Two US senators Tuesday sent letters to 13 major airlines expressing concerns that their information technology systems are vulnerable to outages that can strand thousands of passengers similar to recent flight cancellations. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey sent letters after Southwest Airlines Co and Delta Air Lines Inc experienced technology issues that resulted in thousands of flight cancellations across the country. They want details on "specific safeguards and backups" to prevent airline IT systems from failing. Delta was forced to ground about 2,000 flights last week after a small fire resulted in a "massive failure" at the airline's technology centre. Reuters reported last week further outages are likely because major carriers have not invested enough to overhaul reservations systems based on technology dating to the 1960s. “We are concerned with recent reports indicating that airlines’ IT systems may be susceptible to faltering because of the way they are designed and have been maintained,” the Democratic senators wrote. "Now that four air carriers control approximately 85% of domestic capacity, all it takes is one airline to experience an outage and thousands of passengers could be stranded." The senators also want airlines to answer if they will rebook passengers on a rival carrier or compensate passengers in the event of delays or cancellations caused by an IT outage. They also want answers about airlines' cybersecurity efforts.<br/>
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Power has been restored to a luggage screening system at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport hours into a partial power outage at a terminal. Full power is expected to be restored soon to the terminal, where a false report of gunfire caused an evacuation over the weekend. American Airlines operates Terminal 8. It says escalators and elevators are out of service but power has been restored to its checked-bag screening system. The airline said Tuesday night it hoped to have full power restored within hours. It says the problem was caused by a transformer that failed Tuesday afternoon. A report of gunfire at the terminal led to chaos Sunday. <br/>
European aviation safety agency EASA has published proposals for a rules update on pilots' medical fitness including mental health assessments. The European Aviation Safety Agency's proposals to the EC address safety recommendations made after Germanwings flight 9525 crashed into the Alps in March 2015, killing all 150 onboard. The proposals will serve as the basis for a legislative proposal by the EC towards the end of 2016, EASA said in a statement. The new requirements, if adopted, will strengthen initial and recurring medical examination of pilots, including drugs and alcohol screening and a comprehensive mental health assessment.<br/>
Egypt risks damaging its aviation industry if it continues to block the release of hundreds of millions of dollars owed to foreign airlines, the IATA has warned. Egypt owes $250m worth of local ticket sales to international airlines, IATA said late Sunday. That is down from the $291m that owed in June. IATA said that it is working with Egyptian authorities “to find a practical solution to release forex (foreign exchange) to airlines in order to avoid any unintended, detrimental effects on the country’s aviation industry.” IATA warned in June that airlines could stop flying to Egypt if they were not able to remit local sales revenue. Emirates, which operates 17 weekly flights to Cairo, said Monday that is has “agreed with the relevant authorities on a short-term financial scheme for remitting its residual revenues according to a timeline.” It did not provide details of the timeline or say how much it was owed. Etihad Airways, which flies 28 times a week to Cairo, declined to comment when asked if it had revenues stuck in Egypt. <br/>
Boarding a flight can feel like stepping into a time capsule — men typically fly the plane, while most flight attendants are still women. Which is why a female pilot from Delta did something dramatic at a union meeting recently. Standing before her male colleagues, the captain unbuttoned her uniform, strapped a breast pump over the white undershirt she wore underneath, and began to demonstrate the apparatus. As the machine made its typical “chug, chug, chug” noise, attendees squirmed in their seats, looked at their feet and shuffled papers. It was the latest episode in what has proved to be a difficult workplace issue to solve: how to accommodate commercial airline pilots who are balancing new motherhood. It is a question that some employers have answered by creating leave policies or lactation rooms. But the flight deck of a jumbo jet isn’t a typical workplace. Pilots are exempt from a provision in the Affordable Care Act requiring employers to accommodate new mothers. At 30,000 feet, the issue touches not only on pilot privacy, but also aircraft safety. At Delta, a group of women pilots have banded together through a private Facebook page and have approached their union with formal proposals for paid maternity leave — unheard-of at the major airlines — because they say they would like to stay home to breast-feed their babies. At Frontier Airlines, four female pilots are suing the company for discrimination, seeking the option of temporary assignments on the ground while pregnant or nursing. While their proposals differ, all say they aim for one thing: to avoid situations in which pilots have been leaving the cockpit in midflight for as long as 20 minutes, the amount of time often required to pump breast milk. “The airlines have maternity policies that are archaic,” said Kathy McCullough, 61, a retired captain for Northwest Airlines, which merged with Delta in 2008, who has advocated on behalf of the pilots to Delta management. “I am so glad that they’re stepping forward and taking a stand.”<br/>
Commercial airlines operating in Japan will be required from January to employ a doctor to monitor the health of pilots and other crew members, according to transport ministry officials. The decision was prompted by the 2015 crash of a budget airline jet in the French Alps deliberately caused by the co-pilot, who had a mental illness, the officials said Tuesday. All 150 people on board the Germanwings plane were killed. While major carriers Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways already employ specially trained doctors, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has decided to require other airlines, including low-cost carriers, operating regularly scheduled services to implement health checkup systems of the same level. Under current Japanese aviation law, passenger aircraft pilots are obliged to undergo physical and mental checkups at least once a year by government-designated doctors specialised in examining aviation industry personnel. The transport ministry will impose stricter health care oversight of crew members by requiring all scheduled carriers to employ doctors well-versed in aerospace medicine and familiar with working conditions for pilots and other aircraft crew. The doctors will be required to take courses in aviation medicine provided by the ministry and to regularly interview all flight crew members. The ministry will also urge airlines to collect information from family members about the health condition of flight crew.<br/>
The world’s two largest jetmakers are bracing for the next round in a transatlantic spat over billions of dollars of aircraft subsidies, amid accusations of widening US support for Boeing and persistent European aid to Airbus. After a year-long lull, the world’s biggest trade dispute will enter a crucial phase in coming months, potentially casting a shadow over faltering efforts by the EU and US to negotiate a wider free-trade deal. At stake are mutual claims of unfair subsidies to the two plane makers that raise the prospect of $22b a year in threatened trade sanctions, though many say a resolution remains years away and could ultimately involve a negotiated settlement. The dispute, said to be the biggest in terms of value and time, dates back to 2004 when the US urged the WTO to act against European government loans to help Airbus develop jets such as the A380, followed by a counterclaim from the EU over federal and local aid for Boeing. In separate rulings, the WTO found that both plane makers had benefited from billions of dollars of unfair subsidies. The case is now bogged down in arguments over whether each side complied with orders to withdraw illegal subsidies and undo the effects of the majority of aid which, although not banned, can be challenged if it can be proved to be damaging. After a three-year delay due to the strain placed on its resources by the marathon dispute, the WTO is expected to rule within weeks on whether the EU obeyed its rulings, followed by a similar report on US compliance early next year.<br/>
EASA has certified the Sukhoi Superjet SSJ100 to operate into airports with runways as narrow as 30 metres wide. The approval was triggered by a request from Irish regional airline CityJet, which became the European launch operator for the SSJ100 in June 2016. Sukhoi Civil Aircraft president Ilya Tarasenko said the certification forms part of a strategy to expand the operating capabilities of the twinjet. As part of this push, Sukhoi is also working to secure steep-approach certification into London City airport by December 2017. “This approach mode will be guaranteed by wing-flap system modernisation and flight management system and avionics improvement,” Sukhoi said. “Flight tests are to be started in the summer of 2017.”<br/>