A House committee chairman says President-elect Donald Trump likes the idea of spinning off air traffic control operations from the government and placing them under the control of a private, non-profit corporation chartered by Congress. Rep. Bill Shuster, head of the House transportation committee, told The AP that he spoke to Trump about the idea several times both before and during the presidential election. He said he believes the president-elect would be supportive, although details would have to be worked out. "I have spoken to him on a number of occasions and he generally likes the idea," Shuster said. "We do need to sit down and put meat on the bones ... I think in general he sees it as something that's positive and we need to work on it." The Republican lawmaker endorsed Trump early on and campaigned twice with him in his Pennsylvania congressional district. He also campaigned twice with VP-elect Mike Pence. Since the election, Shuster has met with Shirley Ybarra, a former Virginia transportation secretary who is working with the Trump transition team on transportation matters. Shuster and most of the airline industry have been pressing for air traffic control privatization. They say the FAA is moving too slowly to adopt new technology and that airlines haven't seen the benefits they expected from the agency's air traffic control modernization program, which has been in the works for more than a decade.<br/>
general
US airlines grapple with a lopsided reality: While a huge amount of revenue flows from a small pool of sky warriors, the vast majority of customers pony up for a ticket just once a year. This time of year. That annual, massive airborne migration begins this weekend as Thanksgiving approaches, and it will come just in time to test new, automated security-screening technology at three of the nation’s busiest airports. The carriers’ trade group, Airlines for America, predicts that 27.3m people will fly over the 12 days it counts as the Thanksgiving travel period, a 2.5% increase from 2015. The new systems, which are likely to spread nationwide in the coming years, aim to speed you on your way even faster and avoid pileups such as those that brought airports to a standstill last spring. Delta and the TSA launched the first such system in Atlanta earlier this year and claim that the automated security lanes—ASLs in TSA lingo—move about 30% more passengers in a given period, compared with the traditional ones. The lanes have a parallel automated conveyor system that removes the need for staff to shuttle empty bins back to the queue. United Continental and American Airlines, with the TSA, also announced new ASLs at Chicago O’Hare International Airport this week. American has completed two new lanes at Terminal 3. The ones for United, in Terminal 1, include lanes for people enrolled in the TSA PreCheck program. United opened some new lanes at Los Angeles International Airport in October and planned to open some at its Newark Liberty International Airport hub in New Jersey before the Thanksgiving rush. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, which vies with O’Hare for the title of busiest, is also adding several security lanes over the next six months, including one expected to open by next week.<br/>
Airbus Group said it’s evaluating the implications of a congressional vote that could block it and Boeing Co from providing jets to Iran, though hasn’t given up on completing a $27b order announced in January. Airbus will wait to see how the US Senate and President Barack Obama respond to the House decision, Claude Brandes, its vice president with responsibility for customer finance in the Mideast, said in an interview. Even if the Iran sale wins a reprieve, the vote has created a “state of uncertainty” just as the European company is negotiating final terms. “Whatever the substance of the measure it’s not great in terms of timing,” Brandes said. “We need to see the wording and we need to see how the Iranians react.” Whether or not Obama vetoes the House measure, as the White House has suggested, it “doesn’t bode well” for when President-elect Donald Trump takes over, he said. Trump has said he wants to tear up or renegotiate the nuclear deal to which the aircraft sales are tied. Brandes said Airbus might be able to go ahead with the delivery of a single A321 narrow-body before the end of this year should Iran pay in cash, though the aircraft “was discussed as part of a package” and a final contract would still need to be signed. The plane maker had also discussed supplying four A330 wide-bodies by May, he said.<br/>Even if the Airbus deal survives Republican opposition, it may not translate into a firm contract for all 118 aircraft specified, given that Iran signed an accord with Boeing for 109 planes five months later, with the final split between the manufacturers remaining in a state of flux, the executive said. The eventual numbers may be determined by Iran’s success in securing funds, which has been complicated by the political sensitivities of the deal. While the US Treasury Department in September granted Airbus a licence to supply the first 17 jets, the Mideast state is seeking financing from Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, which would require further authorisation, Brandes said.<br/>
An executive of aircraft manufacturer Boeing predicted the Asia-Pacific region will need 3,860 new airplanes in the next 20 years, valued at $566b. Out of those 3,860 airplanes, almost three-fourths will be for growth and one-fourth of that, 1,040 airplanes, will be for replacement, said Dr. Dinesh Kestar, senior vice president for Asia Pacific and India Sales, during the 60th Assembly of Presidents of the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (AAPA) held at the Fort Shangri-La. He said current estimated for world airlines in the next 20 years is 39,620 new airplanes valued at $5.9t, dominated by single-aisle aircraft, representing 71%. He said 51% is represented by small and medium wide-body airplanes, with seating capacity of 400 or more, and the rest of wide-body aircraft, whose value of $230b “is nothing to sneeze at.” Kestar said the Asia-Pacific region will have the largest number of deliveries at 15,130 airplanes.<br/>
Government barriers that threaten airline profitability and growth potential is a key concern among Asia-Pacific airline executives, particularly duplicative and unfair regulatory oversight trends. At the conclusion of the 60th Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) Assembly of Presidents Nov. 18, the 16 member airlines agreed a set of resolutions on common issues they face as an industry. This year’s Assembly was held in Manila and hosted by Philippines Airlines, a carrier that itself was affected when the US downgraded the Philippines to category 2, preventing the country’s carriers from flying to the US. The Philippines has since had it category 1 status restored, but it can be a lengthy process reestablishing an airline’s reputation and market share. It has been a good year for safety in the region, with incidents in the single digits despite record numbers of passengers traveling and continued fast growth of the Asia-Pacific air transport industry. However, AAPA expressed concerns about inconsistencies in the level of safety oversight, with some airlines in the region finding themselves subject to restrictions or operating bans imposed by other countries “simply due to a lack of effective national regulatory oversight in line with accepted international standards.” AAPA technical director Martin Eran-Tasker called the overall system unfair and said it would be far better to work with a country to address the safety oversight improvements that were needed rather than conduct multiple safety audits. In their resolution on the issue, AAPA members said they were “deeply concerned” that carriers could sometimes find themselves subject to restrictions or banned from operating to other countries because of a lack of effective national regulatory oversight in line with accepted international standards. The association is calling on governments to respect the primacy of ICAO standards and said they strongly support the “no country left behind” campaign.<br/>
Hong Kong’s new air traffic control system plunged into deeper controversy yesterday when the city’s aviation chief admitted that it was “not ideal” and “relatively long” for a flight to drop off radar for 12 seconds, as one did last week. In admitting the disappearance was longer than similar problems under the old system, DG of civil aviation Simon Li Tin-chui said the latest incident suggested no safety risk. Li said that the ICAO requires air traffic systems to refresh and show aircraft locations on the radar screen at least once every five seconds. Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department (CAD) has set the new HK$1.56b Auto Trac III system to refresh flight locations every four seconds. But last Tuesday, a day after the new system was fully launched, a flight disappeared from the screen for 12 seconds. “The operation of the new system has been very smooth since November 14,” Li said. “We now handle more than 1,800 flights a day and no flight has been delayed because of the new system. It’s a complex electronic system. Even though our colleagues have tried their very best, in the initial stage, it is possible that we could run into special situations. The CAD has a set of procedures to guide the controllers to ensure aviation safety.” He said all controllers had sufficient training. Raymond Li, assistant director general of civil aviation, said the plane had been near Sunny Bay, Lantau, when it disappeared.<br/>But he said controllers could still see the plane with their own eyes because it was nearby. He said there were various possible reasons for a flight to drop from the screen, including hills blocking signals. The department had yet to identify the cause of the 12-second disappearance, but had sent information to manufacturer Raytheon to find it. The CAD is keeping the old system for six months, in case the new one has more problems. <br/>