Airline traffic surged 6.5% last year, the most since the post-slump rebound of 2010, as cuts in fares prompted by the lower oil price encouraged people to travel even amid a generally weaker economic situation. Since capacity increased by 5.6% compared with 2014, aircraft also flew fuller, with the industry-wide load factor gaining 0.6 of a percentage point to a record 80.3% IATA said Thursday. Prices fell 5% on average, adjusted for a stronger dollar. Demand grew fastest in the Asia-Pacific region, which accounted for one-third of the total increase. Asian airlines boosted traffic 8.2% in the year on international routes, while the Chinese domestic market posted an 11% gain -- the same as in 2014 -- as consumer spending proved more resilient than the wider economy, IATA said. <br/>
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Nearly a decade in, the C Series program has yet to gain traction and the company is in tatters. At stake is the survival of a 73-year-old plane and train maker that employs 24,000 people in Canada and contributes $4.7b to the Quebec economy alone. How the grand strategy of one of Canada’s most storied manufacturers lost so much altitude is a tale of misreading the determination of its competitors, falling in love with its own product and failing to grasp the way sales momentum is built in introducing a new plane. Bad timing hurt, too. A series of interviews with former Bombardier executives reveals that the planemaker found itself completely unprepared for how swiftly its larger rivals would be able to launch their own re-engined narrow-body aircraft and how aggressively they would use those planes to defend their turf. <br/>
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), the union representing 19,000 US air traffic controllers, is backing Rep. Bill Shuster’s (R-Pennsylvania) proposal to separate ATC from FAA. NATCA’s support for Shuster’s proposed FAA reauthorisation legislation—which includes a plan to create a federally chartered, not-for-profit entity to operate and manage US ATC—provides a big boost for the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman’s prospects of getting the bill passed. NATCA’s opposition would have been a formidable obstacle for Shuster to overcome. But the union’s support means the employees most directly affected by the proposal don’t see it as a jobs killer, and that the people managing air traffic don’t believe it will compromise the ATC system’s safety or efficiency. <br/>
An economic battle is likely for dominance of the skies over the Gulf after Iran decided to invest US$27n in an airline fleet capable of taking on the region's supercarriers. By ordering dozens of long-distance European jets last month after the lifting of sanctions, Iran is positioning Tehran as a potential long-term transit point between East and West to rival regional hubs such as Dubai, air officials and analysts say. The move is underscored by Tehran's choice of Airbus A380, which sends a political warning to Iran's neighbours not to ignore the Islamic Republic's emergence from isolation. The investment also points to a strategy to take part in the globalisation of the transport industry alongside Gulf rivals, even though the social and economic challenges of building a world-class hub are formidable for Iran. <br/>
The Australian domestic aviation market had weaker demand than any other major region of the world last year, with the number of passengers up just 0.4% and capacity down by 0.2%, according to new data from IATA. The subdued conditions in the Australian market, which has been hit by a downturn in flying in the mining and oil and gas sectors, compared with an average 6.3% rise in demand and 5.2% rise in capacity across major domestic markets such as the US, Russia, India, China, Brazil and Japan. Qantas and Virgin Australia have been cutting capacity in their mainline divisions as a result of weak demand, although they have been boosting capacity at Jetstar and Tigerair Australia. The IATA figures showed domestic demand did improve in the month of December, rising by 3.2% amid a 1.2% rise in capacity. <br/>