An Alaska volcano that has been active for nearly six months has erupted again and authorities have raised an aviation alert to red. The Alaska Volcano Observatory says Bogoslof volcano in the Aleutian Islands erupted for almost an hour on Sunday afternoon, sending a cloud of ash at least 10,670 metres. The warning was raised to red, the highest level, following the eruption, with ash a potential threat to airliners operating between North America and Asia.<br/>
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More than one billion passengers passed through Changi Airport since 1981 when it first opened, said the airport in a media statement on Monday. The milestone was reached in April and the airport is on track to handle 60 million passengers in 2017, it added. Last year, about 58.7m passengers passed through Changi Airport, making it the sixth busiest airport in the world for international traffic. In April, there were 5.17m passenger movements in April, a 7.8% year-on-year increase, said the airport. Passenger traffic in April was boosted by growth across all regions except the Middle East. Nine out of Changi’s top 20 country markets registered double-digit growth, including India (16%), Indonesia (16%) and Malaysia (11%). About 120 airlines operate at the Singapore air hub, linking Singapore to more than 380 cities globally.<br/>
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said he may ban laptop computers in the cabins of all international flights into and out of the US amid continuing terrorist threats to bring down airplanes, but that a final decision hadn’t been made. “That’s really the thing that they’re obsessed with, the terrorists: the idea of knocking down an airplane in flight, particularly if it’s a US carrier, particularly if it’s full of mostly US folks,” Kelly said. A DHS spokesman said as recently as May 24 that the agency was not actively considering a laptop ban for international flights leaving the US. The agency, which has barred devices larger than mobile phones on flights from 10 Middle East and North African airports since March, has been in talks with European Commission officials about extending a prohibition to US-bound flights from the continent, despite concerns from the EU. “It is a real sophisticated threat, and I’ll reserve that decision until we see where it’s going,” he said of when a final ruling might come and what it might be. Kelly’s comments were similar to ones he made at a Senate appropriations hearing on May 25 on the DHS’s 2018 budget request. Kelly said the department’s TSA “might and likely will” intensify scrutiny of carry-on luggage as well, because travelers are packing more into them to avoid airlines’ bag-checking fees. “The more you stuff in there, the less the TSA professionals that are looking at what’s in those bags through the monitors” are able to discern about bags’ contents, he said. “What we’re doing now is working out the tactics, techniques and procedures, if you will, in a few airports to find out exactly how to do that with the least amount of inconvenience to the traveler.”<br/>
Manufacturers of airport security equipment have a message for travelers who fear they will have to give up laptops and tablet computers on international flights: They have a solution. At least four of the largest companies making screening devices say they are developing scanners so much better at detecting explosives than existing X-ray machines that passengers could leave laptops, other electronics and even liquids in their bags, vastly simplifying airport security. “It’s a no brainer,” said Joseph Paresi, CEO of Integrated Defense & Security Solutions Inc., which has developed one of the new scanning machines that has passed initial U.S. government testing. “It’s not if. It’s when it’s going to happen.” But the speed with which US, European and other security agencies can put them into widespread use remains an open question. After being burned by attempts to roll out new screening equipment in the past -- such as having to warehouse hundreds of so-called puffer machines designed to detect explosives because they didn’t perform well in real-world conditions a decade ago -- the TSA has instituted multiple layers of performance tests. And Congress hasn’t appropriated funds for large purchases of the machines. Adding the devices, which list for several hundred thousand dollars each, at thousands of airport security lines in just the US could cost $1b or more. <br/>
Thailand is seeking to take on Singapore’s dominance in aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul with a $5.7b upgrade of a Vietnam War-era airport. Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Sikorsky Aircraft is the latest company to study a possible increase in MRO spend in Thailand in the wake of the planned revamp of U-Tapao International Airport, said Ajarin Pattanapanchai, deputy secretary general of the nation’s Board of Investment. In March, Airbus SE signed an agreement with Thai Airways International Pcl to evaluate the development of MRO facilities at the civil-military airport near Bangkok. "Singapore is quite tight right now," Ajarin said May 25, during a visit to Canada to woo investment. "To catch up with the demand of airlines in the region -- especially new demand from Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia -- and given that we have existing strengths with automotives and engineering, Thailand will be the second choice to be the MRO hub." The airport project is part of junta leader Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha’s goal of boosting the economy, whose expansion has lagged behind neighbors since the military seized power three years ago. It’s also a key component of a plan to invest 1.5t baht ($44b) between 2017-2021 to develop the country’s eastern seaboard.<br/>
Environmental officials have halted a privately owned airport project on Koh Phangan in Surat Thani after finding its construction, which has already<br/>cleared part of a mountain, sits on part of a forest reserve. The project, on 150 rai of mountainous terrain, is one of three encroachments on the resort island which the officials suspect are causing damage to Koh Phangan forest reserve and a nearby forest which is in an area to be declared as a new national park named Than Sadet, according to Royal Forest Department chief Chonlatid Suraswadi. His team met Wathin Sunthawong, who claimed he oversees the airport construction area and said its landscaping had been legally approved. The officials remained doubtful over the construction approval, though the land caretaker backed his claim with a request document for land clearing, a Sor Khor 1 document, which informs officials of land occupation, and Nor Sor 3 Kor document, which is granted to certify land use. <br/>
Russia on Sunday held a successful test flight of its new MC-21 medium-haul passenger jet that it hopes will revive its troubled civil aviation industry and challenge giants Airbus and Boeing. The plane, whose prototype was unveiled last June, flew for 30 minutes at a height of 1,000 metres and a speed of 300 km per hour, said its makers, the Irkut Corporation aircraft manufacturer. The plane took off from the Siberian city of Irkutsk where the Irkut company is based, said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, writing on Twitter. Rogozin, who oversees aviation and space, wrote as he watched at the scene: "We're flying!" President Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti state news agency that Rogozin "by phone reported to Putin that our medium-haul plane took wing, carrying out its first test flight." The president of Irkut, Oleg Demchenko, said that "today is a historic day for our staff and for all the big team that worked on creating the MC-21." The jet was piloted by two of the country's most decorated test pilots, Oleg Kononenko and Roman Taskayev. Kononenko, who has been awarded the Hero of Russia medal, said that the "flight assignment was completed fully" and the "flight went normally."<br/>
The Japanese space agency has developed a method using lasers to help aircraft detect air turbulence in clear skies to help curb accidents. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said its device allows large aircraft to spot air turbulence about 70 seconds before approaching it — enough time to take safety measures before the plane enters it. Flight radars can detect air turbulence in rain clouds but rarely do it in fine weather. Of all the large-aircraft accidents in Japan from 1990 through 2012 that resulted in serious injuries to passengers and crew, about 40 percent, or 35 cases, are believed to have been caused by air turbulence, JAXA said. It is expected to take several years before JAXA will be able to commercialize the device. “We want to contribute to air transport safety by conducting tests using large planes and making the device smaller and lighter,” said JAXA project manager Shigeru Machida. The device, which weighs about 150 kg, will be attached to the nose of a plane so it can direct a laser beam in the direction of travel. The laser picks up light scattered by water droplets and dust to identify turbulence on its flight path. It notifies the pilot of the location based on light wavelengths, which change depending on air currents. After 19 test flights using a small jet over waters around Japan at altitudes of 600 to 12,000 meters from December to February, JAXA concluded the device could detect turbulence on average about 17.5 km out.<br/>