Unlike any other journalist, I have been covering the tragic loss of MH370 from the moment she was reported lost.

I was in New York filming a documentary on the history of Boeing and my phone came alive with countless messages with just four words repeated; interview, MH370, 777, and Malaysia.

So began a seven-year journey of hope and despair as the incredible search waxed and waned.

Taking that journey to the depths of despair has been the flood of utterly bizarre conspiracy theories and the endless publishing of books – 130 – on the disappearance.

It would have been easy for this website to publish all this rubbish and build more traffic to the site – as many newspapers and websites have done – but our reputation would have been worthless.

Sadly, much of the coverage of MH370 has been run via blog sites which are essentially immune from litigation. Many of the commentators are not academic, intelligent, educated, or streetwise, but they want to have their say.

And if they are not heard, they will shout even louder almost like an out-of-control kindergarten.

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We at Airlineratings.com however have striven at every turn to examine every claim, every idea and only publish those that are credible.

Censorship? No just plain old commonsense as we are not peddlers of rubbish.

Our editorial team – both on staff and guest – has over 200 years of experience and is one of the most awarded in aviation with over 60 international awards and over 40 books to its credit and we take our responsibilities seriously and guard our reputation jealously.

There have been some wonderful heroes in the quest for the truth about MH370. The founder of the Independent Group, Duncan Steel its members that include Mike Exner, Victor Iannello, Don Thompson, and Richard Godfrey have all made quite brilliant contributions to the search as have the team at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau led by Peter Foley, who was also maligned by extreme elements of the media.

And then there is Blaine Gibson, who under the guidance of Charitha Pattiaratchi professor of coastal oceanography and the University of Western Australia has found a great deal of the debris or raised the profile of same for locals to find.

That work has enabled the drift modeling work that now confirms – with the satellite data – the final resting place of MH370.

Yet some irresponsible commentators accused him of planting debris.

Another shining light is the CSRIO’s David Griffin who has done some brilliant work on drift modeling even to replicate the actual Flaperon in sea trials and also shared all his data with the wider MH370 community.

Commercial pilots like Barry Martin and Andrew Banks have also made invaluable contributions to the search for MH370 in several papers.

Now Mr. Godfrey has further developed the WSPR technology which doesn’t suggest any different final resting place but may give us a more precise location and also tells us more about the actual flight path between the hourly satellite tracking.

Yes, there are detractors from well credentialled and well-meaning experts but those who doubt are balanced with those who say this is credible – very credible.

This website wholly supports Mr. Godfrey who is clearly a brilliant man and very well-intentioned. He deserves all of the MH370 community’s support.

Air cargo is booming, domestic air travel is surging but international travel is almost grounded.

That is the airline industry report card for March according to The International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Yesterday IATA said that air cargo demand continues to outperform pre-COVID levels with demand up 4.4 percent on the year-ago period with March demand reaching the highest level ever recorded.

That record came despite global capacity, measured in available cargo tonne-kilometers (ACTKs), 11.7 percent below March 2019 due to the ongoing grounding of passenger aircraft.

IATA says airlines continue to use dedicated freighters to plug the lack of available belly-capacity on passenger planes with international capacity from dedicated freighters up 20.6 percent in March compared to the same month in 2019.

Belly-cargo capacity on passenger aircraft was down by 38.4 percent.

IATA said that global trade rose 0.3 percent in February – the ninth consecutive monthly increase and the longest continuous growth in more than two decades.

Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general said “air cargo continues to be the bright spot for aviation and airlines are taking all measures to find the needed capacity.”

On the passenger front, IATA said that while passenger traffic for March 2021 was below the year-ago period it rose compared to the prior month.

Total demand for air travel in March 2021 (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) was down 67.2 percent compared to March 2019.

That, however, is a sharp improvement over the 74.9 percent decline recorded in February 2021 compared to the year-ago month.

IATA says the better performance was driven by gains in domestic markets, particularly China.

International passenger demand in March was 87.8 percent below March 2019, a very small improvement from the 89.0 percent decline recorded in February 2021 versus two years ago.

Domestic demand was down 32.3 percent versus pre-crisis levels (March 2019), greatly improved over February 2021, when domestic traffic was down 51.2 percent versus the year-ago month.

All markets, except Brazil and India, showed improvement compared to February 2021.

“The positive momentum we saw in some key domestic markets in March is an indication of the strong recovery we are anticipating in international markets as travel restrictions are lifted.

“People want and need to fly and we can be optimistic that they will do so when restrictions are removed,” Mr. Walsh said.

In a note of caution, Mr. Walsh said that “the emergence of new COVID-19 variants and rising cases in some countries are behind governments’ reluctance to lift travel restrictions and quarantine.”

“However, we are beginning to see positive developments, such as the recent announcement by European Commission President von der Leyen that vaccinated travelers from the US will be allowed to enter the EU.

“At least 24 countries have already said they will welcome vaccinated travelers,” Mr Walsh said.

Fake COVID-19 documents and the high cost of testing are huge impediments to the recovery of overseas travel The International Air Transport Association has warned.

IATA’s director general Willie Walsh yesterday urged governments to pay for COVID-19 testing and adopt its electronic travel pass to eliminate “intolerable delays at airports” as authorities grapple with paper certificates and “reduce the risk of fraudulent documents.”

The problem was highlighted in March when 47 passengers tested positive to COVID-19 after traveling from Delhi to Hong Kong on Vistara Airlines, despite all being cleared of COVID-19 in the 72 hours before departure.

According to a CNBC report, Europol has alerted EU member states of increasingly prevalent forms of criminal activity around fake COVID PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test results which are being sold in the UK for $180.

In another instance a forgery ring at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris was dismantled after being found selling forged negative test results to passengers, Europol said.

Other fraudsters in Spain and the Netherlands have been arrested.

Last month two approved Indian laboratories were found issuing fake COVID-19 negative certificates and have been shut down.

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Europol said last month that “as long as travel restrictions remain in place due to COVID-19, it is highly likely that production and sales of fake test certificates will prevail”.

“IATA Travel Pass addresses this challenge [fake tests] by enabling travelers to control and share their digital vaccination certificate or test results with airlines and border authorities, easing facilitation and reducing the risk of fraudulent documents,” Mr. Walsh said.

But the high cost of the tests is a major issue Mr. Walsh said.

An IATA survey found that the cost of tests varied from US$77 ($100) in Australia to US$278 in Japan with a low-end average of US$90.

“Testing costs should not stand between people and their freedom to travel and the best solution is for the costs to be borne by governments as is their responsibility under WHO guidelines,” Mr. Walsh said.

The World Health Organisation stipulates that countries should not charge for testing or vaccination required for travel, or for the issuance of certificates.

IATA said that even taking the average of the low-end costs, adding COVID-19 testing to average airfares would dramatically increase the cost of flying for individuals.

Pre-crisis, the average one-way airline ticket, including taxes and charges, cost US$200 but a US$90 test raises the cost by 45 percent to US$290.

When you add another test on arrival and the one-way cost would leap by 90 percent to US$380.

The impact of the costs of COVID-19 testing on family travel would be prohibitive says IATA.

Based on average ticket prices (US$200) and average low-end testing (US$90) twice each way, a journey for four that would have cost US$1,600 pre-COVID, could nearly double to $3,040—with $1440 being testing costs.

Mr. Walsh warned that a return to international travel “could be perilously compromised by testing costs—particularly PCR testing.”

He adds that “raising the cost of any product this significantly will stifle demand” and its critical testing costs be better managed “if governments want to save tourism and transport jobs and avoid limiting travel freedoms to the wealthy.”