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Greek air traffic controllers have cancelled a plan for successive 24-hour strikes next week after meeting with the country's transport minister. The air controllers' union said in a statement Saturday evening that Transport Minister Christos Spirtzis had promised to make changes to a draft bill that reorganises Greece's civil aviation authorities. The reforms are one of a handful of outstanding actions that Greece's left-led government must do to receive a E2.8b rescue loan installment from its European partners. The first 24-hour strike was to begin at midnight Saturday. Further strikes had been scheduled for Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. The strikes would have led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights. A few airlines had already announced a reduced schedule for next week.<br/>

Airlines have a question for US regulators: Mind if we collude a bit? The carriers have made an unusual request of the US DoT: They want antitrust immunity for one year so they can collectively discuss ways to retrieve US$3.8b currently held hostage by Venezuela’s deep economic slide. Since 2013, Venezuelan officials have virtually halted the repatriation of past ticket sales made in bolivars, the local currency. Inflation has soared and foreign currency reserves have dwindled to $12b, as the government of President Nicolás Maduro imposed various currency exchange rates and the economy fell into disarray and food shortages. As a result, the flow of money homeward has slowed to a trickle for many multinational corporations operating in Venezuela. Authorities first required government approval for the repatriation of foreign company sales in 2003. Over the past 21 months, Maduro’s government allowed only two small payments to a pair of foreign carriers, said Jason Sinclair, a spokesman for the IATA. Airlines that previously negotiated for payment individually are now hoping a united front can offer more leverage. “Individual airline approaches to the Venezuelan government thus far have been unavailing,” IATA’s general counsel, Jeffrey Shane, wrote in a Sept. 22 filing with the DOT. Antitrust immunity “would permit the airlines to consider approaches to the problem, which they have not been permitted to explore together before now.” Story has further details.<br/>

The UN accord reached Thursday to clean up pollution from international aviation may cost airlines as much as $23.9b annually by 2035. The companies see it as a victory. The landmark deal brokered in Montreal creates a global system requiring airlines to compensate for emissions growth after 2020 by funding environmental initiatives. That spares carriers from exactly what they had pushed to avoid: a patchwork of regional environmental regulations that probably would have been even more costly. The accord is less of a win for the planet, at least in the eyes of environmentalists. The deal is voluntary for countries during the first six years. It covers only international flights, not domestic. Rather than forcing emission cuts, it allows airlines to increase pollution in exchange for buying credits that support renewable energy development, forest preservation and other environmental efforts. And while costs will run into the billions, the price per flight will be low enough that it may not impact airfares. “This agreement is a timid step in the right direction when we need to be sprinting,” said Greenpeace UK Chief Scientist Doug Parr. “The aviation industry has managed to get away for years with doing nothing about its growing carbon-emission problem, and now it’s giving itself even more years to do very little.’’ Exhaust from international flights accounts for about 2% of global greenhouse gases and is expected to triple by 2050. Airlines were left out of the Paris climate accord because of the challenge of divvying up responsibility for global routes. The deal reached in Montreal is the first international framework to regulate emissions from a single industry.<br/>

The EASA has awarded type certification to the Bombardier CS300, the larger version of the CSeries slated to enter service with Latvian carrier airBaltic in the 2016 Q4. EASA’s validation follows the CS300 aircraft type certification awarded by Transport Canada in July. The CS300 jetliner—the second CS300 flight test vehicle—embarked on a series of European and Middle Eastern route-proving flights at the end of September. “Certifying two clean-sheet aircraft within a nine-month period is a major aviation industry achievement and today we celebrate the latest CSeries program milestone with the CS300 EASA certification,” Bombardier Commercial Aircraft president Fred Cromer said. He called the CSeries “the only single-aisle jetliners developed for the 100- to 150- seat market segment in close to 30 years.” <br/>

A new global pollution deal for aviation is seen providing a long-term boost for carbon markets by generating demand for environmental offset projects that now often sell at rock-bottom prices, according to industry groups and analysts. The carbon offsetting scheme, the first such industry-wide initiative, will start in 2021 with at least 65 participating countries in its voluntary phases, following the deal's approval on Thursday by the ICAO. "It should be a great boost for carbon credit markets in general," said Dirk Forrister, ‎CE of the International Emissions Trading Association. "I would expect pricing to respond to this increase in demand." He said carbon credits now sell for as little as 40 cents a tonne, but can rise to $10 a tonne depending on the quality of the carbon-emission reduction project, which can range from efforts to counter deforestation, to more efficient stoves. Carbon market analysts estimate demand will rise closer to the deal's mandatory phase in 2027, but the completion of ICAO's eligibility rules for credits in 2018 could prompt earlier purchases by airlines. “Should there be sufficient purchasing activity I suppose prices for voluntary standards may increase,” said Maria Kolos, a carbon markets analyst for Thomson Reuters Point Carbon. To meet the industry's own goal of capping aviation pollution at 2020 levels, airlines would have to offset more than 3b tonnes of carbon emissions between 2021 and 2035 by buying designated credits set up through the private sector, governments and the UN. It is not yet clear which carbon credit projects would be available for purchase by airlines.<br/>

Is it time to ground emotional-support animals for good? Many airline passengers say so. Maureen Van Dorn, flying from Tucson to Chicago for a funeral recently, was surprised by a large Dalmatian next to her in seat 3B. "I was shocked by the size of this dog," she says. "When the traveller in seat 3A stood up, the dog was able to put his paws on the man’s shoulders." The canine, which did not wear a vest or an ID that would have identified it as a service animal, sprawled into Van Dorn's personal space, its tail whipping against her legs the entire flight. "This made me very uncomfortable," she says. Many airlines want to jettison these comfort animals, too. A DoT advisory committee is scheduled to meet Oct. 12 to decide whether an emotional-support animal is a service animal. Airlines are pushing the government to adopt a more restrictive definition. No one knows exactly how many Americans fly with an emotional-support animal. Federal regulations require airlines to allow dogs and other service animals used by people with a disability to accompany them on a flight. The documentation requirements are minimal — either a service animal identification card, "other" written documentation or the presence of harnesses or markings on harnesses, tags or the "credible verbal assurances." What's more, airlines have to allow a service animal to accompany a qualified individual in any seat, unless the animal blocks an aisle or other area that must remain unobstructed, or the animal is not trained to behave properly in a public setting.<br/>