Brussels Airport handled 2.4m passengers in July, a slight fall from July, 2015's record month. The airport said that the strong performance of Brussels Airlines and low-cost carriers contributed to the result. Leisure traffic during the month was affected by tensions in the Mediterranean, and long-haul by the ending of Jet Airways' flights to Brussels in March. The number of local departing passengers continues to recover and is now nearing the level of 2015, the airport said. Cargo volume in July saw a drop of 8.8% compared with the same month last year. The fall is attributed to the cancellation of several cargo flights as a result of business decisions and the economic climate in Asia.<br/>
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The major US airlines expect 15.6m passengers to fly over the seven-day Labor Day travel period, up 4% from the analogous period a year ago, according to Airlines for America, the leading industry trade group. During this year’s travel period, which runs from Aug. 31 through Sept. 6, about 2.23m passengers a day on average will take to the skies, up about 82,000 a day from last year. The busiest days are expected to be Sept. 2 and Sept. 1, respectively. Airlines for America said the carriers are expected to increase their number of seats available by 4% to accommodate the increase in demand. Fares were down 5.2% in 2015 and are down 6% so far in 2016, the trade group said, which makes air travel a relative bargain and is helping fuel the expected surge in Labor Day travel this year. In H1 2016, 10 leading US airlines collectively reported pretax profit of $12b, up from $11.3b a year earlier. That translated into a profit margin of 15.5%, or 15 and a half cents on each dollar of revenue. The improvement came on a 1.9% drop in expenses, with falling fuel prices making up for increases in aircraft, airport costs and labor. Employee wages and benefits alone have risen 35% since 2010, to $3.44b a month from $2.55b a month, the trade group said.<br/>
Airlines were running on time more often in June than they did last summer and travellers seemed to be finding less to complain about. But that was before computer outages this month at Delta and last month at Southwest led to more than 4,000 flight cancelations, widespread delays and travel nightmares. The DoT said Wednesday that 78% of flights on major US airlines arrived on time in June, up from 74.8% in June 2015. The on-time rate slipped from May’s 83.4% mark, however. Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines had the best on-time ratings. American Airlines had the worst. At least one in every four flights was late on American, Virgin America, Spirit Airlines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways. Flights that arrive at least 15 minutes behind schedule are considered late.<br/>
Chinese airlines need to hire almost 100 pilots a week for the next 20 years to meet skyrocketing travel demand. Facing a shortage of candidates at home, carriers are dangling lucrative pay packages at foreigners with cockpit experience. Giacomo Palombo, a former United pilot, said he’s being bombarded every week with offers to fly Airbus A320s in China. Regional carrier Qingdao Airlines promises as much as $318,000 a year. Sichuan Airlines, which flies to Canada and Australia, is pitching $302,000. Both airlines say they’ll also cover his income tax bill in China. “When the time to go back to flying comes, I’ll definitely have the Chinese airlines on my radar,” said Palombo, 32, now an Atlanta-based consultant for McKinsey & Co. who said he was speaking in his personal capacity and not his employer’s. “The financials are attractive.” Air traffic over China is set to almost quadruple in the next two decades, making it the world’s busiest market, according to Airbus Group SE. Startup carriers barely known abroad are paying about 50% more than what some senior captains earn at Delta, and they’re giving recruiters from the US to New Zealand free rein to fill their captains’ chairs. “When we ask an airline, ‘How many pilots do you need?,’ they say, ‘Oh, we can take as many as you bring,”’ Ross said. “It’s almost unlimited.”<br/>
Boeing is not experiencing any slippage in demand for jetliners in China, despite the country's sluggish pace of economic growth, a senior Boeing executive said Wednesday. "We're not seeing any softness yet," said Ihssane Mounir, Boeing's senior VP of sales for Northeast Asia. "We're watching it close," Mounir added, since global economic conditions could shift. "But if I just look at the Chinese market as it stands today, I'm not seeing any signs of weakness whatsoever." The comments came after other US industrial companies recently reported weak sales growth in China and suggested the weakness could extend through the end of 2016. Global demand for widebody aircraft has also slowed, raising concerns about sales growth at Boeing and rival Airbus. Boeing said last week it may further cut production of widebody 777 jetliners and not increase output of 787s unless sales improve.<br/>