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The UN's ICAO should avoid creating new checkpoints outside airport terminals as it draws up guidelines to improve security in the wake of recent attacks, the head of Airports Council International said. Angela Gittens, director general of the global airport trade group, said she did not want external checkpoints, which are being debated as a way to deter attacks on airports, to become part of a proposed global security standard for public areas because the additional lineup could create a new target. The ICAO last week discussed creating a new standard that could push countries to come up with security rules for public sections of airports. Security in land-side areas is run by a patchwork of local and state authorities, depending on the country. "Most airports were not built to have people congregate at doors," Gittens said. "And every time you stop people, you're interfering with what airports were supposed to be doing. You're trapping people in a line where if something did happen these people would not be able to scatter." ICAO sets standards that its 191 member states typically adopt as regulatory requirements. While global security guidelines already exist for airside areas, the ICAO has not set standards for public sections of airports. Even before a March attack on a Brussels airport, the agency was already discussing ways to improve security after a Metrojet plane crashed in Egypt last year.<br/>

The airline industry has finally shaken off its boom-and-bust past, says the head of the world’s largest carrier, but investors aren’t buying it because familiar signs of trouble loom on the horizon. Global air fares are falling as carriers add ever more aircraft, and low oil prices, which helped airlines land record profits of $33b last year, are inching higher. In addition, terrorism fears are weighing on bookings and, even as more passengers take to the skies, growth is stalling in some regions. It’s a challenging mix for the 200-plus airline executives gathering in Dublin this week for the industry’s annual jamboree hosted by the IATA. The message they’d like to deliver echoes that of American Airlines CE Doug Parker in a speech in March. “We have an industry that also can be a real business like other businesses,” said Parker, who has spearheaded much of the consolidation that’s allowed airlines to become more efficient, and last year earn more than their cost of capital for the first time. “The airline business has been fundamentally and structurally transformed and the valuations do not reflect such a transformation,” he said. “They’re not even close.” Investors have shrugged and headed for the exits, dragging an index of global airline stocks down 6.4% since the start of the year. US carriers have been hit hardest, with Parker’s American shedding a quarter of its value even as it poured profits into stock buybacks. Demand isn’t the problem. Global passenger numbers rose 7% in the first quarter from a year earlier, driven largely by growth among carriers in Asia and the Middle East. Fliers are paying less, with global fares down an average 4% through April and are particularly weak on trans-Atlantic flights and in the US.<br/>

France's civil aviation body wants airlines to fuel up abroad during the current protests at refineries and depots to ensure two complete flights, an Air France spokesman told AFP on Friday. Planes flying into Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport from elsewhere in Europe, for example, would need to have enough fuel for both the outward and return flights, the spokesman said. "But there is no shortage at this stage, we have enough reserves to run for several days. These are precautionary measures," he added. Air France had been following the recommendation since Friday afternoon, he said. The recommendation from the DGAC authority came in a note to airlines operating inside France. Fuel for planes in Paris is stored on-site at airports, arriving from pipelines from refineries on the Seine and the northern port of Le Havre. But oil workers at Le Havre cut the supply of fuel on Tuesday and on Friday voted to continue their strike, said the CGT union.<br/>

The skies above Asia will get more crowded during the next 20 years as airlines acquire planes to fly more passengers from developing economies. That timing couldn’t be better for aircraft leasing company BOC Aviation.<br/>BOC Aviation, an arm of Bank of China, is scheduled to debut on the Hong Kong exchange Wednesday after raising HK$8.7b ($1.1b) in an IPO. The company sold new and existing shares at HK$42 apiece in Asia’s second-biggest IPO this year, and it plans to use the proceeds to help pay for new planes. As airlines serving Asia-Pacific move to triple their fleet, they’re finding it can be cheaper to lease jets instead of buying them from Boeing or Airbus. And for BOC, the leasing business can be more lucrative than running an airline, helping explain why conglomerates led by Hong Kong billionaires Li Ka-shing and Cheng Yu-tung are entering the field. “The Chinese are getting into leasing as they see huge potential in their own market, as well as Asia-Pacific,” said Shukor Yusof, founder of Endau Analytics in Malaysia. “They are flush with cash.” The share offer has attracted such investors as Boeing and sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp. Airlines in Asia will fly more than 16,000 planes within 20 years, almost tripling the current number, according to estimates by Boeing. BOC Aviation, the biggest lessor in the region, has 270 planes, underscoring the growth prospects in what is set to be the world’s largest aviation market.<br/>

Fast moving airport security lines at the start of the Memorial Day weekend could bode well for return travellers Monday. Travellers reported moving quickly through airport checkpoints Friday after authorities opened extra screening lanes and used bomb-sniffing dogs to give some passengers a break from removing their shoes. "Wow. I mean, wow," said Mike Saresky, who flew into Chicago from Philadelphia, where he breezed through airport security in 12 minutes and got to leave his shoes on. "I thought it was going to be a lot worse." The extra dogs were concentrated at the nation's largest airports, but they were not used for all screenings, meaning that many travelers still had to observe the usual procedures. But as the busy summer travel season kicked off, the federal TSA tried to offer travellers some relief after weeks of slow-moving lines blamed on an increase in the number of air travelers and a shortage of TSA security officers. A TSA spokesman said the extra dogs would remain well beyond the holiday. The TSA began deploying extra canine teams to the busiest airports months ago. While the goal was to shorten waits at larger airports, the reshuffling could also result in longer lines at airports that lost dog teams. The dogs "have the ability to screen large groups of passengers for explosives, making the removal of shoes and laptops and such unnecessary," TSA spokesman Mike England said. The agency has 900 dog teams nationwide, England said. He declined to say which airports they were sent to for the holiday weekend or how long they might stay. "This is not just for Memorial Day weekend," England said. "I wouldn't expect that it would go away any time soon."<br/>

The private jet Janine Iannarelli is selling for a Russian client has leather seats, wood paneling, a satellite phone and can fly nonstop from Tokyo to Los Angeles. The price has dropped $3m since September and is still falling. Iannarelli today is hawking the 10-year-old Bombardier Global 5000 for $14.5m but recommends that her client cut the price further as the market for large-cabin business jets keeps weakening. A new Global 5000 lists for $50.4m. "There's absolutely no evidence of a recovery on the horizon," says Iannarelli, founder of Houston-based aircraft brokerage Par Avion Ltd. "None of the jet models has hit bottom." Rarely seen bargains abound for big corporate aircraft as tumbling oil wealth, a stronger dollar and a downturn for emerging-market giants from Brazil to Russia cripple demand. As owners from foreign tycoons to Archer-Daniel-Midlands try to sell their planes, Bombardier, General Dynamics's Gulfstream unit and other planemakers are cutting output and chopping list prices to cope with a glut of new and used business jets. The slump extends even to the Gulfstream G650 -- just two years ago an aircraft so coveted by well-heeled buyers that some would pay $10m above list for a used jet rather than wait four years for a new model. Now there are 19 G650s for sale, about 11% of the global fleet in operation. One 2013 plane that first was posted for sale in June at $68m has had its asking price cut twice, to $58.8m.<br/>