Houston's airports took a direct hit by Hurricane Harvey, leaving commercial air service at a standstill and a major air transit artery blocked just days before one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. George Bush Intercontinental Airport was shut down Sunday to all but military and relief flights for the storm-battered city. The airport is expected to remain closed at least until Thursday, August 31 at noon CT, according to the FAA. IAH, shorthand for the Houston's biggest airport, is the 14th busiest airport in America with 20m passengers flying through in 2016. It's the second largest hub for United. Houston's Hobby Airport, a hub for Southwest, also remained closed Monday and wasn't scheduled to reopen to commercial flights until Wednesday at 8 am. With more rain expected to pound the city in coming days, it was unclear when the airports might reopen. A decision to reopen ultimately falls to the city. Travellers at United's other hubs said flights were operating with long lists of standby passengers who would've otherwise flown through Houston. A United spokeswoman said it was adding capacity elsewhere in its network to account for the Houston closure. Airlines will move planes around and add fights to accommodate passengers who would've flown through Houston. Carriers will "rob Peter to pay Paul to pad their schedule," said Ken Jenkins, principal crisis response strategist at NavAid Crisis Consulting Group. But already congested airports mean open gates in other cities are scarce. "It's a huge undertaking, especially when you're a huge airline like United and Southwest," said Jenkins. The impact of Houston's closure is also likely to ripple across airline operations throughout the country in coming days as pilots and flight attendants based in Houston, country's fourth largest city, aren't able to get to their assignments.<br/>
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More than half a dozen airports in and around Houston, including one of the nation’s busiest aviation hubs, remained closed Monday amid catastrophic flooding and unprecedented rainfall associated with Tropical Storm Harvey. Houston’s major airports — George Bush Intercontinental, the city’s largest, and William P. Hobby Airport — are expected to remain closed until Wednesday, the FAA said Monday. Later Monday, United said George Bush Intercontinental would be closed until at least Thursday. Roads are flooded throughout Houston, and thousands of flights have been canceled. Airlines are offering travel waivers to ticketed passengers, allowing them to reschedule their flights into September. More than 54m passengers made their way through the Houston Airport System last year. Most of them came through George Bush Intercontinental, which has flights to more than 70 international destinations and to more destinations in Mexico than any other airport in the US. The airport had just over 16 inches of rain on Sunday, doubling the previous record of more than 8 inches set in 1945. William P. Hobby Airport serves far fewer people (about 13m last year), but offers nonstop flights to dozens of destinations in the US, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean, and is one of Southwest's most active hubs. The carrier issued a travel advisory asking people not to attempt to reach Hobby Airport. Together the airports support more than 220,000 local jobs, injecting more than $26b to the local economy. George Bush Intercontinental is one of the largest hubs for United, which employs more than 11,000 people in the areas affected by Tropical Storm Harvey. Thousands of flights have been canceled on United, Southwest and other airlines throughout the weekend and into Monday according to FlightAware. More than half a dozen carriers are offering travel waivers to people scheduled to fly to or through the area. <br/>
For years, China’s three state-owned airlines kept adding flights on international routes to chase after a rising middle class that can afford to fly overseas. Now, they are slowing that down in favor of the local market. In H1 2017, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines increased international seats at less than half the pace of the same period last year, according to data from the carriers. Two of them have stepped up domestic capacity. The pullback on overseas routes may be a sign that Chinese airlines are eschewing aggressive expansion and paring cheaper tickets on long-haul flights from smaller cities to destinations like New York and Sydney. Local passenger traffic rose as much as 16.7 percent in May — the most in more than two years — and grew more than twice the pace of international services in the first six months, data from Civil Aviation Administration of China show. “If you look at margins, our forecast is that domestic is more profitable,” said Andrew Lee, an analyst at Jefferies Group. “If there’s a bit more focus on the domestic side, that would be more positive for yields.” Investors will be closely watching the carriers’ domestic yields, an indicator of profitability measured by the money earned from flying one passenger per kilometer, as the three carriers release H1 earnings this week. “Last year their attitude was ‘let’s take a hit on yields to increase capacity,”’ said Lee. “This year there could be a slight shift to focus more on yield management.”<br/>
Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) will become the first airport in the US since 9/11 to allow non-ticketed members of the public access to the secure, airside area of the airport on a regular basis starting next week. In conjunction with the US TSA, PIT has developed a programme in which non-ticketed persons can get a “myPITpass” that enables them to go through security checkpoints and access the airport’s shops and restaurants between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. The first day of the program will be Sept. 5. “This programme is the first of its kind in the US and there are currently no plans to expand it to other airports at this time,” TSA spokesperson Mike England said. “TSA did not need to hire additional personnel to accommodate this programme and we have all the staff we need at PIT to handle the additional influx of people. TSA also does not anticipate that there will be any impact on checkpoint wait times.” A member of the public will be able to access PIT’s airside area by checking in, showing a valid photo ID (driver’s license or passport) and having his or her name vetted against TSA’s no-fly list. The person will then be given a stamped myPITpass and will have to go through a security checkpoint as a boarding passenger would.<br/>
Changi Airport handled more passengers in July compared to the year before, with traffic boosted by growth from all regions. The airport registered 5.42m passenger movements last month, a 4.5% increase compared to July last year, Changi Airport Group said Monday. It was also higher than the 5.21m passengers that passed through Singapore in June. Changi said that, among its top 20 country markets, the fastest-growing are the US and Germany, followed by India and the United Arab Emirates. Of its top 10 markets, India is the only one that has achieved double-digit growth for the seventh consecutive month, Changi added. Traffic from India grew by 16% in July. Germany, UAE and United States also achieved double-digit growth in July, it said. Aircraft movements rose 3.6% to 31,910 landings and takeoffs compared to the same period last year, while airfreight throughput grew 11.2% to reach 179,550 tonnes. <br/>
State-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura (AP) I has cleared a beach area, which will be the location of a new Yogyakarta airport in Kulon Progo, despite possessing neither an environmental impact analysis (Amdal) document or environmental permit for the project. Yogyakarta is home to several of Indonesia's most popular tourist attractions. “With the absence of the Amdal document and environmental permit, construction stages, including land clearance, should not be conducted,” said Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) director Halik Sandera Saturday. He said it was not the first time that AP I had violated the rules. The airport operator previously relocated residents whose land was to be used for the airport construction. The relocation was conducted before an assessment team in Jakarta had issued the Amdal document. Five villages have been affected by the airport project, namely Glagah, Jangkaran, Kebonrejo, Palihan and Sindutan. Rights group Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute’s (LBH) advocacy department head, Yogi Zul Fadhli, said an Amdal document was important because environmental permits were issued on the basis of the Amdal. <br/>