Brussels Airport reopened on Sunday, 12 days after suicide bombers badly damaged its departure hall and killed 16 people. Belgium's main airport says it aims to return to maximum capacity before the start of the busy summer travel season at the end of June or early July. The airport had not handled passenger flights since suspected Islamist militants carried out the suicide attacks. On Sunday, the airport handled just three flights, the first to Faro in Portugal with only about 80 passengers. The plane bore a surrealist design of clouds and birds in homage to Belgian painter Rene Magritte and had only been unveiled the day before the bombings. It taxied towards the runway flanked by staff and, after a minute's silence, took off. The first passengers for nearly two weeks fed into a vast temporary marquee housing security controls and check-in facilities. Arnaud Feist, the airport's CE, described Sunday's reopening as a sign of hope and an emotional moment for all airport staff. On Monday, the airport will serve a wider range of destinations, including one plane due out to New York and two more to cities in Cameroon, Gambia and Senegal.<br/>
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After 23 years as a pilot for flag carrier Korean Air Lines, Lee Young-ho left for a Chinese airline that offered him double his current salary and other perks to captain a Boeing 777 in one of the world’s fastest-growing air travel markets. Lee is one of a growing number of Korean pilots moving to China, where airlines are desperately recruiting experienced fliers because demand is growing faster than they can train up their own crews. “In China you can see planes grounded just because there aren’t enough captains to fill the cockpits,” said Lee, who left Korean Air three years ago to join the biggest Chinese airline by fleet size, China Southern Airlines. He said his team alone last year hired at least 40 pilots, mainly from European budget carriers. Veteran pilots from South Korean airlines are among those most sought-after by Chinese carriers for their level of training and cultural proximity, experts say. But their departure is draining Korean carriers of experience and pressuring staff schedules, leading the pilots union to demand large wage increases and raise safety fears. Korean Airlines is now trying to hire retired military pilots and recruit experienced aviators from rival carriers, a company spokesman said. Concerns about safety are unfounded because the carrier runs its own pilot training programs, he said. A shortage of experienced pilots is one of the biggest worries airlines are facing across the world, said Mark Martin from an aviation advisory firm. “They need to train pilots, but then, loyalty is an issue,” he said. As air route networks rapidly expand to serve Asia’s burgeoning middle classes, the region is forecast to need 226,000 new pilots in the next 20 years—more than Europe, North America and Africa combined, according to Boeing.<br/>
Sophia Kuo says she still hears the whispers as she walks through international airports in her EVA Airways Corp. pilot’s uniform: “‘Wow, we have female pilots.’ ‘How does she fly an airplane?’ ‘She must be really smart!”’ More than eight decades after Amelia Earhart’s solo flight across the Atlantic, women like Kuo, a 35-year-old co-pilot on the Taiwanese carrier’s Boeing 747s, remain the exception in the cockpit. Only about 5% of pilots globally are female, according to Liz Jennings Clark, chairwoman of the International Society of Women Airline Pilots. And just “a tiny” percentage of them are captains. Now, airlines are being forced to balance the scale because a rapid escalation in air travel in Asia may leave the industry desperately short of pilots. The region is transporting 100m new passengers every year, said Sherry Carbary, VP of flight services for Boeing, which assists airlines in training new pilots. To fly all those aspiring new middle class, Asia is going to need another 226,000 pilots in the next two decades, according to Boeing. “There is such an enormous demand to meet the growth that the gender bias will have to be pushed aside,” Carbary said.<br/>Some carriers are trying. Vietnam Airlines Corp., based in what the International Air Transport Association forecasts will be one of the world’s 10 fastest-growing aviation markets, is creating work schedules that take into account demands of family life. UK-based EasyJet Plc has set up a scholarship with the British Women Pilots Association to underwrite the costs of training women pilots. Recruitment advertisements increasingly feature women. Even so, it takes a long time for someone to gain the training, knowledge and experience to fly an airliner. Women recruited today on legacy carriers wouldn’t be ready to take charge of a plane for 12 to 15 years, said Clark, a captain with Transavia, a subsidiary of Air France-KLM Group.<br/>
Regulators eased a cap on flights at Newark Liberty International Airport, allowing carriers to apply for new service for the first time since heavy delays forced the US government to limit operations there in 2008. The FAA will consider allowing additional flights at the New Jersey airport as long as they don’t exceed capacity, according to an order posted online Friday. “This change will improve access to some of the most in-demand airspace in the country,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said. The FAA stopped short of fully lifting controls at Newark, saying high demand for flights into the New York region could once again trigger a spike in delays if not carefully managed. Flight caps will remain in place at New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports, the agency said. The FAA action, which takes affect Oct. 30, “will mean more efficient use of scarce airfield capacity at Newark,” according to a statement by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “This action will help travelers by increasing competition and choices at Newark Liberty by allowing more flights by different airlines, thereby helping to reduce air fares.” It was unclear how big an impact the FAA order would have on Newark’s operations, said Brian Campbell, a consultant specializing in scheduling at Campbell-Hill Aviation Group. “I don’t think there’s a lot to play with before serious delay problems would return,” he said.<br/>
US airline performance improved in three of four key categories in 2015, but the flying public still filed complaints at a rate not seen in at least 15 years. The 2016 Airline Quality Rating released Monday found that US carriers did a better job last year of landing flights on time, handling baggage, and making sure everyone who had a ticket for a given flight was able to get on board.“Generally speaking, the system works," said Dean Headley, co-author of the report. But “while (airlines) got better in those three areas, most of that is not going to be noticeable by a particular consumer unless they lose their bag or get bumped off an airplane.’’ The rating, which is based on data from the Department of Transportation’s monthly Air Travel Consumer Report, found that overall, 79.9% of flights landed on schedule last year, vs. 76.2% in 2014. Nine of 13 carriers, including United, Southwest, American and Delta, improved their on-time arrival rate over the previous year. Hawaiian Airlines was the most punctual with an on time rate of 88.4%, while Spirit was at the bottom, with 69% of its flights touching down on schedule. The industry lost, damaged, delayed or pilfered 3.24 bags per 1,000 fliers in 2015, down from 3.62 the previous year. And the rate of involuntary denied boardings – when a passenger loses their seat because the flight has been oversold - dropped significantly for US carriers, to a rate of 0.76 per 10,000 fliers vs. 0.92 the previous year. “Given that the industry is getting more complex, and more people are flying, it says at least the industry is trying to do the right thing," Headley says.<br/>
A rare power outage plunged a major section of the Philippine capital's main airport into darkness overnight, forcing flight cancellations that stranded thousands on Sunday. As many as 78 flights by the country's largest carrier Cebu Pacific were cancelled, affecting nearly 14,000 passengers, the company said in a statement. Philippine Airlines also said some of its flights were cancelled or delayed but could not immediately say how many. The blackout hit Terminal 3, which services mostly domestic flights, late on Saturday and power was not restored until before dawn on Sunday. Exhausted passengers sprawled on the floor as check-in counters and luggage carousels shut down. Long queues formed outside the terminal as entrances were closed until power was restored. Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport handles an average of 350 domestic and international flights daily. "We are looking into the root cause of this problem," Terminal 3 general manager Octavio Lina told DZMM radio.<br/>
A trade mission from Canberra will head to China next week to persuade other airlines to follow the ground-breaking decision by Singapore Airlines to run direct international flights from the ACT. Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Canberra Airport boss Stephen Byron hope a company like China Eastern Airlines will be keen to be "first to be second" to fly out of the national capital. Singapore Airlines has decided to extend the deadline for booking discount fares on its first direct flight from Canberra, in September. The open day was massively successful, drawing a crowd of 30,000, a 25% rise on the attendance figure for the last open day two years ago. The highlight of the day for many aviation enthusiasts was the 17-minute spectacular by the RAAF Roulettes. Singapore Airlines regional vice-president Tiow Kor Tan said the company had been humbled by the support from the people of Canberra and the surrounding region since announcing direct international flights. "To show our thanks to the people of Canberra and the surrounding region, we will be extending the initial introductory fares, which expired last week, for an extra week," Tan said. For international flights, new facilities are being built at the airport for customs, immigration and quarantine, plus dedicated transit lounges, baggage screening, processing and collecting points, money exchanges and duty-free retail. The terminal's departure lounges and aerobridges will be capable of switching from a domestic function to an international gate. Byron said construction of the new facilities for international operations began two weeks ago.<br/>
Honduras will build a new US$163m airport designed to improve on the poor safety record of the existing airport in the capital city, Tegucigalpa. The project will be led by a consortium of local firm Inversiones EMCO and Flughafen Munchen, the operator of Germany's Munich Airport, which will invest USD$87m and receive a 30-year concession. The rest of the money will come from the Honduran government and a Spanish cooperation fund. Tegucigalpa is surrounded by hills and its airport has a reputation as one of the most treacherous in Latin America due to a difficult approach and a short runway of less than 6,000 feet. The new airport is meant as an alternative "so that passengers can land in an airport that does not put their lives at risk," Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said. The new airport, with a longer, 2440 m runway, will be 65 km from the capital near the Palmerola military air base. It is expected to open in 2018.<br/>
Avolon, the aircraft-leasing company acquired by the parent of China’s Hainan Airlines, is in talks with carriers keen to add Airbus Group SE’s A330neo to their fleets and may increase orders for the new wide-body jet as Asian travel demand spikes. “We’ve been in discussions with Airbus, as we place more, we may order more," CEO Domhnal Slattery said, without identifying the carriers he’s engaging with. China will become the “single-most important market” for plane-leasing companies over the next five years, with the A330neo suited for Asia as intra-continental and longer haul flights proliferate, Slattery said. Avolon, bought by China’s Bohai Financial Investment Holding Co. for $7.6b in January, has 15 of the new Airbus wide-body planes on order. Avolon has also purchased 45 of the 75 current-model A330 that China ordered last year, a deal that helped Airbus bridge the gap as it moves from the existing model to a variant with more fuel-efficient engines that will enter service in 2017. <br/>