Long-running efforts to curb the impact of commercial aviation on climate change face a crucial test starting this week when representatives from almost 200 countries debate whether to establish the first-ever global cap on carbon emissions from international flights. Officials are gathering in Montreal for talks starting Tuesday aimed at tackling one of the major sources of carbon-dioxide emissions not covered by the Paris climate deal agreed in Dec 2015. The Paris deal excluded commercial flights because most of aviation’s CO2 emissions are produced outside national borders. Excluding aviation left “a gaping hole” to meeting the Paris target on controlling global warming, said Lou Leonard, senior VP for climate change at the World Wildlife Fund. <br/>
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IATA has decided to make the transformation of airline finance divisions one of its major objectives, after gaining broad industry support for this initiative. The High Performance Organisations (HIPO) concept for airline finance was one of the main issues debated at IATA's annual World Financial Symposium held Sept 21-23. During a series of meetings at the symposium, airline executives agreed that HIPO should become part of the official IATA policy agenda. As a result, the HIPO goal will be added to the 4 actions previously identified by IATA to help the industry achieve sustained financial health. IATA's HIPO program will be aimed at enhancing the capabilities of finance departments so they can play a much greater strategic role in airline management. <br/>
The airline industry collects so much revenue from charges to check bags, reserve seats, buy food and connect to the Internet, among other things, that 10 of the world’s biggest carriers have surpassed the US$1b revenue mark solely from fees. A report by IdeaWorks, a consultant on airline revenue, concluded that 67 of the world’s biggest airlines generated a total of $40.5b from passenger fees and other ancillary revenue last year, up 6.5% from the previous year. The largest 10 airlines each pocketed at least $1b from such fees, the study found. “Now, the top 10 group is a billion-dollar club with annual ancillary revenue ranging from just over $1b to nearly $6.2b per airline,” according to the IdeaWorks’ report. <br/>
Standards of passenger behaviour on UK airlines have plummeted in recent years, according to figures compiled by the CAA. The number of incidents of disruptive passengers has more than quadrupled in just three years, from 85 in 2013 to 386 in 2015. Alcohol consumption has played a major role in the incidence of “air rage” incidents. The worst of the problems tend to occur on short-haul European flights, either to/from holiday destinations or involving groups of people traveling together. The UK govt said in July that it is looking at the way in which alcohol is sold at airports, but no conclusions have yet been drawn from the investigation. Internationally, ICAO has also proposed measures to deal with the problem of inflight disruptive passengers. <br/>
Air flights between Egypt and Russia may be resumed in October, Egypt’s Al-Masry Al-Youm said Sunday. The civil aviation ministry said "at first will be resumed the flights between Moscow and Cairo, which will be served at the second, new, terminal of the airport in the Cairo. The test opening of the new terminal is due Sept 28. Later on, we may resume flights between Moscow and resort Sharm el Sheikh and Hurgada. And when this is done, the parties will proceed to discussing chartered flights." Russia’s key requirements for resuming flights to Egypt are the issues of using an automated biometric control access system and multi-level luggage control at Egyptian airports, as well as issues of in-flight meals control and video surveillance along airports’ perimeter. <br/>