Air New Zealand says it is well prepared to cope with the fallout of the snap nationwide  COVID lock-down announced on Tuesday by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Ardern called the lockdown, initially for three days,  in the hope of quashing a potential outbreak of the contagious COVID-19 Delta variant after the nation’s first case was identified In Auckland.

Six new cases have since been identified, including a nurse at Auckland Hospital. All have been linked to a 58-year-old tradesman with the original infection.

The New Zealand government introduced Level 4 restrictions limiting travel to essential services and AirNZ urged customers to ensure they were eligible to fly.

It decided to maintain its current schedule for the first 48 hours of the lockdown to enable customers to return home to their place of residence.

Late on Wednesday, it announced it was cutting domestic services on Friday to essential services only.

“From Saturday 21 August – Tuesday 24 August, services into and out of Auckland will continue on a limited schedule,” it said.

“Once guidance from the Government on the alert level for the rest of New Zealand has been given, the airline will update its domestic network accordingly.”

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Food and beverage service was suspended on domestic flights, with water available on request, and the airline said this would remain in place until further notice.

The airline’s lounges were closed Tuesday night and valet parking was closed to new bookings. However, the airline said the parking service would remain open for 48 hours to allow customers to retrieve their cars.

Extra precautions aimed at keeping staff and customers safe during the alert included masks and gloves for all front line staff while customers were reminded they were still required to wear face coverings on flights.

The airline’s contact center and social media teams are facing high demand and while Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran said the airline was prepared for the lockdown, he urged customers to be patient.

“We want to remind customers that we’ve been here before and have built capability to work through the changes,’’  Foran said.

“Our teams will be working hard over the next 48 hours to get Kiwis to where they need to be and we ask that customers please be patient appreciate our staff are doing their very best.”

The airline said customers throughout New Zealand with existing bookings for travel between August 17 and August 24 would be able to change their booking with change fees and any fare difference waived through to 31 August.

They could do this by the airline’s online booking tool or by contacting their travel agent.

Customers who held a ticket for a domestic flight scheduled to depart up until 30 September were able to opt for credit and could do this via the airline’s online booking tool, it said.

The number of international passengers carried by US airlines in June was a whopping 1450 percent higher than a year previously as summer travel helped lift the aviation industry out of the coronavirus abyss.

The June figure of 6.1 million international passengers was still down 45 percent on pre-pandemic figures for 2019 but underscored a rising optimism about travel despite continuing difficulties due to COVID-19.

Some 60.3 million domestic passengers took to the air in June, just 17 percent short of pre-pandemic levels and 276 percent higher than June 2020.

READ: JetBlue launches A321 trans-Atlantic flights.

Overall, airlines welcomed 66.4 million passengers, a rise of 304 percent compared to last year but down 21 percent on June 2019’s 83.8 million.

The US Bureau of Transportation Statistics figures covering 21 airlines carrying more than 90 percent of passengers were up 21 percent overall compared to May.

They were also a long way from the 3 million passengers carried in April 2020, the lowest figures monthly figure in BTS records dating back to 1974.

The figures come as airlines in the US and elsewhere have recently taken a more optimistic tone about travel markets.

Delta Air Lines chief executive Ed Bastian was bullish last month about his carrier’s prospects, pointing to momentum in domestic leisure demand and yields as well as “clear signs of business international demand recovery” into fall.

JetBlue forged ahead with Airbus A321LR services between New York and London as newcomer Norse Atlantic Airways planned to launch trans-Atlantic flights to New York and Florida.

Alaska Airlines announced this week that it was accelerating its fleet renewal by converting 12 Boeing 737 MAX options after strong second-quarter earnings.

Dubai-based Emirates plans to restore capacity to 29 cities across its network as travel demand rises in response to eased COVID restrictions in some regions.

In Europe,  low-cost giant Ryanair announced in July it would boost seats in the market as bookings picked up as rival Wizz Air revealed plans to return capacity to pre-COVID levels.

British Airways earlier this month reopened its flagship US lounge as bookings to America surged by 95 percent due to eased UK COVID restrictions for fully-vaccinated international travelers.

Air France-KLM is adding long-haul routes and chief financial officer Steven Zaat described second-quarter ticket sales as “fantastic” with load factors on North Atlantic running at 60 percent after the European Union opened to American visitors.

The United Arab Emirates has plenty to celebrate about its first 50 years and a new livery on Emirates aircraft will take the commemoration to the four corners of its sprawling network

The Gulf carrier debuted the new livery on a flight to Frankfurt earlier this week and will introduce more golden jubilee aircraft over the course of the next month.

The livery will feature on the airline’s Airbus A380s and Boeing 777-300ERs with plans to showcase the celebration in destinations as diverse as Los Angeles, London, Washington D.C, New York, Munich, Zurich, and Paris.

The design utilizes ‘Emirates’ in the original livery to complete the UAE’s name and decals wrap the fuselage in Arabic and English.

READ: Awesome photo of the moon from a 747 cockpit

“The Golden Jubilee themed aircraft are inspired by the vision, determination and passion of the UAE’s founding fathers and the incredible 50-year journey since they started to shape a nation that has captured the world’s imagination – from its rapid progress to become one of the most connected countries in the world, to being one of just a few nations to launch a space mission,’’ said Emirates chief executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum.

“The next 50 years will continue to be driven by the same ambitious spirit to build a better and sustainable future for humanity, and the UAE will lead the charge as it evolves its national capabilities, champions innovation, and strengthens its position as a progressive world leader across a spectrum of areas.”

The decal debut came as Emirates announced it was expanding its partnership with South African regional operator Airlink into a codeshare agreement.

The Dubai-based carrier said the partnership would give travelers convenient access to more than 40 domestic and regional destinations across 12 African countries.

Emirates has been ramping up its operations in South Africa and said the codeshare augmented its long-standing partnership with South African Airways.

“Our new codeshare agreement enhances our service offering and flexibility for customers traveling beyond our gateways in South and Southern Africa and provides them unparalleled options for leisure destinations,’’ said Emirates chief commercial officer Adnan Kazim.

“We are committed to growing our operations in South Africa, and with the strong connection opportunities being provided collectively with Airlink we hope to help jumpstart the recovery of the local travel and tourism industry.”

A small screwdriver tip that rattled around a Jetstar Airbus A320 engine for more than 100 flights caused a blade failure and a rejected takeoff as the plane veered to one side.

The October 2020  flight was taking off from Brisbane Airport on a scheduled passenger flight to Cairns when the crew felt a vibration and heard a popping noise.

As the vibration grew faster and louder, the aircraft veered to the right of the runway despite the fact the first officer applied full left rudder pedal.

READ: Virgin to reopen elite lounges but Perth, Canberra miss out.

The captain immediately selected reverse thrust and brought the aircraft, which was still traveling at low speed, to a halt.

A report released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau Monday said some passengers onboard the aircraft, a Brisbane tower air traffic controller, and flight crew of a following aircraft reported seeing flames coming from the right engine.

After the aircraft safely taxied back to the gate, engineers reported finding metallic debris in the tailpipe of the aircraft’s right engine.

They discovered the engine’s high-pressure compressor had sustained significant damage and a removable screwdriver tip was found in the engine’s combustion section.

“The ATSB concluded the tool bit had been left in the engine after maintenance and when the engine was running, it entered the high-pressure compressor, leaving dents and nicks in numerous rotor blades and stator vanes,” said ATSB Director Transport Safety Stuart Macleod.

“At least two of these dents and nicks initiated fatigue cracks, which developed during the aircraft’s subsequent operation, and led to a blade failing during the incident flight’s take-off roll.”

“The liberated blade then caused greater damage to the engine’s high-pressure compressor, and the engine surged, resulting in the loss of power and the low-speed rejected take-off.”

McLeod said tool control was an important part of aircraft maintenance and small, seemingly insignificant components could, and had, caused significant damage.

He said the incident was also a good example of why flight crews needed to be aware that noise and vibration from an actual engine failure could be different from that experienced during simulator training.

“High-fidelity training devices like full-motion flight simulators aim to maximize the realism of an artificial environment, but there is a limit to their ability to replicate extreme events,” he said.

The incident prompted Jetstar to issue a safety alert to its maintenance engineers highlighting the need for all tooling to be accounted for and it also conducted an assessment of ongoing risk.

“This was an extremely rare situation and we reported the event to the ATSB in accordance with the regulations and assisted them with their investigation,” Jetstar head of safety Mike Chapman said.

“We issued a safety update to our engineering team on tooling checks and procedures to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”