The public consultation on the planned third runway at Heathrow has been reopened due to new evidence. The Department for Transport published a series of fresh reports into the impact of expanding the west London hub, including updated noise analysis and a new air quality plan. The government’s sustainability appraisal expects the plans to have a negative effect on air quality, noise and biodiversity. It also says that the Gatwick second runway scheme would cause less damage than either potential scheme at Heathrow. The plans will have to mitigate against any significant deterioration in air quality or the whole scheme could be thrown into jeopardy. London’s airports are forecast to be full by the mid-2030s with Heathrow already operating at capacity and Gatwick at capacity during peak times. This has left the government with the dilemma of either being framed as anti-business if it does not act to address capacity, or anti-environment if it goes ahead with expansion. This may also undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% on 1990 levels by 2050, as legislated by the Climate Change Act.<br/>
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A total of 195 individuals suspected of travelling with airline tickets bought using stolen, compromised or fake credit card details were detained on Tuesday, Europol has announced. During a major international law enforcement operation targeting airline fraudsters -- that took place from October 16 to 20 -- 61 countries, 63 airlines and six online travel agencies were involved in the tenth edition of the Global Airport Action Days (GAAD) which took place at over 226 airports across the world, Xinhua quoted the European Union's law enforcement agency as saying. Europol said several people were caught trying to traffic drugs from Latin America to Europe, frequently flying back and forth using fraudulently purchased tickets. Representatives from airlines, online travel agencies, payment card companies and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) worked together with experts from Europol's European Cybercrime Center to identify suspicious transactions and provide confirmation to law enforcement officers deployed in the airports. <br/>
New rules on all US-bound flights take effect on Thursday including stricter passenger screening to comply with government security measures designed to avoid expanding an in-cabin ban on laptops, airlines said Tuesday. Airlines contacted by Reuters said the new measures, which could include short security interviews with passengers, would be in place by Thursday. They will affect 325,000 airline passengers on about 2,000 commercial flights arriving daily in the US, on 180 airlines from 280 airports in 105 countries, and industry trade group Airlines for America has said the changes might cause disruptions. The US announced the new rules in June to end the government’s restrictions on carry-on electronic devices on planes coming from 10 airports in eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa in response to unspecified security threats. Those restrictions were lifted in July but the Trump administration said it could reimpose measures on a case by case basis if airlines and airports did not boost security. European and US officials said at the time that airlines had 120 days to comply with the measures, including increased passenger screening. The 120-day deadline is Thursday. Airlines had until late July to expand explosive trace detection testing.<br/>
Handcuffed, wearing bulletproof vests and under heavily armed guard, the two women accused of murdering the half-brother of North Korea’s leader were pushed around a Malaysian airport in wheelchairs on Tuesday during a court visit to the crime scene. Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Doan Thi Huong, 28, a Vietnamese, are charged with murdering Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with VX, a chemical nerve agent, at Kuala Lumpur’s budget international terminal on Feb. 13. The two women were brought back to the scene as part of an entourage of court officials, led by trial judge Azmi Ariffin and accompanied by over 100 police officers and dozens of journalists, on a visit to retrace the events that unfolded before, during and after Kim Jong Nam’s death. The site visit covered various locations in the terminal shown in the videos, such as a restaurant where Siti Aisyah was seen meeting an unidentified man, the toilets where police witnesses said both women had gone to after the attack on Kim Jong Nam, the clinic where the victim sought medical aid and the taxi stands where both suspects were seen after the attack. The airport visit comes as the high-profile trial entered its third week. Twelve witnesses have testified so far.<br/>
IATA revised its annual 20-year air passenger forecast upward by over a half-billion passengers Oct. 24, and indicated China will overtake the US as the world’s largest aviation market “around 2022,” several years faster than previously predicted. In its new 20-year Air Passenger Forecast, IATA now predicts 7.8b passengers will travel by air in 2036, nearly doubling the 4b air passengers expected in 2017. IATA highlighted the Asia-Pacific region as the primary source of over half the new passengers expected by the next two decades. China’s overtaking of the US as the world’s largest aviation market will come as a result of slightly faster Chinese growth combined with slightly reduced US growth. In its aviation market forecast (defined as traffic to, from and within a country), IATA foresees the UK will fall to fifth place on the global scale by 2036, being surpassed by India in 2025 and Indonesia in 2030. Rounding out the top 10 markets in 20 years, in order, will be Japan, Spain, Germany, Turkey and Thailand. France and Italy will be out of the top 10 by about 2032. “Increasing demand will bring a significant infrastructure challenge,” IATA DG and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said. “The solution does not lie in more complex processes or … bigger airports, but in harnessing the power of new technology to move activity off-airport, streamline processes and improve efficiency.” China will be the world’s fastest-growing market, IATA forecasts, with the country adding 921m passengers for a total of 1.5b passengers by 2036. <br/>
Passengers are looking to take control of their air travel experience, with increased automation of airport processes, biometric identification, real-time data on personal devices, unobtrusive security and consistent border control procedures at the top of their list of expectations, according to IATA’s latest annual Global Passenger Survey, released Oct. 24. IATA said 82% of travelers want to use a “digital passport” on their mobile devices throughout the travel process, from flight booking through airport passage. Biometric identification—via facial, iris or fingerprint recognition—was approved by 64% of GPS respondents. “Passengers want to use one single biometric identity token for all of their travel transactions from booking flights to passing security and border control and picking up their bags,” IATA SVP-airport, passenger, cargo & security Nick Careen said. “The technology exists. Its use in aviation needs to be accelerated.” Passengers continued to give high marks to online booking and online check-in, with about 80% of respondents voicing satisfaction in each category. While passenger satisfaction with security procedures, onboard service and baggage retrieval all improved since last year, border control/immigration procedures and IFE remained as the two air travel journey experiences with which passengers were most dissatisfied. But airport security and border control processes were again identified as passengers’ biggest pain points, with the top complaints involving having to remove personal items, having to unpack electronic devices in carry-on bags and the variation of security screening methods at different airports, IATA said.<br/>
Bombardier said Tuesday it was reviewing 2017 delivery plans for its CSeries jets, after US engine parts maker United Technologies said it was resolving issues with its geared turbofan (GTF) engines to make them more durable. United Technologies Corp, the maker of Pratt & Whitney jet engines, held back some GTF shipments to plane makers and offered spares to airlines, which had faced problems with engines already in service. “Bombardier is working closely with Pratt & Whitney to evaluate and mitigate any potential impact on its customers and will provide a full update on November 2, when it issues its Q3 results,” spokeswoman Nathalie Siphengphet said. Both Bombardier and Airbus have faced delayed deliveries of separate GTF engines.<br/>