The EU is seeking tough limits on public subsidies to airlines and the option of revoking their traffic rights as part of new commercial aviation agreements it wants to negotiate with several countries including Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. A draft "fair competition clause", seen by Reuters, which the EU executive wants to include in air transport agreements, lists the forms of public support that could be considered unfair, such as protection from bankruptcy, provision of capital, tax relief and cross-subsidisation. The clause proposes a consultation period of 30 days in cases of disputes over unfair subsidies to an airline. Should talks fail, the complaining country would be able to suspend or revoke the airline's air traffic rights as well as impose duties. The EC is seeking a mandate from EU governments to begin talks on air transport agreements with a number of countries including China, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. Such agreements, at the moment often done on a bilateral basis between the governments of two countries, would set out where and how often foreign airlines could fly into the EU, and vice versa.<br/>
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Flights from Europe to North America will take slightly longer and nudge up airline fuel costs if climate change strengthens high altitude winds as widely expected, a study said on Wednesday. The headwind into a stronger jet stream should lengthen westbound flights by about five minutes, slightly more than the time saved in the other direction to Europe with a tailwind, it said. "We have good reason to think the jet stream is speeding up," author Paul Williams of Reading University said of the study in the journal Environmental Research Letters. If net return flight times get longer, the effect could add 2,000 hours to annual flight times every year and an extra 33 million litres of fuel, assuming flights over the North Atlantic stay at about 600 a day, it said. The study was based on a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which could happen in coming decades.<br/>
Somalia’s transport minister on Tuesday said that an employee at the country’s civil aviation office aided the bombing of a Djibouti-bound plane last week, reinforcing concern among security experts that insider attacks are among the biggest threats to commercial flights. For years aviation security upgrades have focused on reducing the risk of passengers smuggling an explosive onboard, adding layers of bag and passenger screening. But security experts worry that employees of foreign and US airports, who undergo fewer checks, could in fact pose the biggest threats to a bomb being brought onto a plane. Somali authorities suspect Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle, 55, was handed a laptop containing an explosive by two people dressed as airport workers. The handover took place after Mr Borle had cleared security checks at the Mogadishu airport from where the Daallo Airlines flight departed.<br/>
Authorities say two people were arrested at New York's LaGuardia Airport when they tried to board a flight to Miami with razor blades. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police say 18-year-old Lizbeth Esteras and 40-year-old Miguel Rosario Munoz were each arrested Monday on weapon possession charges after being stopped at an airport checkpoint. Police say Esteras had a razor blade tucked behind the band of her hat. They say Munoz had a blade in a "hidden compartment" under the sole of one of his shoes. Authorities say the two had tickets to board the same Monday morning American Airlines flight to Miami, Florida, though it wasn't clear if they knew one another.<br/>
The government should issue more stringent rules for how rechargeable batteries are shipped on planes to prevent uncontrollable fires, the chairman of a federal accident investigations board said Tuesday. Lithium-ion batteries should be separated from other flammable cargo and the amount of batteries in a single cargo pallet or container should be limited, Chris Hart, chairman of the NTSB, said in a letter to the government agency that sets rules for transporting hazardous materials. Rechargeable batteries, which are widely used in consumer electronics like cellphones and laptops as well as some cars, can short-circuit and ignite for a variety of reasons, including when they are damaged, contain defects, are packaged incorrectly, or exposed to extreme temperatures. The recommendation is based on an investigation by South Korean authorities of the destruction of an Asiana Airlines cargo plane in July 2011, Hart said. A fire on board the plane developed on or near two pallets situated close together, one containing lithium-ion batteries for hybrid-electric cars and the other flammable liquids used in the production of television screens.<br/>
Airbus completed the first flight of the A321neo on Tuesday, making the trip using engines supplied by CFM International after a last-minute switch from turbines supplied by Pratt & Whitney. The A321neo took off from Hamburg and landed five and a half hours later, Airbus said. The switch to CFM LEAP-1A engines comes after a problem emerged with the Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan engine that required extra time for cooling before restarting under some circumstances. Airbus declined to comment on the reason for switching to CFM engines for the initial A321neo flight, but industry experts considered the move unusual because the Pratt-engined version of the A321neo is due to enter service before the CFM version. Airbus said there's no change in plans for delivery, with the Pratt-equipped A321neo still expected to reach customers at the end of 2016, and the CFM-equipped version in early 2017.<br/>