Significant progress has been made on shortening screening lines since earlier this spring, when airlines reported thousands of frustrated passengers were missing flights, the head of the TSA said Tuesday. Over the busy Memorial Day weekend, 99% of passengers at US airports waited less than 30 minutes and 93% waited less than 15 minutes in regular security lines, Peter Neffenger told a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In TSA Precheck lines for travellers who have received priority security vetting, 93% of passengers waited less than 5 minutes, he said. The agency said it is reducing lines partly by adding more lanes and increasing staffing at peak periods, especially at seven of the nation's busiest airports: John F. Kennedy in New York, Newark in New Jersey, O'Hare in Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles. "When you get stories of long wait times it has primarily been those airports," Neffenger said. "If you can prevent problems from happening there, you don't have problems that cascade throughout the system." TSA also is exploring the possibility of adding automated screening technology at more than a dozen airports that can speed up lines by as much as 30%, he said. <br/>
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US airlines’ efforts to increase fares are meeting with more success this year than during the previous three, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Tuesday. Airline shares rose the most in eight months. JetBlue Airways raised domestic fares $3 one way Monday excluding its premium product, JPMorgan analyst Jamie Baker said in a note to clients Tuesday. American, Delta, United, Southwest, Alaska and Virgin America airlines matched the change on routes where their services overlap with JetBlue’s, Baker said. Carriers typically roll back attempted price increases within a day or two if other airlines don’t follow suit. Airlines are trying to reverse more than a year of annual declines in revenue from each seat flown a mile, a critical yardstick known in the industry as RASM. This week’s move is the sixth lasting airfare increase in 12 tries this year, for a 50% success rate, according to the report. Carriers were only able to maintain higher prices in 18% of their attempts in the 2013-2015 period, Baker said. “We remain of the view that we are on the cusp of a definitive domestic RASM inflection point, most likely in the mid-to-late summer time period,” Baker said. “While no single fare increase is likely to materially elevate RASM from its doldrums, self-help efforts should, in our view, assuage investor fears that pricing departments are somehow asleep at the switch.”<br/>
Airbus sold 83 aircraft in May, narrowing Boeing's lead in the race for orders after a slow start to the year. New business included 60 new-generation narrow-body jets to at least one customer whose name was not disclosed, bringing the total number of aircraft ordered so far this year to 200. After adjusting for cancellations, which included two A350-900s for leasing firm AWAS in May, net orders for the first five months stood at 162 aircraft, Airbus said. Boeing remained ahead on orders, with 298 bookings or 268 after cancellations. Airbus delivered over 234 aircraft between January and May, including nine A350s and seven A320neos.<br/>
Greece has revised terms for the sale and long-term lease of the old Athens airport of Hellinikon, meeting the demands of international lenders who are now expected to unlock withheld bailout funds. Greece clinched an E915m deal for the site of the disused airport, which sits on prime beachfront land, in 2014. Under its terms, a consortium led by Lamda Development, a Greek developer, would own part of the Hellinikon property and get a 99-year lease to develop all of it. But divisions among local communities and technical hurdles delayed the sale. A mass influx of migrants since the beginning of last year has also impeded efforts to conclude the accord. Greece's privatisation agency HRADF and Lamda on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding which revises terms of the deal, they said. "By signing this new agreement for Hellinikon, the implementation of an investment which will leave its mark on the development of this country has taken its course," privatisation agency chief Stergios Pitsiorlas said.<br/>
The head of aircraft engine maker Pratt & Whitney countered criticism on Tuesday from Qatar Airways and Lufthansa about Pratt’s new Geared Turbofan engine, saying early teething issues that have delayed delivery of some Airbus planes have been fixed. "I'm not going to debate the CEO of Lufthansa or the CEO of Qatar. I'm just going to state the facts to you as I know them,” said Bob Leduc, president of Pratt & Whitney. The CE of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, said last week he had cancelled one Pratt-powered A320neo, part of a large Airbus order, over concern that the engine required extra time to start under certain conditions. Some A320s are at Airbus' factory in Toulouse, France, awaiting engines, and Lufthansa is not flying the plane into some airports because of the slow start issue. Pratt, a unit of United Technologies Corp , is one of the world's biggest aircraft engine makers, along with General Electric and Britain's Rolls-Royce Holdings. Leduc ticked off Pratt's numbers: three airlines flying seven A320s with the engine, known as the PW1100G, which is demonstrating a 16 percent cut in fuel burn and 75 percent noise reduction compared with prior engines. In more than 2,000 takeoffs and landings so far, it has shown no major in-flight or takeoff issues, Leduc said, and it has dispatch reliability of 99.75 percent, meaning it was able to leave the gate on time. "This has been a phenomenal entry into service" second only to the Boeing 777 in 1995, he said.<br/>
Canadians risk flight delays and even longer airport security lines unless Ottawa boosts screening funding to address growing passenger levels, industry experts are warning. "It is on the cusp of being a real problem, with serious, serious delays," says John Gibson, chairman of the Canadian Airports Council. Canadian airports aren't currently facing the chronic disruptions that are increasingly angering US passengers. Still, lines have steadily grown over the last few years as Canadian funding hasn't kept pace with the 21% increase in passenger growth over the last five years. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) says, on average, it screens 85% of passengers within 15 minutes. But waits can be much longer at some large airports during peak travel times, with additional pressure potentially coming during the rush of summer travel -- and the number of passengers is growing by 3.5% each year. If nothing is done to address the bigger volumes, Gibson said, passenger waits could regularly reach an hour. The number of security screeners has in the past fluctuated depending on the size of government funding. More than 6,000 agents screened 58m passengers last year. The agency says it's doing the best it can with the resources it's provided by the government. An extra $29m in the Liberal government's first budget will help to maintain the current threshold this year. "Based on the long-term funding that we have right now, if we don't get additional funding then, yes (lines will be longer)," said spokesman Mathieu Larocque. Passenger complaints associated with longer wait times have been growing, CATSA said in its 2015 annual report.<br/>
Russian aircraft manufacturer Irkut Corp. will roll out the MC-21-300 aircraft on June 8 at its factory in Irkutsk. The new aircraft was named as a successor to the Tu-154 and is intended to compete with the A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX. The MC-21 is available in two versions—the -200 and -300—which seat 132 and 163, respectively, in a standard two-class layout, or a maximum 165 and 211 seats. According to Irkut Corp., the MC-21 backlog includes 175 firm orders. “The number of soft orders exceeds 100 aircraft,” the manufacturer said. Its customers include Russia’s Aeroflot, Red Wings, IrAero, Sberbank Leasing, Ilyushin Finance and Air Kyrgyzstan. The manufacturer has not revealed the exact timeframe for testing and certification processes, saying the “МС-21 aircraft will be certified both to Russian and international standards. The ongoing aircraft certification is being completed in accordance with МС-21 Certification Basis, consisting of airworthiness and environmental protection requirements applicable to МС-21 aircraft.”<br/>
Danish regional aircraft lessor Nordic Aviation Capital has agreed to buy 25 Embraer E175 and E190 aircraft from US-based Air Lease Corp. This is the second major fleet transaction between the two companies. In January, ALC sold its fleet of 25 ATRs to NAC. “After our teams successfully worked together on the ATR aircraft portfolio transaction, NAC saw additional value in our fleet of Embraer aircraft,” ALC chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Házy said. ALC said it was selling the aircraft because its “business has matured” and its focus has shifted to mainline jets. “The timing is now appropriate for us to have a smaller role in this market segment,” Udvar-Házy said.<br/>