general

There is broad agreement that US airports will not be a pleasant place this summer as security screening lines swell and officials warn that delays will trigger missed flights and may even harm the economy. Where there is disagreement is how we got here. Lawmakers say the TSA is to blame for poor use of resources and failing to anticipate growing traffic levels. The agency says it is doing the best it can within budgetary limits imposed by Congress and the “current threat environment.” “This stare-down match or game of chicken that they are engaging in now is maybe adorable to some, but the chickens will come home to roost once summer travel season begins,” said Jonathan Grella, executive VP for public affairs at the US Travel Association. “We’re incredibly concerned about this communications gap.” Growing numbers of airline passengers, a decrease in TSA employees and an agency reeling from criticism last year that its security wasn’t adequate has created dysfunction at the nation’s airports. Staffing authorised by Congress for the TSA has fallen from 47,147 full-time employees in 2013 to 42,525 this year, a decrease of almost 10%, according to agency data. At the same time, the volume of passengers rose from 643m to an estimated 740m this year, or 15%, according to TSA. The result: in one week during peak spring travel in March, almost 6,800 people traveling on American Airlines missed flights due to delays at TSA checkpoints, airline spokesman Casey Norton said.<br/>

Global demand for air travel rose 5.3% in March - the slowest rate of growth since June 2015, according to IATA. "It is premature to say whether this marks the end of the recent very strong results. We do expect further stimulus in the form of network expansion and declines in travel costs. However, the wider economic backdrop remains subdued", said IATA's Director General Tony Tyler. Total capacity rose 5.9%, while the load factor dropped 0.5 percentage points to 79.6%, IATA said in its monthly traffic update.<br/>

European airports are racing to redesign terminals and offer new services to pull more passengers into their stores, in the face of online competition and militant attacks that have kept away some big-spending Asian travellers. Seeking to boost the key measure of retail sales per passenger, airports are expanding and refurbishing shopping areas and ensuring routes to gates steer customers past - or through - as many stores and restaurants as possible. Vienna Airport , for example, plans to expand the shopping and food area in its Terminal 2 by about 50% - including a duty-free store positioned right after security, which passengers must pass through. London's Stansted has just completed an GBP80m makeover that increased space in the departure lounge by 60%, providing more room for shops. "Airports now are basically shopping malls with runways," said John Jarrell, head of Airport IT at Amadeus, which supplies technology systems to the industry. Retail accounts for almost a fifth of airports' revenue, a proportion that has grown steadily in the past decade, according to airports association ACI Europe, and is increasingly relied upon to help fund infrastructure and services.<br/>

The ICAO is considering new rules that would require airlines to buy two forest-protection emission credits for each metric ton of carbon dioxide, double the typical amount, amid concern over the permits’ environmental credibility, according to two people with direct knowledge of negotiations. As the UN-overseen regulator builds the first global emissions market for the industry from 2020, it wants to include forest-protection credits to get a wide range of supply. It’s also accounting for the fact that some see the offsets as less rigorous than other types of credits, said the people, who asked not to be identified because some of the discussions are private. The aviation regulator agreed in 2013 to create its own global trading system after the European Union scaled back expansion plans for its market, the world’s biggest, that would have covered international flights. ICAO’s program may become a financial lifeline to emission-reduction projects from wind parks to industrial-gas destruction after both the US and EU said they weren’t planning to use international credits as part of a global deal to fight climate change from 2020. Anthony Philbin, an ICAO spokesman in Montreal, declined to comment on the potential rules, including forest credits, in the regulator’s planned market. “The aviation market-based mechanism is still subject to further deliberation and decision by our member states, notably at the high-level meeting we’re holding for all of them from 11-13 May,” in Montreal, he said.<br/>

Amazon.com could take as much as a 30% stake in a large cargo carrier, its second such deal this year as the e-commerce giant seeks to control more of the delivery process, from factories where goods are made to the doorsteps of customers. As part of the agreement, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings will acquire and operate 20 Boeing Co. 767-300 freighters for Amazon, according to a statement from the airline Thursday. The deal mirrors a March transaction with Air Transport Services Group Inc. and would double Amazon’s cargo-hauling fleet to 40 Boeing 767 freighters.<br/>

The number of US visitors to Cuba has nearly doubled this year as the island races to build hotels and expand Havana Airport to keep up with demand. Tourism has taken off since Cuba and the United States announced they would work to bury the Cold War hatchet in December 2014. The Caribbean island received a record 3.5m visitors last year. The influx has pushed capacity to the limit, prompting hotels to increase prices sharply and raising questions about how Cuba will absorb additional visitors when scheduled US commercial airline service starts later this year. "With the increase in demand there have occurred problems with the confirmation of reservations and some irritation with delays at the airports, most of all in Havana," Minister Manuel Marrero said. He said an airport expansion was planned in Havana, but gave no more details. "Until just a little while ago Cuba was a forbidden destination, and not only for Americans, but for many others from various countries," tourism professor Jose Luis Perello, of the University of Havana, said. "Air France has 11 flights a week. Last week, they signed for 28 flights a week from France as from this November, 18 to Havana," he said.<br/>