A proposed climate accord for airlines is likely to attract support from enough nations to cover about 80% of global emissions from international flights, a senior US State Department official said. The draft agreement adopted Friday by the governing council of the United Nations’ aviation agency would initially be voluntary yet has support from nations responsible for most aviation emissions, including the US, China and members of the EU, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the negotiations are private. If approved by a majority of 191 countries this fall, it would be the first global climate accord for a single industry. Airline emissions account for about 2% of global greenhouse gases and are forecast to more than triple over the next few decades The accord would take effect in 2020. <br/>
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Every few months, a pilot somewhere in the world is stopped before a jet takes off because of suspicion of drunkenness. It makes headlines and gives nervous travellers another reason to avoid flying. Despite their notoriety, such cases are extremely rare. Each day, there are 90,000 flights around the world, carrying more than 8m people. And the overwhelming majority of pilots in those cockpits are sober. “Pilots take being fit to fly seriously and act accordingly," says one safety consultant. "Pilots know they are one of the most carefully monitored professions and therefore, are very conservative." Many pilots caught drinking on the job have later returned to the skies. The FAA has a process that allows recovering alcoholics back in the cockpit if they pass a medical evaluation and stay clean during monitoring for the next 5 years. <br/>
Air travel accounted for more than 4 out of 10 complaints handled last year by an Irish consumer body that resolves disputes over services in other EU member states. The European Consumer Centre said it received just over 3,500 contacts last year, of which 63.7% (2,231) were complaints. The main problems encountered by consumers were in relation to air travel (41%), followed by issues with electronic goods (8.1%) and problems with online services (7.8%). Flight cancellations and delays were the number one cause of complaint for air passengers, followed by damaged, delayed or lost luggage or problems with an airline’s baggage policy. Issues concerning technical difficulties encountered while booking flights online and policies imposed by air carriers were other major sources of complaint last year. <br/>
Russia’s international traffic fell 26.6% in July to 3.6m passengers, according to Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia. Total international and domestic traffic reached 10.1m, down 10.3% year-over-year. From January-July, Russian airlines carried 48.2m, down 8.2% YOY. International traffic dropped 26.7% to 17m, domestic increased 6.6% to 31.1m. The international traffic decrease was because of a flight ban to Egypt and a charter flight ban to Turkey. The relaunch of Turkey charter flights was announced in early July after Russia’s president Vladimir Putin told the govt to resume selling packaged holidays to Turkey, but the final decision was postponed to the end of August. The top 5 Russian carriers reported traffic increases from January-July despite the total downturn. <br/>
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said it’s sticking to the schedule of handing over its first plane in 2018 after issues with the jet’s air conditioning ventilator this weekend grounded the plane from further test flights. Mitsubishi is working with United Technologies, which makes the aircraft’s air conditioning, to fix the problem, a Mitsubishi spokesman said. ANA Holdings is the launch customer for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, also known as the MRJ. After 2 aborted test flights in as many days following the faulty air-conditioning system, Japan’s first locally built passenger jet was sent back to the hangar for checks and fixes, the latest blow to a key aircraft-building program plagued by delays in its delivery schedule. "We are sure that we can still deliver the plane on time in 2018," Mitsubishi said. <br/>
Airways is warning of possible delays at busy airports if the aviation boom continues at current levels. While the air traffic control agency was "on top of it for now," it was going to be harder to make sure all airlines were not hit by congestion. The state-owned enterprise posted a 54% increase in annual profit and more than doubled its dividend to the Crown as it benefits from an 8% increase in flights. CE Ed Sims said the company was spending more on technology over the coming year to tackle congestion. It expects capital expenditure in the year ahead to around NZ$40m, having increased it 10% in the last financial year, much of it on infrastructure at Queenstown Airport to allow night flights. Sims said delays in New Zealand were still being measured in seconds per flight rather than minutes. <br/>