit. As part of the agreement, Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory located on Spain's southern tip, will remain part of European Union agreements such as the Schengen Area.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government on Wednesday said it would raise tariffs on certain European Union products, including aircraft components and wines from France and Germany, the latest twist in a 16-year battle over aircraft subsidies between Washington and Brussels.

PARIS - Brexit worries - even with a deal: Spain, Ireland and Hungary have tried and failed to loosen EU airline ownership rules in a draft aviation deal with the UK, two people with knowledge of the matter said, out of concern about Brexit's impact on British Airways owner IAG, Ryanair and Wizz Air.

BEIJING - China will suspend direct flights to and from Britain indefinitely over fears of a new strain of the coronavirus, Wang Wenbin, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday. "After much consideration, China has decided to take reference from other countries and suspend flights to and from UK," Wang told reporters.

CHICAGO - The U.S. government does not intend to impose Covid-19 screenings for passengers traveling from Britain after the emergence of a highly infectious new coronavirus variant there, people briefed on the decision said. Canada will apply "advanced measures" on international travellers.

DUBLIN - Ryanair Holdings cancelled 12 international and domestic United Kingdom routes on Monday due to what it called a sudden change of Brexit-related policy by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), a charge the regulator rejected. The spat concerns registration of foreign aircraft for operation within the UK.