The first draft of a performance-based packaging standard for lithium-ion batteries will not be ready by November and will likely slip into early 2017, an ALPA committee member said Wednesday. The standard, if ultimately approved by ICAO, will set the pass/fail criteria for how packaging materials respond to certain failures of the batteries, primarily the thermal runaway conditions that cause lithium-ion battery fires to propagate between adjacent cells and batteries. The idea is that the packaging will contain high temperatures, fragments and hazardous gases. The standards are being developed by a group of 150 govt and industry representatives. An approved packaging standard in theory would allow passenger airlines to restart shipments of lithium ion batteries in bulk in the cargo hold. <br/>
general
The aviation industry is facing a crucial need for trained workers and must come up with more than 2.1m new employees in just 3 vital job positions during the next 20 years if it wants to keep up with the tremendous growth expected in the industry worldwide, according to a report by Boeing. The Current Market Outlook report projects “extraordinary demand for pilots, technicians, and cabin crew” during the forecast period ending in 2035. This could lead to a massive problem for major airlines if they can’t keep up with the pace of growth. Despite the report this week that a lot of the airlines have boosted employment in the past year, many of the major airlines are unable to find enough workers already and are facing shortages in workers, including key positions such as pilots. <br/>
FAA is stuck in “a vicious cycle” of deploying new air traffic control technology so slowly that it becomes outdated by the time the technology is actually in use, National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) president Paul Rinaldi said Aug 24. “The status quo, as we sit [here] today, is completely unacceptable,” Rinaldi, head of the union representing 14,000 US air traffic controllers, said. An “archaic, bureaucratic-laden procurement process” and federal budget constraints mean the FAA is “stuck in the early 2000s” in terms of ATC technology, he said. Despite the US govt spending hundreds of millions of dollars deploying the En Route Automation Modernisation computer system at the FAA’s 20 enroute ATC centres across the US, “we still have to do 2.4m manual handoffs a year with Canada,” Rinaldi said. <br/>
Fliers may soon be able to use Wi-Fi facility when they are on flights in the Indian airspace, with the govt Wednesday indicating that a decision is likely in the coming days. "I will be able to give you good news in 10 days," Civil Aviation secretary R N Choubey said in response to a query on when Wi-Fi would be allowed in flights. At present, fliers are not allowed to use mobile phones and Internet when they are in the Indian airspace. "There is fairly a good chance that in 10 days permission will be given to operate Wi-Fi in the Indian airspace," Choubey said. When asked whether there were any security issues in allowing Wi-Fi in flights, he said the important thing was about the "ability to track voice and data". If necessary, agencies should have access to the details and if need be it can be tracked, he noted. <br/>