Airlines have been ordered to cancel 15% of their Paris flights scheduled for Thursday as air traffic controllers join a national public sector strike, France's DGAC civil aviation authority said. Airlines have been asked to cut their flights to and from Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais airports on Sept 15, the authority said Tuesday. Passengers should seek further information from their airlines on the status of their flights, it advised. Public sector unions have issued a strike call in a bid to renew protests against a range of government reforms that had dwindled significantly prior to France's August summer break.<br/>
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A spat among airlines over which deserved the contract to fly US government workers on certain routes intensified on Tuesday, with the CE of JetBlue Airways Corp calling rivals hypocritical for protesting its award. The largest US airlines have taken issue with a contract for federal employees to buy flights between New York and Milan in 2017 from JetBlue, which are marketed by the New York-based airline but operated exclusively by its codeshare partner, Dubai-based Emirates. Delta, No.2 by passenger traffic, has said the award undermined the "Fly America Act" that requires taxpayer-funded travel to take place on domestic carriers, for the benefit of US companies and jobs. The contract also struck a nerve because Delta and peers are embroiled in competition and an ongoing row with Emirates. US airlines have lowered fares to fill planes to Europe - a response in part to Gulf rivals that have added flights at a loss thanks to state subsidies, they allege. Emirates has denied it is subsidized. The Fly America Act permits exceptions for codesharing agreements with foreign airlines, however. Carriers such as Delta and American Airlines Group Inc take advantage of this, JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said. "It’s quite clearly hypocritical nonsense," Hayes said. "If the big three airlines can continue to win these contracts using their partners, flying on their partners' metal, why can’t JetBlue?"<br/>
Airlines had a tough July, with the most lengthy tarmac delays in more than a year and nearly twice as many flights canceled as a month earlier, according to a DoT report Tuesday. The 21 tarmac delays that month violated federal rules for a maximum of three hours for domestic flights and four hours for international, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The department will investigate each case and potentially fine the airlines involved. Eight of the delays were on Delta Air Lines flights and five on United Airlines. The results were the worst since 24 lengthy delays in February 2015. The reporting carriers canceled 1.9% of their scheduled domestic flights in July, nearly doubling the 1% rate a month earlier and the 0.9% rate from same month a year earlier, according to the report. Southwest contributed with 2,300 cancelled flights during a three-day period from a computer outage.<br/>
Foreign airlines flying to Nigeria have started to refuel abroad to bypass pricey, and increasingly scarce, jet fuel as the oil producer battles a hard currency shortage that has made fuel available only at a very high price. It is the second blow for airlines operating in Africa's recession-hit biggest economy in a year that first saw the central bank make it almost impossible to repatriate profits from ticket sales as it tried to prevent a currency collapse. The crash in the naira since a devaluation in June has led firms who market jet fuel locally, such as Total, Sahara and ConocoPhillips, to double the price to 220 naira a litre in August, and to as much as 400 naira this month, an airline executive said. Even at the higher costs, marketers' lack of dollars has made fuel scarce. Some carriers have had aircraft stuck, or were forced to cancel planned journeys, after frantic last-minute calls from ground staff warned there was no fuel available. "The economy is crying out for investment, and now it is going to be even harder for anyone to visit," said John Ashbourne, economist with Capital Economics. "Who is going to want to park a billion dollars in a country that you can't even easily fly to? It sends the worst possible signal."<br/>
The long-awaited new passenger terminal at Phuket airport is set to start full-scale commercial operations tomorrow. The launch is scheduled for a minute after midnight tonight, with all international flights operated by 35 airlines shifting from the old terminal to the new facility, which promises to relieve congestion at Thailand's third-busiest airport. Monrudee Gettuphan, Phuket airport's general manager, confirmed yesterday that all systems were ready for the opening, which will be presided over by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday morning. A series of trial runs and simulations that began on Feb 14 this year have been successful, assuring no hiccups when the terminal comes on stream commercially, Ms Monrudee told the Bangkok Post. In the week leading up to the launch, the new terminal, which cost 2.45b baht to build, is handling 800-900 passengers a day on charter flights run by five Chinese carriers. These flights were moved from the airport's ancillary "X" terminal to the new terminal. <br/>
Wamena Airport will resume normal activities on Wednesday, as the body of a cargo plane that skidded off its runway on Tuesday has been removed from the incident’s site, an airport official has said. Airport head Rasburhani said the aircraft had been removed from the airport’s runway at around 4:30 p.m. local time. “We are cleaning the location of the incident. Hopefully, the airport can operate normally tomorrow,” he said Tuesday. The incident occurred when a cargo aircraft belonging to airline company PT Trigana Air Service was to land at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Authorities closed the airport, causing cancellations of several flights.<br/>
Boeing lifted its forecast for aircraft demand in China in the next two decades, saying a rising middle class would spur leisure and business travel.<br/>The planemaker projects demand in China for 6,810 aircraft valued at $1.025t, making the nation the first trillion-dollar aviation market in its forecast, Boeing saidTuesday. The aircraft maker last year predicted China would need 6,330 new planes worth $950b in the next two decades. In China, “we continue to see very strong passenger traffic growth. We’ve seen a very strong consumer segment of the market,” Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said at a briefing in Beijing. “The good news for aviation is that is the segment of the economy that services the aircraft market.” Carriers across Asia are expanding their fleets as economic growth makes air travel affordable to more people, lifting orders for Boeing and Airbus. The more-optimistic outlook from Boeing, which last year announced a plan to build an aircraft-completion center in China, comes after it delivered a record number of planes to China in 2015.<br/>