Air passenger duty, which is payable on flights leaving UK airports, has not applied to under-12s since May 1 2015, and will no longer be levied on under-16s flying from March 1. Bookings made before the reforms were signed into law, for travel after these dates, will have included the tax, but fear not — refunds are still available from the airline in question. On flights further than 2,000 miles — typically four hours or longer — the rebate will be £71 per child. For short-haul flights, £13 will be due. On premium seats, you will be owed twice as much.<br/>
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A big fight looming in Washington concerns whether US air traffic control should be transferred from the FAA to a not-for-profit corporation. Apart from the headline-grabbing changes, the two Republicans who wrote the bill also stuck a few items further down in the 273-page document (PDF) that consumers may like—and airlines may not. Some of the issues up for debate include refunds for bag fees if bags go missing. The proposal in section 507 of the bill would require airlines to refund a checked-bag fee if a bag and its owner aren’t reunited within 24 hours of a flight’s arrival. Another is warning parents they might not sit with their child and providing lactation rooms at airports.<br/>
Attempting something that's never been done before, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, has proposed establishing mandatory federal minimum size standards for airline passenger seats. "This issue, in my opinion is a microcosm of what the public is showing for Bernie Sanders and for Donald Trump," Cohen told CNN on Wednesday. "It's about an industry not being responsive to people and being responsive to special interests." Narrower seats and seat pitches have helped airlines fit more seats on planes to allow overall lower fares and higher profit margins. Cohen claims that seat width "has shrunk from 18 inches in the 1970s to about 16.5 inches today." Meanwhile, American bodies have widened. In 1962, the U.S. government measured the width of the American backside in the seated position. It averaged 14 inches for men and 14.4 inches for women. A 2002 Air Force study showed male and female butts had blown up on average to more than 15 inches. Then there's seat "pitch" -- the distance between any point on one seat to the same point on the seat in front. Cohen says pitch has shrunk from "35 inches during the 1970s to about 31 inches today." But Cohen isn't selling his bill on comfort. He's selling it on safety.<br/>
Thirty-five years ago, President Ronald Reagan parted ways with the nation’s air traffic controllers, and now they are prepared to return the favour, the head of their union told Congress on Wednesday. Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told the House Transportation Committee that his union supports legislation that would move his members to a private, nonprofit corporation that would supervise 50,000 US flights each day. The House bill to create the federally chartered corporation would transfer about 38,000 federal workers, including 14,000 controllers who now work for the Federal Aviation Administration. With the workforce would go a mega-project called NextGen, a modernization of the air system that will cost at least $40b. Rinaldi said that he doubted modernization of the current antiquated system would progress expeditiously if left in the FAA’s hands. Moving the operation to a corporation that would draw its revenue from user fees would free it from dependence on the instabilities of Congress. “Our 24/7 aviation system has been challenged by 23 extensions in authorization, a partial shutdown, a complete government shutdown, as well as numerous threatened shutdowns,” Rinaldi testified. “Aviation safety should not come second to defunding Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, Syrian refugees or gun control or any other important issue that comes before the body.<br/>
Fierce competitive pressure is forcing Boeing Commercial Airplanes into a new cost-cutting push that will include eliminating jobs, BCA Chief Executive Ray Conner announced at a senior leadership meeting Wednesday morning and in a webcast to all employees. No details were given on the timing or scale of the job cuts, but the tone of the announcement suggests a significant impact across BCA. "We will start reducing employment levels beginning with executives and managers first," said company spokesman Doug Alder. "We will also use attrition and voluntary layoffs. As a last resort, involuntary layoffs may be necessary." "The overall employment impact will depend on how effectively we bring down costs as a whole," Alder added. At the beginning of this year, Boeing employment in Washington state stood at 79,238. That's down almost 7,800 jobs from the most recent peak in the fall of 2012 of 87,023.<br/>
Mitsubishi Aircraft announced it has resumed flight tests of the FTA-1 for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) on Feb. 10. “During about 1.5-hour flight test off the Pacific coast, we confirmed the upgrades carried out on the aircraft,” Mitsubishi said. The first MRJ delivery is due in the second or third quarter of 2018, following a delay of about one year announced on Dec. 24, 2015. Mitsubishi Aircraft says it extended the schedule to allow more time for ground testing in support of flight testing, which began on Nov. 11, 2015.<br/>