The slowly improving economy could boost travel over the Thanksgiving holiday to levels not seen in nine years. AAA forecasts that 48.7m Americans will travel, the busiest Thanksgiving period on US roads and skies since 2007, the year before the global financial crisis plunged the US economy into a deep recession. The auto club AAA said Tuesday that it expects 1m more Americans to venture at least 50 miles from home, a 1.9% increase over last year. The forecast was assembled at research firm IHS, which said it considered jobs, household net worth, the stock market, prices for gasoline and airline tickets, and other factors. The researchers did their number crunching in mid-October, about three weeks before the surprising outcome in the presidential election. The AAA forecast predicts that from Wednesday, Nov. 23, through Sunday, Nov. 27, about 43.5m Americans will take long car trips, 1.9% more than last year. AAA expects 3.7m will travel by air, a 1.6% increase. An airline-industry trade group is a bit more bullish. Airlines for America predicts that air travel will rise 2.5% over last year's holiday, although the group considers Thanksgiving travel spanning a 12-day period that begins Nov. 18.<br/>
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The FAA has little to show for a decade of work on modernizing air traffic control, and faces barriers and billions more in spending to realize its full benefits, says a report released Tuesday by a government watchdog. The FAA estimates it will spend a total $5.7b to finish its current work on six "transformational" technology programs at the heart of its NextGen modernization effort, said the report by the DoT's inspector general. But the agency's current efforts don't fully implement the programs, and there are no timetables or cost estimates for completion. The FAA has sold the six transformational programs to Congress and the public "as core efforts that would fundamentally change the way the agency would manage air traffic, communicate with pilots, and exchange data with airspace users," Matthew Hampton, assistant inspector general for aviation, said in the report. "However, our review has found that, at least until 2020, most of the transformational programs will not transform how air traffic is managed." Moreover, there has been "significant ambiguity both within FAA and the aviation community about expectations for NextGen," including the ability of core programs to deliver important new capabilities, the report said. Congress has provided $7.4b for NextGen overall, not just the core programs, since 2003, according to the inspector general.<br/>
The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved bipartisan bills to crack down on supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and renew a decades-old Iran sanctions law. Swift passage underscored broad support on Capitol Hill for punishing financial backers of the Syrian government and maintaining economic pressure on Tehran. The Senate must now act on the legislation before the bills can be sent to the president. The Syria legislation targets key backers of Assad such as Russia and Iran by requiring the president to sanction countries or companies that do business with or provide financing to the Syrian government or the Central Bank of Syria. Anyone that provides aircraft to Syria's commercial airlines, does business with the transportation and telecom sectors controlled by the Syrian government, or supports the country's energy industry also would be subject to sanctions, according to the legislation.<br/>
Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport was returning to normal operations on Tuesday after the shooting of a Southwest Airlines employee, and the discovery of the body of a suspect. The shooting of Michael Winchester, a Southwest employee, happened in an airport parking lot around 1 pm. Oklahoma City police said the shooting appeared premeditated. Later, the body of a suspect in the shooting was found in a truck in an airport parking garage, a police spokesman said. Around two dozen flights were cancelled, most by Southwest. Flight operations were slowly returning to normal after the incident, the airport said.<br/>
Chinese airlines are offering huge pay packages to tempt foreign pilots as demand for air travel skyrockets. Some carriers are advertising salaries of more than $300,000 a year — and they say they’ll cover the tax bill, too. “There’s not enough pilots in the world to fill the demand,” said Dave Ross, the CEO of Wasinc International, a firm that finds pilots for Chinese airlines. “This is why the pay keeps going higher.” China will need between 4,000 and 5,000 new airline pilots every year for the next two decades, analysts estimate. Chinese airlines are among the fastest growing on the planet — at home and abroad — and they’re the biggest buyers of jetliners from Airbus and Boeing. Training schools in China aren’t churning out enough pilots to keep up with the industry’s meteoric growth, and there’s an acute shortage of experienced captains. The airlines’ rich offers have attracted industry veterans from all around the globe.<br/>
The cabinet has approved an increase in Russia-Thailand flights aimed at welcoming more Russian tourists to the country. Under the decision, flights from Russia to Bangkok can increase to 105 flights per week from the current limitation of 70 flights, while flights from Russia to Phuket are allowed to increase to 56 flights per week, up from 28 flights now, said Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith. Meanwhile, flights from Thailand to Moscow are allowed to increase to 105 flights per week from 70 flights now, while flights from Thailand to Saint Petersburg are allowed to increase to 56 flights from 28 flights. The decision was made even though the current number of flights between the countries has yet to meet those ceilings. Mr Arkhom said the current number of flights from Russia to Bangkok stood at 32, with 13 flights travelling to Phuket. <br/>
Honeywell International has agreed to supply avionics for a proposed supersonic jetliner—intended to carry only premium passengers—that could slash transcontinental travel times in half. The concept of a three-engine aircraft featuring fewer than four dozen seats, previously announced by closely held startup Boom Technology Inc., also is expected to take another step forward Tuesday with the unveiling of a one-third scale flying prototype. The demonstrator vehicle, called Baby Boom, is slated to take to the air in 2017. If development goes as planned, the full-size version, including cockpit systems from Honeywell and engines manufactured by General Electric Co., could start carrying passengers early in the next decade. With its needlelike nose, sweptback wings and tapered carbon-fiber body, the XB-1 demonstrator resembles the contours of an experimental jet fighter. It has room for a single pilot, plus an optional flight-test engineer. A cabin mock-up of the ultimate aircraft, also shown for the first time Tuesday, features large oval windows, almost like portholes, and a single row of seats on each side of the fuselage. The project, which could cost more than US$1b, has initial support from several venture funds and is taking an unusual approach by adopting various technologies already certified by regulators. Still, future funding remains uncertain, daunting regulatory hurdles remain and the tight test schedule, aiming to certify a jetliner able to cruise 10% faster than the now-mothballed Concorde, could stretch due to unexpected challenges.<br/>