The UK government has reiterated its intention to review the regulations governing airline insolvencies in the wake of the collapse of Monarch Airlines. In its autumn budget, the Treasury says it plans to appoint an "independent chair" to review "consumer protection in the event of an airline or travel company failure". This review, it adds, will "draw on lessons from the collapse of Monarch, and will consider both repatriation and refund protection to identify the market reforms necessary to ensure passengers are protected". There will be "full consideration of options to allow airlines to wind down in an orderly fashion so that they are able to conduct and finance repatriation operations without impact on the taxpayer". The cost of repatriating Monarch passengers stranded by the airline's collapse last month is estimated to be in the region of GBP60m. <br/>
general
The UK government is to increase Air Passenger Duty (APD) – an airline ticket tax – on premium tickets from April 2019. APD is already the world’s highest tax of this nature. Currently, rates for economy-class passengers are GBP13 for short-haul flights (within 2,000 miles of London) and GBP75 for long-haul (more than 2,000 miles). Business-class passengers pay GBP26 and GBP150 for short- and long-haul journeys respectively. Charges levied on executive jet passengers are even higher, at GBP78 for short-haul and GBP450 for long-haul. These rates are already scheduled to rise in April 2018, as a result of a tax increase announced in 2016. APD on short-haul economy-class flights will remain at GBP13, but that for long-haul will rise to GBP78. Business-class passengers will pay GBP26 and GBP156 for short-haul and long-haul respectively. <br/>
Several hundred airline passengers had to spend the night at Oslo’s main airport at Gardermoen and were still waiting in the departure terminal on Thursday. Stormy and dangerous weather has disrupted traffic all over Norway, mostly along the coast and in Northern Norway but also at the country’s gateway airport in Oslo. Weather-related problems at other airports around Norway also created traffic disruptions that continued on Thursday. Airline and airport personnel claimed they were scrambling to deal with all the trouble and frustrated passengers. “This winter weather has caused problems for all the airlines,” said SAS spokesperson Tonje Sund. “Several hundred of our passengers had to spend the night either at hotels or even here at OSL. It’s been very demanding.” She said SAS boosted staffing and got help from colleagues in Copenhagen and Stokholm to deal with the problems in Norway. “We’re hoping to get everyone on their way today,” she said.<br/>
Boeing's new '797' has taken a big leap toward becoming a reality. The aerospace giant has named one of its top engineers to a leadership team responsible for the formation of what is likely to become its first all-new airliner since the 787 Dreamliner. Boeing has moved company veteran and 777X chief project engineer Terry Beezhold to the new '797' team, the company confirmed. Boeing has not yet assigned roles for members of the team. Boeing hasn't yet given the green light to build the small twin-aisle airplane, which will seat between 225 and 270, though the company in September formally created a program office to oversee the possible development. Beezhold is the second executive Boeing has publicly named to the team. The other is the program office's vice president. The jet is dryly called the New Mid-Market Airplane, but has already been dubbed the Boeing '797' by prospective customers. The airplane would be larger than Boeing's biggest single-aisle 737 Max jets, but would not have the flying endurance of its 787 Dreamliner. Airlines want to relieve congestion on busy routes currently flown with smaller jets. Analysts estimate the '797' project will cost between $10b and $15b to develop and the plane wouldn't be ready until 2024 or 2025.<br/>