The White House plan to cut transportation spending, privatize air traffic control and scrap long-distance train service is facing strong resistance in Congress. In May, the Trump administration proposed cutting discretionary US DoT spending by 12.7%, or $2.4b to $16.2b. A House of Representatives Appropriations Committee panel this week approved $17.8b in discretionary spending, $1.5b above the White House request. On Thursday, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao addressed a US Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing. Senator Susan Collins, a Republican who chairs the panel, said she was disappointed in many proposed cuts. The House panel rejected a White House plan to end subsidies for Amtrak to operate long-distance train service, which would have cut $630m of $1.4b in annual government support for passenger rail service. The panel also rejected a plan to eliminate $150m in annual subsidies for commercial air service to rural airports. Many lawmakers also opposed the administration's proposal to privatize the air traffic control system. In June, the Senate Commerce Committee approved proposed changes in FAA policies. But unlike a House panel, it did not back spinning off air traffic control. The House will vote on the privatization plan as soon as next week. President Donald Trump says the move would modernize air traffic control and lower flying costs. The proposal has drawn fire from private plane owners and rural airports. Critics say it would hand control of an important service to special interests and big airlines.<br/>
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The domestic airlines would like you to know that they are very sorry. Delta is sorry about the time it kicked a family off a flight and threatened to arrest them. American is sorry about the time its employee seemed to almost accidentally hit a baby while grabbing a stroller. And United is probably sorriest of all, about the time it put a passenger on a plane to San Francisco rather than Paris, about the time an infant passed out on a plane that sat on a hot tarmac and, of course, for that time a passenger sustained a concussion, a broken nose and lost two teeth when being ejected from a flight to accommodate an employee. Air carriers have become more apologetic in the wake of the viral video spawned by that last episode, but those quick regrets have not led to broad systemic change in policy toward customers. Even as customer complaints against them soar, the airlines often respond with a quick refund or voucher, an apology that grabs headlines in a local news outlet, and business as usual. Some compensation policies for bumping passengers are more generous, but the main impact on consumers has been a seemingly never-ending stream of apologies that are a catalog of customer relations gone awry. There is reason to say sorry, though. Justin T. Green, a lawyer at the New York City law firm Kreindler & Kreindler who specialises in aviation law, said apologising reduced the chance of consumers’ pursuing legal action because it leaves them feeling as though they have been honored. “An apology will go a long way to avoid a lawsuit and is a very effective and economical way to improve customer relations,” he said. Airlines don’t always apologize, however. Over the weekend when Takeoff, a member of the rap trio Migos, was kicked off a Delta flight, the carrier arranged another flight for the group but offered no public apologies, saying that he had failed to listen to crew member instructions. There is movement in Congress to set clear rules about compensating passengers who are bumped. But for now, the apologies don’t quite ease the obstacle course that routine air travel has become, we are sorry to report.<br/>
Lithuanian aviation officials say that hundreds of thousands of airline passengers will be diverted for more than a month as the country's main airport near the capital will be shut for a major renovation. Vilnius International Airport, with a single 2.5-km runway, will close Friday until Aug. 17. Some 4,350 flights will be diverted — affecting 400,000 passengers — to two smaller airports, one in Kaunas, 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Vilnius airport and the other in remote Palanga, 300 kilometers (185 miles) away. Some airlines, including Ryanair, have cancelled all scheduled flights until September, and several popular direct flights between Vilnius and Madrid, Liverpool and Malta will not be flown during the closure. With 3.8m annual passengers last year, Vilnius is among the fastest-growing airports in Europe.<br/>
China Aircraft Leasing Group aims to expand its fleet by a fifth to no less than 100 aeroplanes this year and build a 50:50 mix of overseas and domestic clients by 2022, said CE Mike Poon. The Hong Kong-listed lessor also has ambitious plans for its customer base. Its goal is to provide services to 100 clients by 2023, up from 16 last year, Poon said. “We will see our fleet size increasing to 100 aircrafts this year, and our customers will rise to 100 airlines in the first stage of 2023,” said Poon, who ordered 50 Boeing 737 Max planes for US$5.8b last month. In 2014, CALC placed a US$10 billion order with Airbus for 100 of its A320 jets. He said the company is on schedule to expand its fleet size to 232 aircraft by 2023 after the Boeing order.<br/>CALC, which is backed by China Everbright, had 83 planes as of the end of March, mainly models in the Airbus A320 series. “The purchase of Boeing models means we can serve a more diversified range of customers, catering for airlines who only require Boeing aircrafts, for example,” said Poon, who expects to take delivery of no fewer than 40 aircraft annually starting in 2020, more than double the amount last year. Globally, leased aircraft make up 45% of the total market. In China, that figure is just 25% but growing rapidly amid rising aircraft demand.<br/>
More frequent heat waves and rising temperatures due to global warming may ground up to a third of airplanes worldwide during hot days in decades to come with some airports in New York and Dubai likely to be hard hit, a study showed on Thursday. Airlines may increasingly be forced to cut their loads of passengers, cargo or fuel in order to take off safely because warming air lessens the ability of airplane wings to generate lift, according to US researchers. Worldwide, average temperatures are expected to climb some 3 degrees Celsius by 2100, researchers said. But it is more prevalent heat waves that pose a larger threat to the airline industry, they said in a study published in the journal Climate Change. Annual maximum daily temperatures at airports could rise by 4 to 8 Celsius by 2080, they found, leading to more costly delays in take-offs or cancellations. During the hottest parts of the day, between 10 and 30% of fully loaded planes may have to dump weight in order to begin their journey. The phenomenon could force the aviation industry to brace for thinner profit margins, the authors said. A full 160-seat aircraft trying to safely take off in searing heat may, for instance, need to remove 13 passenger, said the study. But the costs of delays or cancellations could also disrupt other sectors of the economy as they trickle down, they said. "Our results suggest that weight restriction may impose a non-trivial cost," said Ethan Coffel, the study's lead author and a researcher at Columbia University in New York City.<br/>