A China Eastern Airlines aircraft is seen at Hongqiao International Airport in Shanghai
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Transportation Department plans to issue a revised order in the coming days that is likely to allow some Chinese passenger airline flights to continue, government and airline officials said.
On Thursday, China said it would ease coronavirus restrictions to allow in more foreign carriers, shortly after Washington said it planned to bar Chinese passenger airlines from flying to the United States by June 16 due to Beijing’s curbs on U.S. carriers.
The change should allow U.S. carriers to resume once-a-week flights into a city of their choice starting on June 8, but that would be still significantly fewer than what the U.S. government says its aviation agreement with China allows.
The Transportation Department did not immediately comment.
The department said on Wednesday Chinese carriers could operate “the same number of scheduled passenger flights as the Chinese government allows ours.” It added the order was to “restore a competitive balance and fair and equal opportunity among U.S. and Chinese air carriers.”
The U.S. order would halt the four weekly U.S. roundtrip flights by Air China <0753.HK>, China Eastern Airlines Corp, China Southern Airlines Co <1055.HK> and Xiamen Airlines Co.
U.S. and airline officials have privately raised concerns about the revised Chinese rules and it is unclear if carriers would agree to fly just once a week to China when they have sought approval for two or three daily flights.
Delta Air Lines <DAL.N> and United Airlines <UAL> asked to resume flights to China this month. Both said they were reviewing the order from the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
American Airlines <AAL> is sticking with its previous plan to resume service to China at the end of October, spokesman Ross Feinstein said.
The CAAC said all airlines can increase the number of international flights involving China to two per week if none of their passengers test positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, for three consecutive weeks.
If five or more passengers on one flight test positive upon arrival, the CAAC will bar the airline for a week. Airlines would be suspended for four weeks if 10 passengers or more test positive.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Editing by Chris Reese, Richard Chang and Bernadette Baum)
From horseback riding to cave diving, puffin watching to hot spring soaking, Iceland has turned itself into a popular vacation destination. Until fairly recently however, beer tourists didn’t have much to entice them to this island nation in the North Atlantic. In fact, 2019 marks only 30 years since Iceland legalized the sale and consumption of beer with over 2.25% alcohol, ending nearly eight decades of a curious and narrowly defined type of prohibition. Things have changed considerably however, particularly in the last few years.
The first Icelandic craft brewery, Bruggsmiðjan, which produces the popular Kaldi, didn’t open until 2006, and as recently as 2015 there were only seven small breweries nationwide. Today, nearly 30 beer companies dot the countryside, with the highest concentration in greater Reykjavík. There’s trendy KEX Brewing in the capital city, which just opened its second location in Portland, Oregon; Ölverk Pizza and Brewery in the South, where the brewhouse is powered by geothermal energy; Brugghús Steðja, which gained publicity by making beers with unusual ingredients including smoked whale testicles; and Lady Brewery, one of the newer brands in Iceland, started by two young women in a home kitchen.
Ölverk Pizza and Brewery in Hveragerði.
“The culture has changed so fast,” says Valgeir Valgeirsson, head brewer at RVK Brewing Company in central Reykjavík. “[Craft beer] is quite a new concept. We’re just trying to build it up.”
Ten taps greet visitors to RVK, along with a British beer engine, traditionally used to serve cask ales. Here, in an unassuming taproom overlooking the brewery’s stainless steel fermentation tanks, those with adventurous palates can try everything from a juicy, easy-drinking pale ale with notes of tropical fruit, to a boldly flavored, high-alcohol stout made with coffee and coconut. Creativity is king in this new era of brewing, with the sky as the limit. Valgeir and a number of other brewers around the country have even made sour beers by incorporating skyr, an Icelandic cultured dairy product, into their recipes.
Meanwhile, more than 230 miles (370 km) away in the small but scenic fishing village of Siglufjörður, Marteinn Haraldsson is the proud owner of the country’s northernmost brewery, Segull 67. Marteinn, a computer scientist who grew up in town but lives in Akureyri, learned the basics one homebrew recipe at a time, but now produces much larger batches in a former fish-freezing factory a short distance from the popular Herring Era Museum. An amber lager simply called Original and Sigló, an India pale ale, sell best, but Marteinn also makes a Belgian-style wheat beer with coriander and lime peel and a pineapple summer ale—not exactly options you would have had in Iceland as recently as a few years ago.
Segull 67’s Sólstingur, brewed with pineapple.
For all of the tourists that arrive in Siglufjörður via cruise ship during the summer months, Marteinn talks about the obstacles to being a little business in a remote town of 1,200. “Most of our challenges are getting people to know about us,” he says. “We just try to take it one day at a time.”
East of Reykjavík, in the town of Hveragerði, Ölverk Pizza and Brewery has successfully gained attention since opening its doors in 2017, by combining complementary passions: wood-fired pizza, and craft brewing. General manager Laufey Sif Lárusdóttir and her partner head brewer Elvar Þrastarson don’t currently can or bottle any of the beers they make, preferring to serve them on premise by the glass, pitcher, or tasting flight. Working on a small system enables Elvar to keep the draft list varied and interesting, tempting taste buds with a mild, malty, and food-friendly Altbier alongside a hazy, hoppy, party-in-a-glass imperial IPA like Disco Juice. The couple also typically devotes two of their eight taps to other small Icelandic breweries they admire, like Ölvisholt in Selfoss or The Brothers Brewery on Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago.
Cheese-stuffed breadsticks at Ölverk.
“It’s really small and friendly,” says Laufey of the young Icelandic beer scene. “For other industries it’s really weird. But if someone else opened up a brewery here I would say ‘Okay, I will be better.’” Ólafur Ágústsson, one of the partners behind KEX Brewing, echoes this sense of camaraderie, and explains how a desire to build and promote interest in craft brewing motivated the company to begin hosting an annual Icelandic Beer Festival at KEX’s four-story space in downtown Reykjavík eight years ago. Last year more than a dozen Icelandic brewers poured their ales and lagers alongside examples from the US and elsewhere in Europe.
“We’re not brewers at all,” he says. “I’m a chef. We’re just people who like good beer. We wanted to make the scene better. That’s what’s important right now—helping everybody and trying to grow the market.”
Something’s Brewing, All Around Iceland
1. KEX Brewing Hosts of the popular annual Icelandic Beer Festival.
2. RVK Brewing Company Fruity sours share space with easy- drinking lagers and hazy, hoppy IPAs.
3. Brugghús Steðja Sleep on the farm in an insulated cabin at this rural brewery.
4. Dokkan Brugghús The first brewery in the Westfjords, and possibly the most remote in Iceland.
5. Segull 67 Brewery Fresh beer, fishing history, and views of Siglufjörður.
6. Bruggsmiðjan Kaldi Brewery Soak in a beer spa at the country’s oldest craft brewery.
7. Húsavík Öl Expect creative saisons made with birch, rhubarb, juniper, or mint.
8. Beljandi Brugghús Approachable beers and a rustic vibe inside a former slaughterhouse.
9. Smiðjan Brugghús Try the baby back ribs cooked in Icelandic stout.
10. The Brothers Brewery Watch for puffins on the ferry ride to this island brewery.
11. Ölvisholt Brewery Don’t miss the chance to try Lava, a smoked imperial stout.
12. Ölverk Pizza and Brewery Pair a tasty ale with the surprisingly delicious banana pizza.
PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus is in discussions to try to find solutions to a row with the German government over a ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia that threatens a border security contract, Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said on Tuesday.
The planemaker has warned of legal action against Germany after taking financial charges over the long-delayed border contract between Airbus’s defence unit and the Gulf kingdom.
“We are not yet there,” Faury told reporters when asked about possible legal action.
“We are very much impacted by the situation which is now being extended and trying to find different solutions,” Faury said, adding that Airbus had been forced into a corner by the unexpected national export embargo.
Germany acted alone with a ban in October after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, irritating other European arms exporters including France, where Airbus is based. The measure was extended in March.
The row comes as France and Germany study a new combat jet, in which Airbus is the industrial partner on the German side.
Faury said Airbus remained committed to the manned and unmanned system, adding it could be eventually opened to other nations including Britain “as a more united Europe”.
The arms row also coincides with a separate spat with Germany over 600 million euros of development loans for the A380 passenger jet, which Airbus has said it will stop producing.
The Berlin government said in March it was in talks with Airbus about the outstanding loans, which also feature in a separate trade dispute about mutual claims of illegal aircraft subsidies between the European Union and the United States.
Faury said Airbus “would not be where it is” without its project to build the world’s largest airliner.
Asked at a media event whether the separate disputes with Germany could be settled in a single negotiation, Faury said “We just want to execute the contracts as they are and I will not say more.”
Airbus continues to have good relations with Germany and other founder Airbus nations, Faury said at the event, taking place as Airbus celebrates its 50th anniversary as a planemaker.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Susan Thomas)
