A years-long feud between US-based carriers and airlines from the Persian Gulf has found its way into the highly politicized debate over the tax plan.<br/>Deep in the US Senate’s 515-page tax bill is a passage that imposes a new tax on some foreign carriers. The language was introduced by a senator from Georgia, the home state of Delta, which has been calling for limits on rival carriers from the Middle East. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), said the provision he introduced would “protect Georgia airline employees by ending a tax exemption for airlines based in countries that deny fair market access for US-based airlines.” The provision does not name the three Gulf carriers — Etihad, Emirates and Qatar airlines — that Delta and other US carriers have long accused of competing unfairly in the US by accepting subsidies from their oil-rich government owners. Still, Isakson's staff said the change is intended to target those carriers. The Gulf carriers deny the accusations that they are heavily subsidized. In a statement, Isakson said his provision would raise $200m from the airlines, which would help pay for tax breaks for US taxpayers.<br/>
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As a shutdown of Bali's airport is extended due to volcanic ash, airlines bracing for millions of dollars of lost revenue per day are scrambling to minimise damage by offering travel to other destinations and alternative transport off the island. The airport on the Indonesian tourist island was closed for a second day on Tuesday because of ash from the eruption of the Mount Agung volcano, which has already disrupted several hundred flights and tens of thousands of passengers. With no immediate sign of the eruption ending any time soon, industry experts say airlines may consider making longer-term flight frequency adjustments to Bali as forward bookings collapse and risks of ash damaging aircraft linger. AirAsia will look to redeploy capacity elsewhere in its network, the airline group's CE Tony Fernandes tweeted on Tuesday. Most airlines are for now offering various options to minimise the short-term impact, preparing customers to expect scheduled disruptions until at least Dec. 4. "If this situation is prolonged for 2 to 3 months, it is possible that the airlines could reduce their Bali flights in the upcoming northern summer schedule that starts from end-March," said Corrine Png, CE of transport research firm Crucial Perspective, although she said they would be wary of losing airport slots when demand eventually returned. Png said each day that the Bali airport was closed meant about $5 million in combined lost flight revenue for the 42 airlines that fly there. "This comes at a bad time for the airlines as we are in peak travel season right now and the Bali route is highly lucrative," she said.<br/>
Indonesia kept the airport on Bali closed Tuesday as ash from an erupting volcano swept the holiday island, leaving thousands of tourists stranded as authorities tried to persuade villagers living nearby to leave their homes. A total of 443 flights, both domestic and international, were affected by the closure of the airport, about 60 km from Mount Agung which is spewing smoke and ash high into the sky. “Aircraft flight channels are covered with volcanic ash,” the transport ministry said in a statement, citing aviation navigation authorities. The airport - the second-biggest in Indonesia - will be closed at least until 7 a.m. on Wednesday (2300 GMT on Tuesday), the ministry said. Frustration at the airport was starting to boil over, with an estimated 2,000 people attempting to get refunds and reschedule tickets. “There are thousands of people stranded here at the airport,” said Nitin Sheth, a tourist from India. “They have to go to some other airport and they are trying to do that, but the government or authorities here are not helping.” The airport operator said 201 international flights and 242 domestic ones had been hit. Ten alternative airports had been prepared for airlines to divert inbound flights, including in neighbouring provinces, the operator said, adding it was helping people make alternative bookings and helping stranded travellers.<br/>
The amount of money the world’s airlines collect from optional extras, such as bag charges, seat selection and credit card fees, has grown by 264% in seven years. A new report on “ancillary” revenue, which includes all income beyond the standard airfare, has estimated that carriers will rake in $82.2b in extras for 2017, up from $67.4b last year, and $22.6b in 2010. It all adds up to $20 per passenger. Ancillary sources now account for 10.6% of all revenue – up from 4.8% seven years ago. But for some airlines the figure is far higher. IdeaWorksCompany, the firm behind the report, pinpoints several “Ancillary Revenue Champs”, such as Ryanair, Wizz, Frontier and Spirit. As a percentage of total revenue at these carriers, ancillary sources accounts for between a fifth and half. But the biggest growth in ancillary revenue this year was among traditional airlines, with the likes of BA increasingly attempting to compete with their low-cost rivals by charging for food and drink, for example, or for seats with extra legroom. “With few exceptions, airlines all over the world are moving to a la carte methods to provide more choices for consumers while boosting ancillary revenue,” says the report. “For example, throughout North America, Europe, and Australasia, basic economy fares are now prevalent for short- and medium-haul travel.” It estimates that baggage fees account for 27% of total ancillary revenue, and on-board sales of food, drink and duty-free goods for 21%. Revenue from hotel partnerships and car hire, as well as frequent fliers programmes, also contribute.<br/>
The millions of small civilian drones plying the nation’s skies can cause significant damage to airliners and business jets in a midair collision, new research commissioned by the US FAA concluded. While most drones weigh only a few pounds, they include motors and other metal equipment that could cause significant damage to aircraft engines, windshields or wings upon impact, according to the study by an FAA research centre. Even though airliners and other aircraft are designed to take impacts from birds, “it doesn’t mean they are going to be able to withstand a 4-pound or an 8-pound UAS impact,” said Gerardo Olivares, a researcher at Wichita State University who helped lead the study. He referred to drones as UAS, or unmanned aerial systems. The results of the government-sanctioned study, the most comprehensive of its kind to date, add urgency to FAA’s efforts to improve safety as the industry pushes to expand drone operations in everything from delivering consumer goods to performing aerial inspections. It also comes on the heels of the first two midair collisions between small drones and traditional aircraft in North America. Last month the FAA said reports of drone-safety incidents, including flying improperly or getting too close to other aircraft, now average about 250 a month, up more than 50% from a year earlier. The reports include near-collisions described by pilots on airliners, law-enforcement helicopters or aerial tankers fighting wildfires. Researchers at four universities conducted impact tests and computer modeling over the past 14 months, attempting to determine the potential hazards to common single-aisle airliners and business jets. The work was peer reviewed by NASA and aircraft manufacturers, Olivares said.<br/>
The bird, apparently a female falcon, wheels into view 100 feet over Edmonton International Airport, flapping her wings — hunting behaviour. She pursues a flock of starlings, which scatter into the safety of the woods. The falcon is majestic, graceful and resolute. She is also a machine — a battery, sensors, GPS, barometer and flight control computer stuffed into a falcon-shaped, hand-painted exterior. A human on the ground controls her wings. The Robird patrols the skies around the airport, in Alberta, Canada. Her mission is to mimic falcon behavior in order to head off a serious threat to aviation: the bird strike, which happens when a bird or flock collides with an airplane. The Robird doesn’t actually catch any prey. Its job is to alert birds to the presence of a predator, herd them away from the airport, and teach them to prefer a less dangerous neighbourhood. Small birds do little damage to a plane, even if they are sucked into an engine (“ingested” is the aviation term). But a large bird, or sometimes a flock of small ones, can bend or break engine blades. In the worst case, big birds knock out two engines, leaving zero. As the world knows, a flock of Canada geese disabled both engines of a US Airways jet in January 2009. According to the FAA, US civil aircraft suffered 142,000 bird strikes between 1990 and 2013. Gerald Skocdople, chief pilot for the 737 at Canadian North Airlines, said that bird strikes vary with routes and time of year — “in Canada in the middle of the winter it’s not too big of an issue.” He estimated that at Canadian North, about one flight in a thousand strikes a bird. Story has more details.<br/>
A partly British-built hybrid electric plane could be flying by 2020 as the result of a collaboration between Airbus, Siemens and Rolls-Royce. The manufacturers will convert a short-haul passenger jet, paving the way to making commercial air travel running partly on electricity a reality. Engineers involved in the E-Fan X project said the technology could mean cleaner, quieter and cheaper journeys. They also raised the prospect of radically changing aircraft and airport design, allowing air travel to supplant rail for many more intercity journeys. The companies are in talks with the British government to partially fund the joint project, which could cost hundreds of millions of pounds. They aim to build an E-Fan X demonstration model based on a BAe 146 aircraft in which an electric unit, powered by an onboard generator, replaces one, and eventually two, of the plane’s four gas turbine engines. Airbus flew a single-seater electric plane, the E-Fan, across the Channel in 2015. The E-Fan X passenger jet will require more than 30 times the power, two megawatts, for a single electric engine. Mark Cousins, the head of flight demonstrators at Airbus, said: “We decided we needed to be more ambitious because the world and technology is moving so fast.” A number of airlines were interested, he said. “The objective is to reduce environmental impact and significantly reduce fuel burn.” Paul Stein, the Rolls-Royce chief technology officer, said: “Aviation has been the last frontier in the electrification of transport, and slow to catch up. This will be a new era of aviation.”<br/>