Having your bag misplaced by an airline is on the decline. According to the SITA Baggage Report 2016, the baggage mishandling rate for airlines dropped over 10% in 2015 - the lowest the rate has ever been since records began in 2003. Last year, 6.53 bags were mishandled per thousand passengers, which was 10.5% less per thousand passengers than last year. Lost luggage cost the aviation industry US$2.3b in 2015, 3.75% less than 2014 - but still a substantial amount. However, the industry has improved practices around baggage handling considerably in recent years, as passenger numbers have risen by 85% since 2003. In 2007, the number of mishandled bags peaked at 46.9m, with a cost of $4.2b to the industry. Since then, the number of lost bags has been halved and costs have reduced by 45%. <br/>
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Boeing said Wednesday that airline requests to change delivery dates of aircraft remained "well below historical average," a sign that low fuel prices have not significantly altered the outlook for the market. Boeing also began building its 787 Dreamliner at the rate of 12 a month and plans to deliver planes at that rate by midyear, CE Dennis Muilenburg said. Requests to defer, accelerate and cancel aircraft deliveries were about 1% of the company's total backlog in the latest quarter, compared with an average of 6% over the past 15 years. Muilenburg’s comments came as low fuel prices have caused retirements of older aircraft to slow and raised concern that the aircraft business cycle is slowing. Despite a slowdown in orders, Boeing expects new orders to roughly equal its forecast of 740 to 745 jetliner deliveries this year. <br/>
Flying over the US-Canadian border is like time travel for pilots. Going north to south, you leave a modern air-traffic control system run by a company and enter one run by the govt struggling to catch up. Airlines, the air-traffic controllers’ union and key congressional leaders all support turning over US air-traffic control services to a newly created non-profit company and leaving the FAA as a safety regulator. It’s an idea that still faces strong opposition in Congress, but has gained traction this year. The model is Nav Canada, the world’s second-largest air-traffic control agency, after the US. Airlines praise its advanced technology that results in shorter and smoother flights with less fuel burn. The key, Nav Canada says, is its nongovernmental structure. <br/>
In Q4 of 2015, airline tickets were 8.3% cheaper than the previous Thanksgiving. Not only was the average domestic air fare down from US$396 in 2014 to $363 in 2015 — that was the lowest that ticket prices have been in the Q4 since 2010, the DoT Bureau of Transportation Statistics said. Comparing Q4s (since airfares fluctuate seasonally), the average 2015 fare was 14.4% lower than the $462 in 2000, which BTS said was the highest inflation-adjusted fourth quarter average fare since BTS began keeping records in 1995. Here’s the big picture for 2015: The average fare of $377 for the full year was down 3.8%, inflation-adjusted, from the 2014 average fare of $392. That $377 was a whopping 19.2% decrease from the inflation-adjusted annual high of $467 in 2000. <br/>
French air traffic controllers will strike again Thursday, April 28, the 44th strike day in France since 2009. Hundreds of flights will be cancelled, creating disruption and extensive delays across the continent, A4E said. Just 2 weeks after the last walkout in Belgium, French ATCs will strike for the third time in a month. “During 2016 ATC strikes in Greece, Italy, Belgium and now again in France have already accumulated up to a full week of disruption. In March and April, the strikes caused over 2,000 cancellations among A4E members and will now hit the 1m minutes delay mark across all airlines operating in European airspace,” A4E MD Thomas Reynaert said. Ahead of Thursday’s strike, the DGAC has requested airlines to adapt their flight schedule to and from certain French airports, especially Paris-Orly. <br/>
Russian airlines have requested the Ministry of Transport to reconsider the rates for subsidised routes in the Far East, Kaliningrad and Crimea programs. According to a letter by the Russian Association of Air Transport Operators (AEVT), these subsidy programs remain in force only during the high summer season, “compelling the airlines to sell profitable seats at low rates to perform the social programs. At the same time, the airports are increasing their rates for the carriers annually, explaining the decision with the inflation and other negatives. But the rates for subsidised carriage remains the same during the whole program,” AEVT said. “As a result the carriers bear losses.” There are several govt-subsidised programs in Russia. There are also several commuter subsidy programs, but they are carried out during the whole year. <br/>
Mauritius, an island nation some 1,200 miles off the east coast of Africa, is bidding to establish itself as a key hub for Asia-Africa commercial schedules. In late 2015 it signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore’s Changi Airport to establish an air corridor agreement to link Africa and Southeast Asia. Mauritian prime minister Anerood Jugnauth said the agreement would help “transform [our] island into one of the biggest aviation hubs of the region and to firmly establish the country as the…key of the Indian Ocean. Trade body Enterprise Mauritius said the agreement would be officially inaugurated Q1 2016. It added that it was in the process of negotiating with mainland African neighbour Swaziland “on avenues of cooperation [on an] Air Corridor between Africa and Asia/Southeast Asia.” <br/>