Cha-Changi!
"Airlines, workplaces, and sports stadiums may soon require people to show their coronavirus vaccination status on their smartphones before they can enter. A coalition of leading technology companies, health organizations, and nonprofits — including Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, Cerner, Epic Systems, and the Mayo Clinic — said on Thursday that they were developing technology standards to enable people to obtain and share their immunization records through health passport apps. “For some period of time, most all of us are going to have to demonstrate either negative COVID-19 testing or an up-to-date vaccination status to go about the normal routines of our lives,” said Dr. Brad Perkins, the chief medical officer at the Commons Project Foundation, a nonprofit in Geneva that is a member of the vaccine credential initiative. That will happen, Perkins added, “whether it’s getting on an airplane and going to a different country, whether it’s going to work, to school, to the grocery store, to live concerts or sporting events.” Vaccine passport apps could fill a significant need for airlines, employers, and other businesses. In the United States, the federal government has developed paper cards that remind people who receive coronavirus vaccinations of their vaccine manufacturer, batch number, and date of inoculation, but there is no federal system that people can use to get easy access to their immunization records online and establish their vaccination status for work or travel. A few airlines, including United Airlines and JetBlue, are trying Common Pass, a health passport app from the Commons Project. The app enables passengers to retrieve their virus test results from their health providers and then gives them a confirmation code that allows them to board certain international flights. The vaccination credentialing system would work similarly. The US vaccination program has been stymied by logistical hurdles as states scramble to set up new systems for booking appointments. Demand is high, but the rollout has been progressing far more slowly than hoped, marred by crashing servers, busy signals and confusion. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that about 10.3 million people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, far short of the goal federal officials set to give at least 20 million people their first shots before the end of 2020. At least 541,000 people in the United States have been fully vaccinated as of Jan. 12, according to a New York Times survey of all 50 states."
That came as the virus surged across the US and Mar-a-Lago got a mask warning.
I'm told demand is high, and yet many front-line workers at hospitals and nursing homes are balking at being inoculated against the coronavirus after being scarred by a history of being mistreated(?).
Anyway, (sigh) the TSA, as well as airports and airlines, have adopted measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus, including requiring people to wear masks and practice social distancing despite a Defense Department study of the risk of catching the coronavirus on a packed commercial flight concluded that a person would have to be sitting next to an infectious passenger for at least 54 hours to receive a dangerous dose of the virus through the air.
That means there IS NO NEED for SOCIAL DISTANCING ANYWHERE, folks!
Now that freedom has been grounded, the airline executives are finally starting to take wing:
"Leaders of several major U.S. airlines met online Friday with White House officials to press their case against requiring coronavirus tests for passengers on domestic flights, saying it would undermine the already fragile industry. A person familiar with the discussions said the airline CEOs talked with White House coronavirus-response coordinator Jeff Zients, according to the person, who spoke anonymously to discuss a private meeting. The CEOs of American, United, Southwest, Alaska and JetBlue all took part in the meeting, according to industry officials. The meeting was arranged after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that a testing requirement before domestic flights was under consideration. Airlines reacted with alarm, however, when CDC officials raised the possibility of testing the much larger number of passengers on domestic flights. Airlines officials say that would further devastate air travel, which has still not returned even to half its pre-pandemic level. They worry that the additional cost of a test would discourage people from taking shorter trips. The airlines also argue that there isn’t enough testing capacity to test every passenger. More than 1 million people went through checkpoints at U.S. airports on Thursday, according to figures from the Transportation Security Administration. They also say that requiring people to take a coronavirus test before flights would cause more people to drive — merely shifting the risk of spreading the virus from planes to cars. Airline unions have joined the push against testing domestic passengers. On Friday, the Southwest Airlines pilots’ union said a testing mandate “would decimate domestic air travel demand, put aviation jobs at risk, and create serious unintended consequences.”
Like this whole COVID $CAM, and I'm sorry but I'm confused because she just contradicted the God Fraudci.
So what gives with the misinformation and denial in his White House as White House press secretary Jen Psaki downplayed speculation that the Biden administration could soon impose a requirement that passengers on domestic flights first pass a COVID-19 test, but stopped short of taking the idea off the table?
Related:
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued an order requiring travelers in the United States to wear masks as part of a new initiative aimed at stemming outbreaks of the coronavirus. According to the 11-page order issued Friday, travelers entering and transiting throughout the country will be required to wear face coverings, spanning all transit through airports, ship and ferry terminals, train and subway stations, as well as on buses, taxis and ride-hailing vehicles. The language of the order largely puts the onus on transit operators to enforce the rule. “Conveyance operators must use best efforts to ensure that any person on the conveyance wears a mask when boarding, disembarking and for the duration of travel,” the document said. A similar order was proposed during the Trump administration, but the White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, blocked the effort. The new mandate, which comes as the country surpassed 26 million cases, looks to ramp up the Biden administration’s ambitious goal of bringing the latest surge under control and accelerating vaccine distribution across the United States. “Requiring masks on our transportation systems will protect Americans and provide confidence that we can once again travel safely even during this pandemic,” read the order, signed by Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine. “Therefore, requiring masks will help us control this pandemic and aid in reopening America’s economy.” A footnote in the order states that the center reserves the right to enforce the order “through criminal penalties,” but a spokesman for the agency said that the order relied heavily on voluntary action to enforce the mandate. The establishment of a national mask mandate for travelers was hailed by public health officials as a necessary step to fix the patchwork of local regulations that at times have let travelers move freely without facial coverings, in spite of ample data showing that mask wearing is key to preventing the spread of the virus."
Not only is there NOT ample data showing that, it is UNHEALTHFUL on its FACE!
TREES are meant to breathe carbon monoxide, not humans. It's a remarkable symbiosis we have with the planet and its health.
In addition, the non-existent data (more like $elf-$erving propaganda put forth buy $cienti$ts) joins the non-existent virus!
I know, I know, look on the bright side:
New York Times experts still warn country still faces enormous challenges in getting its planet-warming pollution under control, and the first thing that would help is shut down the empire -- and not to purge.
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Time to catch your flight:
"The Justice Department on Thursday said Boeing has agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion to resolve a charge that it conspired to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration during its review of the 737 Max, the airliner that was involved in a pair of deadly crashes that killed 346 people. David P. Burns, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said the crashes “exposed fraudulent and deceptive conduct by employees of one of the world’s leading commercial airplane manufacturers.” In a statement, Burns said, “Boeing’s employees chose the path of profit over candor by concealing material information from the FAA concerning the operation of its 737 Max airplane and engaging in an effort to cover up their deception.” The Justice Department said Boeing has admitted that two of its technical pilots deceived federal safety regulators about a software system that was implicated in both crashes. As a result of their deception, the department said, airplane manuals and training documents lacked information about the system. The first Max crashed off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018, with another jet crashing in Ethiopia the following March. The second crash led to the Max being grounded worldwide and it was only approved by the FAA to fly again in November, following design changes to the computer system."
That only drove down the lo$$es:
Boeing lost more than $11.9 billion last year, its worst year ever, as it struggled to overcome the crisis surrounding its 737 Max jet while it also endured the disastrous slowdown in global aviation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s bottom line suffered especially during the final three months of the year, during which Boeing reported a loss of more than $8.4 billion. In that quarter, the company recorded a $6.5 billion charge related to the development of the 777X, a wide-body plane that has suffered several delays in recent years. On Wednesday, Boeing extended the plane’s expected arrival once more — to 2023 — amid tightening certification requirements and weakening demand for large jets, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic..... link
At least they didn't take a bailout.... at fir$t.
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What awaits you when you touch down in Europe:
"The European Union is looking at a common vaccine certificate to help get travelers to their vacation destinations and prevent tourism from suffering another disastrous year due to the coronavirus pandemic. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the certificates for individuals who have been vaccinated could be combined with COVID-19 tests for those awaiting shots to allow as many people as possible to travel during the summer, which is vital for warm weather Mediterranean destinations like Greece, Italy and Spain. The issue will likely be discussed during a video meeting of EU leaders next week. Europeans have been concerned residents might be split into two camps - those with vaccine certificates permitting them to travel and others who remain limited in where they can go, but von der Leyen said such discrimination is unnecessary because “you can always combine either a certificate or a negative COVID test, if you did not have access to a vaccination so far. So there are possibilities to find a fair and equal balance,” she said during a visit to Portugal’s capital, Lisbon, on Friday. Nations that depend heavily on tourism are worried that a second consecutive summer holiday season impacted by the pandemic would hit their tourism industries even harder than the first one. Prime Minister Antonio Costa of Portugal, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency and has some of Europe’s most popular Atlantic beaches, said that “tourism is particularly important to our economies,” hence the need for the most unfettered travel possible....."
SO FAR?
Meaning EVENTUALLY it will be REQUIRED as the WORLD becomes ONE BIG PRISON for "some."
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If you go the other way:
"Singapore Changi Reinvents Itself for Return of Business Travel" by Michelle Jamrisko and Kyunghee Park, Bloomberg News January 3, 2021
Singapore’s Changi Airport, routinely voted the world’s best and a key part of the city-state’s psyche, is reinventing itself for the COVID era and beyond.
In a bid to keep people engaged until life returns to normal, it’s offering glamping for families at Jewel, the nature-themed entertainment complex open to the public, as well as a host of holiday offerings from canopy park tours that involve topiary walks and bouncing on a sky net, to seasonal dining menus.
When is that exactly, because there will be nothing "normal" about it.
In fact, this agenda they are pushing is ABNORMAL!
With an eye further into the future, slices of the nearby Singapore Expo site are being transformed into a giant construction site as 840 guest and meeting rooms are built in short order -- part of Connect@Changi, a sprawling facility to house overseas business visitors as part of a bubble initiative.
Nearby, children start making themselves at home in large white tents erected as part of the airport’s Glampcations in the Clouds initiative. People can stay overnight amid the greenery and wake to the sound of splashing water from the world’s largest indoor waterfall. Prices start from S$320 ($240) and slots have been fully booked for weeks.
The camping and holiday dining deals may be temporary measures but they’re all part of endeavors aimed at spurring activity at Changi, whose importance to the tiny city-state is hard to underestimate. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was close to tears when he promised Parliament in September that “Changi will thrive again,” citing its opening in 1981 as a moment of immense national pride.
Because international visitors are such an enabler of other economic activity across the island -- including food and beverage, retail and healthcare -- it’s tough to calculate to what degree the closing of borders has hobbled Singapore’s economy. According to government figures, aviation alone accounts for about 3% of gross domestic product, with tourism contributing another 4%.
As 2021 dawns, Singapore’s success containing COVID is allowing it to open for business travel adapted to virus-era life, including convincing the World Economic Forum to move its annual jet-set meeting from Davos. While a return to pre-virus traffic is still far off, the green shoots are a welcome sign for a place synonymous with global trade and travel.
It's about to GO DARK:
All part of the Great Re$et you haven't been told about!
“If you think about the role of Singapore as a regional hub and the whole idea of connectivity and logistics facilitation, then Changi is quite critical,” said Selena Ling, head of treasury research and strategy at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.
Changi Airport, typically Asia’s third-busiest hub for international traffic, has like all aviation centers experienced its fair share of pain. Passenger numbers plunged to 24,500 in May, just 0.4% of what they were 12 months prior. They recovered to 111,000 in November, but that’s still down around 98% on 2019 levels.
The 13 square kilometer airport (five square miles) on Singapore’s easternmost point is operating two of its four terminals and has halted construction of a fifth for at least two years. Some retail outlets in the public and transit areas remain closed due to a lack of foot traffic.
There have been other setbacks, too. A highly anticipated air travel bubble with Hong Kong that would have avoided quarantine was delayed after a spike in cases in Hong Kong. Singapore Airlines Ltd. has been hit harder than some regional rivals because it has no domestic market to fall back on. The carrier reported its biggest quarterly loss in September and is cutting around one-quarter of staff in anticipation of still only operating near 20% capacity by the end of this month.
After contracting 5.8% in 2020, the economy could expand between 4% and 6% this year, according to government estimates; however critical industries like aviation may take longer to recover, Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, has said.
Some S$100 billion in stimulus has been pledged to shore up consumers and businesses so far, with more promised in the annual budget due later this year. About half is supported by funds from the nation’s usually off-limits reserves -- a striking example of how unprecedented the downturn has been, but with vaccines on the way -- Singapore administered its first jab last week -- hopes are rising.
Did their government loot it like ours?
In December, Singapore announced a new business travel lane that will allow people from anywhere to come without quarantine for short-term stays. They’ll have to reside at Connnect@Changi, which once finished in mid-2021 will boast more than 1,300 guest rooms and about 340 meeting rooms, and be subject to numerous Covid tests, including upon arrival and on days three, five, seven and 11.
“Ideally, you would like to have people free to move around, do what they want to do and spend where they want to,” but this is a “good alternative option” as we try to stamp out the virus, Temasek Holdings Pte Senior Managing Director Alan Thompson said. “This is an attempt to begin to open up and reinvigorate the air travel and hospitality sectors in Singapore.” The state investment firm, along with The Ascott Ltd. and Sheares Healthcare Group, is a backer of the facility, and although the virus continues to rage in parts of Europe and the U.S., re-opening negotiations continue with other countries. Quarantine-free leisure travel has already opened from New Zealand, Brunei, Australia, Vietnam, Taiwan and China, and there are bilateral agreements with Japan, South Korea and Germany that make it easier for business travelers.
Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung, in a Facebook post last month, likened efforts to a “national resilience project.”
“We’ll make sure Singapore continues to hum along even with Covid-19,” he said. “We are all ready to rise again.”
Yes, the “vaccines are giving people hope.”
Related:
He took a gamble and now his butt's in a sling, and have you seen what they feed you in a Singapore prison?
Also see:
Sure looks like PRISON, and no new virus cases in New Zealand is raising hopes that a lockdown in Auckland will be lifted Wednesday despite the creeping threat of more coronavirus variants.
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I wouldn't worry about the airport any because soon it will be entirely devoid of people:
"Drone-crowded skies get a step closer with US safety rules" by Alan Levin Bloomberg, December 28, 2020
Commercial drone use for deliveries and services cleared a major hurdle in the United States with new rules allowing the devices to fly over populated areas for the first time and requirements for tracking them to address safety and security concerns.
All but the smallest drones will have to broadcast a radio signal with a digital license plate and a flight location under new Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the agency said in a news release. Details of the move were earlier reported by Bloomberg News.
A separate new regulation creates a blueprint for protecting people and moving motor vehicles on the ground from errant drones and allows routine flights at night, the FAA said.
“The new rules make way for the further integration of drones into our airspace by addressing safety and security concerns,” FAA administrator Steve Dickson said in the release. “They get us closer to the day when we will more routinely see drone operations such as the delivery of packages.”
The dual actions are the most significant regulatory expansion in drone capabilities since the devices first trickled into civilian markets starting about a decade ago.
The rules will be “an essential building block toward safely allowing more complex” drone operations, the agency said in a document summarizing the action.
The announcement breaks a regulatory roadblock that had held up growth in pilotless aircraft technology in the United States. Requiring an ID broadcast addresses concerns from federal law enforcement and homeland security agencies that the increasingly capable flying machines would be used for crime and terrorism.
Several years ago the FAA had been set to expand drone flights over crowds, but the other agencies wouldn’t permit it to move ahead until it addressed growing concerns about misuse of the devices.
It will still be years before swarms of drones operated by companies such as Amazon’s Prime Air, Alphabet offshoot Wing, and United Parcel Service buzz over neighborhoods dropping off packages, but the new rules provide an important platform for the industry to move toward those goals.
The FAA is establishing four tiers of drones capable of flying over people. They range from lightweight devices with no exposed propellers that won’t harm people to sophisticated craft that obtain the same FAA approvals for reliability as traditional aircraft.
Even small drones exempt from broadcasting their identity will have to do so if they operate over crowds, the agency said. The FAA will also require licensed drone pilots to pass a knowledge test on flying after dark.
A robust drone tracking system is needed to ensure the public accepts expanded commercial operations, UPS Flight Forward said in comments on the proposal earlier this year. “If illegal and unsafe operators cannot be identified and stopped, confidence in the system will be eroded and voluntary compliance will be undermined,” the company wrote.
Drones weighing more than 0.55 pounds must broadcast their identity on a low-power radio frequency such as WI-Fi or Bluetooth within 30 months of the rule’s finalization. In that way, police or other authorities can monitor nearby drones.
Civilian drones offered for sale in the United States must be equipped with such technology within 18 months, according to the summary. Operators aren’t permitted to take off without a working ID beacon.
The regulations also allow for existing drones to be retrofitted with such a system.
The rule doesn’t require that the devices broadcast on a signal that can be transmitted by mobile phone systems to a national tracking network, a measure that was originally included in a proposal unveiled last year.
Wing, Amazon, and others seeking to create delivery businesses had urged the FAA to allow for such an Internet-based national network to track the devices.
Hobbyists who fly the devices can seek exemptions allowing them to operate without an ID beacon, so long as they’re flown in restricted areas approved by the FAA. Flying clubs such as the Academy of Model Aeronautics and educational institutions can apply for such exemptions.
The FAA, heeding requests from recreational users and industry groups, is adding privacy restrictions that will make it impossible for the public to identify the operator of a drone using the ID beacon.
The FAA will keep that information confidential, it said in the summary, providing it to law enforcement and national security agencies if asked. That’s a departure from traditional aviation where FAA’s flight-tracking data is typically public.
The new rules are an attempt to address the explosion of drone use. The FAA had registered almost 1 million recreational drone users and they owned 1.3 million of the devices as of last year. An additional 385,000 commercial drones had been registered with the agency, according to its data.
At the same time, there’s been a surge of reports of the devices flying dangerously near traditional planes and helicopters — even Air Force One — and cases of them being used for drug smuggling or terrorist attacks in other nations. The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded drones were involved in several US midair collisions.
Are they sure they weren't UFOs?
--more--"
Maybe it was one of these:
"New regulations for testing the next generation of ultra-fast jets were finalized by the Federal Aviation Administration, an attempt to streamline the development of supersonic flight. The FAA on Wednesday announced the regulations as several companies work on prototypes of aircraft capable of flying faster than the speed of sound, it said in a press release. The move is an attempt to make it easier to receive permission from the FAA for conducting supersonic test flights. US rules prohibit routine flights beyond the speed of sound — about 660 miles per hour at high altitudes — over land. The agency is also working on setting broader new standards for such aircraft, it said."
I'll bet it costs and arm an arm and a leg to fly on one, too.
UPDATES:
"Amazon is buying 11 used Boeing 767-300 planes, the first time the online retail giant has purchased, rather than leased, aircraft for its fast-growing air cargo operation. The company on Tuesday said it was buying seven aircraft from Delta Air Lines and four from WestJet Airlines. The WestJet aircraft are currently being converted from passenger to cargo use and will join Amazon’s fleet this year. The Delta jets will start flying routes in 2022. By the end of next year, Amazon expects to have more than 85 planes in service, a spokesperson said."
