Chinese airports may adopt an ID card check-in system as early as next year, which would streamline the process of getting on a plane by skipping the need to show a boarding pass, according to Chinese media reports. The Chinese authorities have officially approved airports to adopt the system on domestic flights, meaning passengers would be allowed go through security checks with just their ID cards, the National Business Daily quoted Zhang Baojian, the North Asia VP of the IATA as saying. The change is expected to save airlines at least 1b yuan a year, reduce the number of check-in counters by about 5,000 and cut staffing levels, the newspaper said. It could also ease overcrowding in some Chinese airports, according to the article.<br/>
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Plans to build a third Heathrow runway have suffered a setback after the government’s official climate advisers warned ministers the project risked blowing a hole in the UK’s legally binding carbon targets. In a development that will bolster the runway’s opponents, Lord Deben, chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, has written to Greg Clark, the business and energy secretary, to raise “concerns” about the plans. The Conservative peer said the central business case ministers made in October when they agreed to back a new runway would mean greenhouse gas emissions from aviation were about 15% higher by 2050 than what they were in 2005. But the committee, which advises ministers on how to meet the goals of the 2008 Climate Change Act, has said repeatedly that aviation emissions should stay at 2005 levels until 2050 if those targets are to be met. The law requires sweeping cuts in carbon pollution from cars, factories, power stations and buildings so that by 2050, overall emissions are 80% less than what they were in 1990. Allowing the aviation industry to stick to its 2005 levels of pollution means these other sectors already have to cut their emissions by 85%, Lord Deben said in the letter, dated Tuesday.<br/>
Airbus presented dignitaries and media assembled for the debut of its latest model with an unexpected sight on Thursday: a white-painted $300m A350 jetliner being prepared for delivery without an airline livery, breaking an industry taboo. So-called white-tails are considered an alarm signal in the aerospace industry because they usually signify that they have been built without an airline in place to operate them, though in rare cases buyers can decide to paint them elsewhere. Because of past downturns, planemakers have learned to build only what they have sold so nowadays the sight of a white plane, especially a recent model like the A350, is extremely rare. In this case, the aircraft has been sold to one of the world's largest leasing companies, AerCap, according to online records of the serial number on the tail. AerCap had arranged to lease it to SriLankan Airlines but its fate was thrown into doubt when the carrier said this year it had cancelled a lease for 4 A350s from AerCap and no longer intended to buy a further 4 from Airbus due to steep losses. The Dublin-based lessor is unlikely to be out of pocket since the Sri Lankan government said last month it would pay millions of dollars for cancelling the lease. But industry sources said the flexible white design raised questions about where the aircraft was headed next, which in turn echoed deeper concerns about a drop in demand for big jets. Some online reports however say the jet is headed for China.<br/>
Europe's largest twin-engined passenger jet, the Airbus A350-1000, took to the skies for the first time on Thursday, seeking to grab the spotlight from Boeing's popular 777. The lightweight carbon-fiber plane, 7 meters longer and able to carry 40 more people than A350s already in service, began a three-hour debut flight at 4.42 a.m ET, watched by some of the airline bosses who have invested in the $356m jet. It later returned to base after a 4 hour and 20 minute flight during which co-pilot Frank Chapman said it had performed "smoothly", similar to its sister plane the A350-900. The 366-seat A350-1000 is designed to break Boeing's virtual monopoly in the lucrative "mini-jumbo" segment, typically involving large twin-engined jets carrying 350 people. It is larger than the new-generation A350-900, which entered service last year. Both are built from similar advanced materials to Boeing's mid-sized 787 Dreamliner in a race between planemakers for fuel savings and better passenger comfort. The aircraft involved in Thursday's Toulouse debut is one of three test planes facing 1,600 hours of intensive flight testing before the A350-1000 enters service in the second half of 2017. Fabrice Bregier, CE of the planemaking division of Airbus Group, told Reuters he was confident the A350-1000 would be delivered on time to launch customer Qatar Airways. "It makes me very happy and very proud. We are flying according to the timetable we had planned," he said moments after the jet, weighing 230 tonnes, took off under leaden skies to applause from factory workers.<br/>
Police armed with sub-machine guns subdued a knife-wielding suspected robber at Hong Kong International Airport on Thursday. About a dozen heavily-armed elite officers rushed to the scene after the suspect, who holds a Russian passport, was said to have pulled a knife at a money changer at terminal two at the airport in Chek Lap Kok at around 8.20pm. The man, 44, was said to have threatened a female staff member at the money changer and demanded she hand over cash. When the staff member refused, he opened a cash drawer and grabbed HK$59,000 before running away. A security alarm was then triggered by staff. The suspect ran for about 200 metres to a taxi stand outside Regal Airport Hotel, with police officers from the Airport Security Unit in pursuit.<br/>There then followed a tense standoff between the man and about six officers, two with handguns and two holding sub-machine guns. Investigators from the airport police district said they believed it was a planned robbery, as shown by the knife, gloves, and a surgical mask found in the man’s bag.<br/>
October’s passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport rose 2.7% over the same month the previous year, to reach 6.4m, the airport said. During the year to date, passenger numbers at DXB have risen 6.8% to 69.3m compared to 64.9m recorded during the first ten months of 2015. The highest rise in incoming passengers was from Eastern Europe, with an increase of more than 25% thanks to additional capacity and new services launched by a number of airlines, the statement said, followed by South America (9.9%), Asia (8.2%) and the Indian Subcontinent (6.7%). India remained the top destination country (901,958 passengers), followed by the UK (493,181 passengers) and Saudi Arabia (349,198 passengers). London continued to be the top destination city, operator Dubai Airports said.<br/>