Lufthansa To Hire Nearly 20,000 New Employees By End Of 2023

Lufthansa is planning to hire nearly 20,000 new employees by the end of 2023 as the aviation industry recovers from the pandemic, according to Chief Executive Carsten Spohr.

During the pandemic, which paralysed air traffic worldwide, the flagship carrier shrank to around 100,000 employees from just under 140,000, causing operational problems this summer in some locations where too many staff had been cut.

A Lufthansa spokesperson added that 12,000 of the positions would be completely new while roughly 8,000 would be to replace employees who were leaving the company.

Spohr told a news briefing on Monday night that July and August had been fantastic for the airline and "we have no plans to leave the profitability we achieved in the second quarter."

However, the airline won't be back at pre-crisis capacity levels next year, he said, with an eye on a looming recession that will likely hit Germany harder than other countries.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/

Germany Plans To Drop Mask-Wearing Mandate On Planes

The German government plans to drop a requirement for people to wear masks on flights to and from the country, though the health minister said Tuesday that it could be reimposed if coronavirus cases rise sharply.

The rules mandating masks on flights run through Sept. 23, and the smallest party in the coalition government, the libertarian Free Democratic Party, has pressed for an end to them. The initial draft for this fall’s rules foresaw an obligation to wear N95-type masks on planes as well as long-distance trains and buses.

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told reporters in Berlin that “next to no masks are worn on international flights — the rules have been loosened there.” He said Germany’s biggest airline, Lufthansa, had said repeatedly that the mandate “can no longer be implemented, so we have refrained from this and are limiting ourselves to the domestic areas where this is possible.”

Lauterbach said that mask-wearing on trains and buses remains “sensible and necessary,” but pointed to better air circulation in planes.

But he said that if COVID-19 cases increase sharply this fall, the government could issue an order reimposing the mask mandate on planes.

China Locks Down 65 Million, Discourages Holiday Travel

China has locked down 65 million of its citizens under tough COVID-19 restrictions and is discouraging domestic travel during upcoming national holidays.

Across the country, 33 cities including seven provincial capitals are under full or partial lockdown covering more than 65 million people, according to a tally published late Sunday by the Chinese business magazine Caixin.

It said that outbreaks have been reported in 103 cities, the highest since the early days of the pandemic in early 2020.

Despite a relatively low number of infections, authorities have adhered to a “zero-COVID” policy requiring lockdowns, quarantines and the confining of people suspected of being in close contact with any confirmed case.

China recorded 1,552 new cases in the latest 24-hour period across a nation of 1.4 billion people, the National Health Commission reported Monday.

Most of the 21 million people in the southwestern city of Chengdu are confined to their apartments or residential complexes, while in the eastern port city of Tianjin, classes have ben moved online after 14 new cases were reported, all but two showing no symptoms.

Chengdu lifted the lockdown for about 1 million people in Qionglai city and Xinjin district, two areas in its southwest. Three more rounds of mass testing are being held through Wednesday. and schools remain closed with all classes online.

Sept. 10-12 is China’s mid-autumn festival, the country’s second-most important holiday after the Lunar New Year. The anti-virus measures have taken a major toll on the economy, travel and society in general, but China’s ruling Communist Party says they are necessary to prevent a wider spread of the virus, first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

The fear of being caught in a lockdown or sent to a quarantine facility for even being in proximity with a person who tested positive has severely constrained people’s work, socializing and travel habits.

Since the outbreak began, China has placed tens of millions of people under lockdowns that have been strictly enforced, sometimes preventing residents from obtaining food, health care and basic necessities.

A more than five-week closure of Shanghai, China’s largest city and key financial hub, in the spring upended the local economy, prompted protests and led to an exodus of foreign residents.

Brazil’s Independence Museum Reopening Ahead Of Bicentennial

SAO PAULO (AP) — It took nearly a decade of renovations, but finally one of Brazil’s most popular museums is reopening as part of the country’s bicentennial celebrations.

The Paulista Museum is in the heart of the manicured grounds of Sao Paulo’s Independence Park and holds more than 3,000 items, including 2,800 restored since its closure in 2013. (They include historic documents, paintings, household items and memorabilia.

Known by Brazilians as the Ipiranga Museum, it was founded in 1895 beside a creek where Emperor Pedro I declared the nation’s independence from Portugal.

The works cost some $40 million and made the museum fully accessible to the disabled, restored the building’s façade and doubled its constructed area. Installation of a new air conditioning system also allowed for new collections of delicate items to be shown to the public.

Curators and directors from the University of Sao Paulo, which administers the museum, expect about 1 million visitors over the coming 12 months. The museum will reopen to the public on Sept. 8 — the day after the nation’s Independence Day.

A house atop a small hill in the park also holds some independence memorabilia. The Casa do Grito (House of the Cry) allegedly sits on the exact spot where Pedro I shouted “Independence or Death!” to his supporters.

His remains are buried in a crypt on the park’s southern edge, while his heart is usually kept in a glass container of formaldehyde at the Church of Our Lady of Lapa in the Portuguese city of Porto. The heart was brought to Brazil on loan as part of bicentennial festivities and is also on display to the public.

“This was not built to be a museum initially; it was supposed to be a monument for Brazil’s independence,” curator Solange Ferraz de Lima told journalists during a pre-opening tour on Thursday. “This museum was far from the city, but it was later engulfed by it.”

The museum’s most-visited room features the “Independence or Death,” a painting by Pedro Américo, dated 1888, one year before Brazil became a republic.

Rio de Janeiro’s National Museum, which held Latin America’s largest collection of historical artifacts, has a new façade after a fire that almost destroyed it completely in 2018. Brazilian daily O Globo reported on Thursday that reconstruction of the site will be completed in 2026.

French Tourism Better Than Pre-COVID, Despite Climate Woes

Tourism came back with a vengeance to France this summer, sending revenues over pre-pandemic levels, according to government estimates released this week.

Crowds packed Paris landmarks and Riviera beaches, notably thanks to an influx of Americans benefiting from the weak euro, but also British and other European visitors reveling in the end of pandemic restrictions.

“It’s beautiful to go again to travel,” said Serena Veronese, a tourist from Lago Maggiore in Italy soaking in the view of the Eiffel Tower. She and her husband work for an airline and “suffered a lot” as the COVID-19 crisis grounded planes worldwide. “Now people have to go traveling again, they have to.”

The summer surge came despite exceptionally hot weather in France and around Europe, record drought and devastating wildfires. The season saw chaos in European airports and rising prices that hit tourists, too.

Spending on tourism in France reached pre-pandemic levels and has even surpassed it in some areas, Tourism Minister Olivia Gregoire told reporters.

According to the government’s preliminary estimates, tourism spending in France this summer was 10% higher than 2019, based on data from bank card use and lodging and restaurant revenues.

All that is important for an industry that accounts for 8% of the French economy and 2 million jobs.

Tourist visits are expected to ebb as autumn kicks in, but the summer influx was so big that the French government is considering ways to make tourism of the future more sustainable, such as imposing crowd limits in popular spots and drawing travelers to less-famous sites.

France saw 90 million tourists in 2019, and could eventually hit 100 million a year as tourism rebounds and as France hosts global events like next year’s Rugby World Cup and the 2024 Olympics, Gregoire said.

“We can’t necessarily follow the same practices in 10, 20 years, given the climate episodes we are facing,” Gregoire told reporters.

As concerns resurface about the impact of overtourism, Gregoire said France is aiming to “rethink tourism today and tomorrow” to provide better quality experiences, take climate and emissions into account and ensure that people of all incomes can enjoy tourist experiences.

About three out of every 10 French people didn’t take a summer vacation, mainly because they couldn’t afford to.

Of the foreigners who visited France this summer, there was a “big return” of British tourists and “the Americans came back in force,” along with Dutch, German and Belgian visitors, said Hugo Alvarez, head of French tourism development agency Atout France.

Overlooking the Seine River, Lucrecia Evans of Houston said: “Our dollar is a lot stronger for us. We have done a lot more shopping, I am taking out more euros to take home for my next trip, because the dollar is stronger to the euro right now which is normally not the case.”

American and European visitors made up for a notable absence of Asian tourists in France, kept home by continued virus restrictions in some countries. France has lifted nearly all COVID rules.

“We were here just before the COVID crisis the last time,” said Ainsley Taylor, visiting Paris from Banbury, England. “It’s great to be back.”

By JADE LE DELEY and NICOLAS GARRIGA

Biden To Help Unveil Obama White House Portrait

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been more than a decade since President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, welcomed back George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, for the unveiling of their White House portraits, part of a beloved Washington tradition that for decades managed to transcend partisan politics.

President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, are set to revive that ritual — after an awkward and anomalous gap in the Trump years — when they host the Obamas on Wednesday for the big reveal of their portraits in front of scores of friends, family and staff.

The Obama paintings will not look like any in the White House portrait collection to which they will be added. They were America’s first Black president and first lady.

The ceremony will also mark Michelle Obama’s first visit to the White House since Obama’s presidency ended in January 2017, and only the second visit for Barack Obama. He was at the White House in April to mark the 12th anniversary of the health care law he signed in 2010.

Portrait ceremonies often give past presidents an opportunity to showcase their comedic timing.

“I am pleased that my portrait brings an interesting symmetry to the White House collection. It now starts and ends with a George W,” Bush quipped at his ceremony in 2012.

Bill Clinton joked in 2004 that “most of the time, till you get your picture hung like this, the only artists that draw you are cartoonists.”

Recent tradition, no matter the party affiliation, has had the current president genially hosting his immediate predecessor for the unveiling — as Clinton did for George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush did for Clinton and Obama did for the younger Bush.

Then there was an unexplained pause when Donald Trump did not host Obama.

Two spokespeople for Trump did not respond to emailed requests for comment on the lack of a ceremony for Obama, and whether artists are working on portraits of Trump and former first lady Melania Trump.

The White House portrait collection starts with George Washington, America’s first president. Congress bought his portrait.

Other portraits of early presidents and first ladies often came to the White House as gifts. Since the 1960s, the White House Historical Association has paid for most of the paintings.

The first portraits financed by the association were of Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson, and John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, said Stewart McLaurin, president of the private, nonprofit organization established by first lady Kennedy.

Before presidents and first ladies leave office, the association explains the portrait process. The former president and first lady choose the artist or artists, and offer guidance on how they want to be portrayed.

“It really involves how that president and first lady see themselves,” McLaurin said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The collection includes an iconic, full-length portrait of Washington that adorns the East Room. It is the only item still in the White House that was in the executive mansion in November 1800 when John Adams and Abigail Adams became the first president and first lady to live in the White House.

Years later, first lady Dolley Madison saved Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Washington from almost certain ruin. She had White House staff take it out of the city before advancing British forces burned the mansion in 1814. The painting was held in storage until the White House was rebuilt.

President and first lady portraits are seen by millions of White House visitors, though not all are on display. Some are undergoing conservation or are in storage.

Those that are on display line hallways and rooms in public areas of the mansion, such as the Ground Floor and its Vermeil and China Rooms, and the State Floor one level above, which has the famous Green, Blue and Red Rooms, the East Room and State Dining Room.

Portraits of Mamie Eisenhower, Pat Nixon, Lady Bird Johnson and Lou Henry Hoover grace the Vermeil Room, along with a full-length image of Jacqueline Kennedy. Michelle Obama’s portrait likely will join Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush along the Ground Floor hallway.

The State Floor hallway one floor above features recent presidents: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Gerald Ford’s portrait and the likeness of Richard Nixon — the only president to resign from office — are on view on the Grand Staircase leading to the private living quarters on the second floor.

Past presidents’ images move around the White House, depending on their standing with the current occupants. Ronald Reagan, for example, moved Thomas Jefferson and Harry S. Truman out of the Cabinet Room and swapped in Dwight Eisenhower and Calvin Coolidge.

In the Clinton era, portraits of Richard Nixon and Reagan, idols of the Republican Party, lost their showcase spot in the Grand Foyer and were replaced with pictures of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Truman, heroes of the Democrats. Nancy Reagan temporarily moved Eleanor Roosevelt to a place of prominence in the East Room in 1984 to mark the centennial of her birth.

One of the most prominent spots for a portrait is above the mantle in the State Dining Room and it has been occupied for decades by a painting of a seated Abraham Lincoln, hand supporting his chin. It was placed there by Franklin Roosevelt.

Bill Clinton’s and George W. Bush’s portraits hang on opposing walls in the Grand Foyer.

Clinton’s would be relocated to make room for Barack Obama’s if the White House sticks to tradition and keeps the two most recent Oval Office occupants there, McLaurin said.

“That’s up to the White House, to the curators,” he said.

The association, which is funded through private donations and the sale of books and an annual White House Christmas ornament, keeps the portrait price well below market value because of the “extraordinary honor” an artist derives from having “their work of art hanging perpetually in the White House,” McLaurin said.

Details about the Obamas’ portraits will stay under wraps until Wednesday.

Biden will be the rare president to host a former boss for the unveiling; he was Obama’s vice president. George H.W. Bush, who held Ronald Reagan’s ceremony, was Reagan’s No. 2.

Betty Monkman, a former White House curator, said during a 2017 podcast for the White House Historical Association that the ceremony is a “statement of generosity” by the president and first lady. “It’s a very warm, lovely moment.”

The White House portraits are one of two sets of portraits of presidents and first ladies. The National Portrait Gallery, a Smithsonian museum, maintains its own collection and those portraits are unveiled before the White House pair. The Obamas’ unveiled their museum portraits in February 2018.

Linda St. Thomas, chief spokesperson for the Smithsonian Institution, said in an email that a $650,000 donation in July from Save America, Trump’s political action committee, was earmarked for the couple’s museum portraits. Two artists have been commissioned, one for each painting, and work has begun, St. Thomas said.

New Online Dashboard Helps Flyers With Delays, Cancellations

Amid months of mass flight cancellations and delays, the Department of Transportation has launched a customer service dashboard to help vacationers ahead of the travel-heavy Labor Day weekend.

Starting Thursday, travelers will be able to check the dashboard and see what kinds of guarantees, refunds or compensation the major domestic airlines offer in case of flight delays or cancellations. It’s designed to allow travelers to shop around and favor those airlines that offer the best compensation.

The dashboard is part of an extended pressure campaign from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has publicly challenged the major carriers to improve service and transparency after a summer marred by cancellations and flight delays. As summer travel returned to nearly pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, airlines struggled to keep pace, with mass cancellations being blamed on staffing shortages, particularly among pilots.

“Passengers deserve transparency and clarity on what to expect from an airline when there is a cancelation or disruption,” Buttigieg said in a statement Wednesday. The new tool, he said, will help travelers to “easily understand their rights, compare airline practices, and make informed decisions.”

The dashboard compares all the major domestic airlines’ policies on issues such as which offer meals for delays of more than three hours and which offer to rebook flights on the same or different airlines at no additional charge. It focuses on what it calls “controllable” cancellations or delays — meaning those caused by mechanical issues, staffing shortages or delays in cleaning, fueling or baggage handling. Delays or cancellations caused by weather or security concerns do not count.

The Department of Transportation is hoping that the dashboard will encourage competition among airlines to offer the most transparency and the best protections for customers.

So far this year, airlines have canceled about 146,000 flights, or 2.6% of all flights, and nearly 1.3 million flights have been delayed, according to tracking service FlightAware. The rate of cancellations is up about one-third from the same period in 2019, before the pandemic, and the rate of delays is up nearly one-fourth.

Federal officials have blamed many of the disruptions on understaffing at airlines, which encouraged employees to quit after the pandemic started. The airlines have countered by blaming staffing problems at the Federal Aviation Administration, which employs air traffic controllers.

https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/airline-customer-service-dashboard

By ASHRAF KHALIL