The strong growth momentum in global passenger traffic in January has spilled over to February, propelled by lower fares and a healthier economic backdrop, says the industry's global body. IATA reported total revenue passenger kilometres rose 4.8% year-on-year for February. Although this was lower growth than in January, year-to-year comparisons are distorted because February 2016 was a leap month, IATA pointed out. Adjusting for the 1 fewer day this year, the underlying growth rate was estimated at 8.6%, just under January's rise of 8.9%. Monthly capacity increased by 2.7%, while load factor rose 1.6 percentage points to 79.5%, the highest ever recorded for February. IATA estimates that allowing for inflation, the price of air travel has fallen by more than 10% in real terms over the past year. <br/>
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The president of the ICAO Council, Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, has welcomed a declaration restating the air transport sector’s commitment and unity toward achieving resilience against cyber-attacks. “New and more sophisticated digital technologies and processes are coming online daily…impacting as they do our network and its relationships with shippers and the traveling public,” Aliu said. “What this means for cyber security and cyber safety stakeholders is that threats are emerging at an ever-increasing rate.” At ICAO’s Assembly in Oct 2016, govts signalled their concern about cyber risks and threats. However, variations persist among states, air navigation service providers, aircraft and airport operators in terms of the cyber mitigation measures being tackled, highlighting the need for improved sector-wide collaboration. <br/>
Airports Council International (ACI) Monday issued some pointed criticism about the recent US and UK bans of large electronic devices in passenger cabins of airliners traveling from separate respective lists of Middle Eastern and North African countries, characterising them as inconsistent and ineffective. Notably, the organisation called for “urgent consideration” for alternative solutions, including additional explosive detection capability at boarding gates and/or “state of the art” technology for cabin baggage screening. The ACI statement comes 5 days after EASA issued a Safety Information Bulletin highlighting experts’ preference that PEDs such as laptop computers remain in carry-on baggage and with the person carrying the device. <br/>
A new study has warned one of the worst things about flying is about to get much worse: turbulence. Bouts of turbulence that are strong enough to toss passengers around the cabin could become up to 3 times more common - and it's all thanks to climate change. Scientists at the University of Reading in the UK have carried out a first-ever study into the relationship between anthropogenic climate change and clear-air turbulence. They looked at different strengths of turbulence and how each will change in the future, based on a study of the North Atlantic flight corridor between Europe and the US. According to the results, light turbulence in the atmosphere would be likely to increase by about 59% in the future, moderate turbulence would increase by 94% and moderate-to-severe turbulence by 127%. <br/>
The chairman of the FCC said Monday he is proposing to end a 2013 regulatory proceeding that had sought to lift the ban on mobile phones on US airlines. The FCC said in 2013 that it would consider allowing air travellers to make mobile phone calls but never finalised it. "I stand with airline pilots, flight attendants, and America’s flying public against the FCC’s ill-conceived 2013 plan to allow people to make cell phone calls on planes. I do not believe that moving forward with this plan is in the public interest," FCC chairman Ajit Pai said. Pai needs the backing of the two other commissioners for the 2013 proposal to be formally abandoned. In 2013, the FCC said special equipment could be installed on planes to allow in-flight calls and said it had already been deployed successfully in other countries without incident. <br/>
Russia has warned airlines it may again halt charter flights to Turkey, a Russian travel industry lobby group said, as tensions between the two countries intensified over events in Syria. Charter flights between Russia and Turkey were restored in August last year, after they we were stopped in late 2015 following Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border. The number of Russian visitors to Turkey fell to 866,000 in 2016, from 3.65m a year earlier and 4.5m in 2014. “If it happens, the consequences will be worse than in 2015,” a spokeswoman for the Russian Tourist Industry Union said Monday. The last ban was imposed after the end of the tourism peak season, while there are currently 4 to 5 times more orders for charter flights than in 2016, she said. <br/>