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On Thursday, Romania’s Prime Minister announced that they had reached an agreement with Austria, which had been blocking Romania and Bulgaria from joining Schengen, that there would be a partial agreement in place from March 2024.

Passport and ID checks by border guards are removed from air and sea travel between Schengen member states and Bulgaria and Romania, but they will remain in place for overland border crossings for now (apparently, these are being negotiated as well).

Download (PDF, 2.03MB)

EU member states must join the Schengen agreement except Ireland, which has a common travel area with the UK.

There are also four countries, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland, that are not part of the EU but have joined the Schengen. Then, the three microstates of Monaco, Vatican, and San Marino are effectively part of Schengen, as there are no border checks for travel to/from them.

Then there is the outlier of Andorra, sandwiched between Spain and France, which is not part of the EU or Schengen, which may cause headaches for third nationals to visit this mini-state.

Conclusion

This is a welcomed Schengen update from the EU, and now we have Cyprus, which is yet to join the agreement, and eventually, they will.

It makes travel easier between these countries, especially with airlines that don’t check IDs, as you scan your boarding pass at the gate and are good to go.

If you travel by land, you usually don’t notice when you cross from one country to another, although there might be a sign somewhere.

On Thursday, Romania’s Prime Minister announced that they had reached an agreement with Austria, which had been blocking Romania and Bulgaria from joining Schengen, that there would be a partial agreement in place from March 2024.

Passport and ID checks by border guards are removed from air and sea travel between Schengen member states and Bulgaria and Romania, but they will remain in place for overland border crossings for now (apparently, these are being negotiated as well).

Download (PDF, 2.03MB)

EU member states must join the Schengen agreement except Ireland, which has a common travel area with the UK.

There are also four countries, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland, that are not part of the EU but have joined the Schengen. Then, the three microstates of Monaco, Vatican, and San Marino are effectively part of Schengen, as there are no border checks for travel to/from them.

Then there is the outlier of Andorra, sandwiched between Spain and France, which is not part of the EU or Schengen, which may cause headaches for third nationals to visit this mini-state.

Conclusion

This is a welcomed Schengen update from the EU, and now we have Cyprus, which is yet to join the agreement, and eventually, they will.

It makes travel easier between these countries, especially with airlines that don’t check IDs, as you scan your boarding pass at the gate and are good to go.

If you travel by land, you usually don’t notice when you cross from one country to another, although there might be a sign somewhere.

Southern Germany has had fantastic winter weather with plenty of snow for the past few days that has caused Munich Airport to be closed or only partially operating since Saturday. There have been widespread delays and cancellations in Frankfurt.

Munich Airport is closed today until noon (December 5, 2023), and there will likely be minimal operations after it reopens, possibly for days. There are thousands of passengers whose travel has been disrupted, and many are waiting for Lufthansa’s (dummy) chatbot to process rebookings.

Munich Airport’s Announcement:

⚠️Announced freezing rain during the night: air traffic will be suspended until 12 noon on Tuesday, December 5
On Tuesday, 5.12. there will be no take-offs and landings from the start of operations at 6 a.m. until 12 noon. pic.twitter.com/R8SvSeNqJD

— Munich Airport (@MUC_Airport) December 4, 2023

EC 261/2004 Duty to Care:

The European Union Air Passenger Rights (EC 261/2004) also apply in case of irregular operations beyond the airlines’ control.

Airlines are required to provide Duty to Care (accommodation & meals) in case of long delays. However, the compensation for flight cancellations and delays does not apply here.

Passengers can opt for a refund if their flight is canceled or significantly delayed (some flights have been postponed by 20+ hours), even if their fare is nonrefundable.

Airlines must rebook affected passengers to their final destinations at the earliest convenience, even when this means moving them to competing airlines and avoiding Munich Airport altogether in case of connecting itineraries.

Conclusion

This debacle with Munich Airport has been ongoing since late last week, and it will likely be days before the airport is fully operational and planes and crews are at their usual rotations.

If you have been affected by this, remember to keep those receipts, as the European Airlines and if your travel is from the EU/EEA area, are required to provide Duty to Care even in a situation such as this, meaning paying for accommodation and meals.

If Lufthansa or any other airline refuses to rebook you expediently for flights ex-EU/EEA and community carrier flights from elsewhere, you can always buy the replacement ticket and go after the airline later for the expenses. Just remember to document the refusal.

Good luck to everyone experiencing this lovely snowmageddon in Germany.

Malaysian low-cost airline MYAirline, which started operations on December 1, 2022, has folded and suspended operations.

The airline failed to secure a significant investment to save the airline and decided to shut down operations effective immediately.

You can access MYAirline here.

Malaysian Airlines, Batik Air, and AirAsia all offer discounts to MYAirline passengers who have confirmed tickets with the airline.

If you have purchased a ticket from MYAirline or are waiting for a refund, I would advise you to get your credit card company involved and dispute the transaction.

MYAirline’s Announcement:

MYAirline Announces Suspension of Operations

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, 12 October 2023 – MYAirline regrettably announces the suspension of its operations effective 12 October 2023 until further notice. The airline has come to this extremely painful decision because of significant financial pressures that have made it necessary to suspend operations pending the shareholder restructuring and recapitalization of the airline.

In a statement from the Board of Directors, MYAirline said “We deeply regret and apologize for having to make this decision as we understand the impact it will have on our loyal passengers, dedicated employees and partners. We have worked tirelessly to explore various partnership and capital raising options to prevent this suspension. Unfortunately, the constraints of time have left us with no alternative but to take this decision.”

We understand the inconvenience this may cause, and we are committed to assisting you through this situation. Kindly reach out to us at [email protected], and our support team will be readily available to provide their assistance. In the meantime, we are advising affected passengers to not head to the airport and seek for alternative travel arrangements to their destinations.

The Board, shareholders and all of us at MYAirline will be working tirelessly to resume operations as quickly as possible but at this stage we are unable to commit to any timeline. We reiterate our sincerest apologies for any difficulty and inconvenience arising from this suspension and will do our utmost to provide any updates which become available.

Conclusion

Based on the reports in the Malaysian media, it seems that there have been many top-level departures from the airline recently, and they have also struggled to pay their suppliers and payroll, and neither of these is a good sign.

I guess this is a good reminder of how difficult it is to launch a new airline, and most of these ventures fail, but you never succeed without trying, right?

Unfortunately, there are likely many passengers who don’t see money returned unless the flights were paid using a credit card.

Air Belgium has decided to cease its scheduled passenger operations effective October 3, 2023, and has filed for court-supervised reorganization.

The airline has operated flights on behalf of other airlines (wet lease), and they will continue these operations and cargo flights.

You can access Air Belgium here.

The airline will operate scheduled flights to South Africa and Mauritius until October 2, 2023, and will rebook passengers on other airlines for their return sectors past that date. If passengers have not started their trips by October 3, they can expect to see a refund.

An Excerpt from Aviation24 (access here):

Faced with a more than unstable socio-economic and geopolitical environment and in view of the fact that an airline has to plan for cycles of 3 to 5 years, Air Belgium’s Board of Directors has taken a number of decisions to ensure the long-term viability and growth of the company which has a staff of 500 people, namely to:

1. Concentrate on the two profitable lines of business that offer growth prospects: The activities of cargo and ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance, or wet lease), i.e. the leasing of aircraft between airlines for passenger and cargo flights, constitute two profitable lines of business with growth prospects.

2. Discontinue the scheduled Passenger business: despite the many investments by Air Belgium in recent years and the strengthening of commercial initiatives, the Passenger business is still unprofitable. After numerous studies, Air Belgium’s Board of Directors reached the conclusion that turning a profit on this front would require substantial investments in addition to those already made in recent years, which has not been possible.

3. Initiate judicial reorganisation proceedings by way of amicable agreement to ensure the company’s long-term viability and growth and to give it time to reorganise internally around these two segments.

Conclusion

You may have seen Air Berlin planes in airports where they don’t have scheduled flights or ended up on flights they have operated on behalf of others, such as British Airways.

It is interesting to see if they can pull through the reorganization because the wet lease market won’t stay hot forever (many network carriers have been short on staff and planes after the pandemic), and there are established cargo airlines.

Yellowstone star Luke Grimes has been showing off his range of talent as of late, shifting gears from acting to music following last year’s reveal of his debut single, “No Horse To Ride” (which was featured in the aforementioned show’s season 5 midseason finale). With four songs incrementally rolled out as singles thus far and a handful of concert and festival performances under his belt, Grimes has finally announced the name and release date of his first EP.

On Friday (August 4, 2023), Japan suspended the registration and card issuance for its Trusted Traveler Program with no advance notice but resumed the service today (August 7, 2023).

Japan launched a Trusted Travel Program (TTP) in 2017 with very scarce information about its eligibility requirements (read more here, here, and here).

You can access Japan’s page for TTP here.

The program was relaunched with little fanfare in early 2023, and the eligibility criteria were significantly expanded. Sebastian and I wrote about our application experiences (read more here and here).

Notice on TTP’s website (Google Translate):

* TTP has been temporarily suspended since August 4, 2023, but is now available for all users. (As of August 7, 2023)

TTP Application Issues:

The issue with this TTP program has been the rather long inspection progress once you fill out the required information and upload documents on the website (six weeks, in my case).

The time it takes at the airport to inspect the documents, collect the revenue stamps, read the fingerprints, and issue the card at the airport (mine took 50 minutes). (You can do this at select immigration offices too, but they may be even more congested.)

Japan Trusted Traveler Program Registration Experiences in 2023:

Experience Report: Japan’s Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) Is Now Open For New Applications & Entry Via Automated Gates

Japan’s Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) Application Experience

Conclusion

Not sure why Japan suspended the program for the weekend with no notice that they are bringing it back three days later. Those that had planned to collect their TTP card at the airport while exiting the country couldn’t.

As I have said before, they should restructure this entire application process because the processing time once you upload the documents on the website is weeks, and the final inspection and card issuance takes significant time at the airport.

The entire program has been under the table and only worthwhile due to the red tape for those visiting the country several times a year and want to ensure that their arrival experience is smooth.

I am back in Japan this autumn and happy to see how these automated gates work with the issued TTP card.

Japan launched a Trusted Travel Program (TTP) in 2017 with very scarce information about its eligibility requirements (read more here, here, and here).

The program was relaunched with little fanfare in early 2023, and the eligibility criteria were significantly expanded. Sebastian and I wrote about our application experiences (read more here and here).

You can access Japan’s page for TTP here.

UPDATE: Japan reinstates the TTP program on August 7, 2023.

Japan Resumes Trusted Traveler Program Registrations & Card Issuance

A reader sent us a message that there is now a note on TTP’s website that new registration for the program and card issuance have been suspended. The existing cards can be used until they expire.

Notice on TTP’s website:

Currently, TTP is temporarily suspending User registration applications and immigration card information registration .
Those who have already registered immigration card information can use the automated gates.
We will inform you about the reopening date on this page as soon as it is decided. (As of August 4, 2023)

The issue with this TTP program has been the rather long inspection progress once you fill out the required information and upload documents on the website (six weeks in my case). The time it takes at the airport to inspect the documents, collect the revenue stamps, read the fingerprints and issue the card (mine took 50 minutes).

Japan Trusted Traveler Program Registration Experiences in 2023:

Experience Report: Japan’s Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) Is Now Open For New Applications & Entry Via Automated Gates

Japan’s Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) Application Experience

Conclusion

Japan should relaunch the program but make it more streamlined because, in its current form, it takes way too much time and human resources at the airport.

The entire program has been somewhat under the table and really only worthwhile, due to the red tape, for those visiting the country several times a year.

There are instances where the immigration lines have been backed up due to many arriving foreign passengers, but my experiences in the past 10 months have been smooth.

I am back in Japan this autumn and happy to see how these automated gates work with the issued TTP card.