general

President Donald Trump is pushing to have his longtime personal pilot, John Dunkin, to head the FAA, according to a report from Axios. Dunkin, who flew Trump's personal plane during the campaign, is reportedly on the short list for the top spot at the agency that oversees civil aviation in the United States. Dunkin has previously told people that he would often face delays while flying Trump around and that a pilot running the agency would prevent that. Administration officials have been pushing back against industry critics of the potential appointment. "John Dunkin isn't just a pilot," an administration official told Axios. "He's managed airline and corporate flight departments, certified airlines from start-up under FAA regulations, and oversaw the Trump presidential campaign's air fleet, which included managing all aviation transportation for travel to 203 cities in 43 states over the course of 21 months." Dunkin has been interviewed for the post, with one source saying he was "impressive."<br/>

The FAA promises it soon will decide whether to step in and determine just how much room you deserve when flying with a commercial airline. It’s all part of what Judge Patricia Millett of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit called “the Case of the Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat.” “As many have no doubt noticed, aircraft seats and the spacing between them have been getting smaller and smaller, while American passengers have been growing in size,” Millett said in a July ruling ordering the FAA to review seat sizes and legroom. The FAA said it will soon announce its decision, but officials declined to specify when. “The FAA is still evaluating potential actions to address the Court’s findings, but expects to issue its decision soon,” the agency said. The case came about because a nonprofit group, the Flyers Rights Education Fund, asked the FAA for rules to prevent the passenger squeeze from ­continuing. The FAA considers itself a safety agency rather than a creature-comfort agency. If the airlines want to turn you into a pretzel, the agency figures that’s their right so long as you can unwind fast enough to escape if something goes wrong. When the FAA said safety — not seat size — was its priority, Flyers Rights took the agency to court.<br/>

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago’s airline carriers are in the final stages of negotiating a blockbuster $8.5b deal to dramatically expand O’Hare International Airport with a state-of-the-art global terminal, dozens of new gates and several additional concourses. The eight-year plan would be the single largest and most expensive terminal revamp in O’Hare’s 73-year history. The goal is to vault the airline hub long known for its gridlock and delays into the 21st century by growing its sluggish number of international flights and creating more room for its domestic carriers. Emanuel is seeking to leverage the May expiration date of the airlines’ 35-year lease to secure higher fees and charges from the carriers that would help bankroll the ambitious project. The Aviation Department would borrow against the future airline fees to pay for the construction, which city officials said would not require taxpayer dollars. The 55-year-old Terminal 2 would be torn down to make way for a new “Global Terminal” with wider concourses and gates to accommodate the larger aircraft that embark on international flights to places like Hong Kong and Dubai. Terminals 1, 3 and 5 would be renovated, while two new satellite concourses would be constructed to the west of the existing terminals and connected to the new Global Terminal by an underground pedestrian tunnel. All told, more than 3.1m square feet of terminal space would be added — a 72% increase over the current 4.3mi square feet.<br/>

Iranian media are reporting the country's aviation organization has temporarily banned flights of all ATR-72 aircraft after a deadly crash that killed 65. The official IRNA news agency reports that Iran's Aviation Organization said Aseman Airlines ATR72-200 and ATR72-500 flights will be banned until further notice. The statement reads: "In order to make sure of the improvement of this type of aircraft's safety, it is necessary to stop their flights temporarily." An Aseman Airlines twin-engine turboprop ATR-72 used for short-distance regional flying went down Sunday in foggy weather. All on board Flight EP3704 were killed, including 59 passengers and six crew members.<br/>

The UK Department of Transport (DoT) will allow direct cargo flights to resume between Bangladesh and the UK, after security improvements at Dhaka airport. London halted cargo services from the Asian nation in March 2016 after concerns were raised over standards of security at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. The concerns are believed to have included inadequate management oversight and ease of access to cargo facilities. Bangladesh Biman, the national carrier, was the sole airline that handled direct cargo flights to the UK. The Bangladeshi government appointed a UK company, Redline Assured Security, to examine arrangements at Hazrat Shahjalal; the company said it had assisted “through changing the poor security culture that had resulted in their air cargo being deemed unsafe.” The lifting of the ban was made this week in a brief statement from the DoT. However, although the overall ban has been lifted, a DoT spokeswoman confirmed that Bangladeshi carriers would still have to have their cargo operations validated by the UK or EU before they could carry cargo to the UK or the EU again.<br/>

Airbus's revised deal with the countries that helped fund the A380 superjumbo almost two decades ago will help save the planemaker more than $1.4b, according to a regulatory filing. Future obligations for refundable advances declined by about about 17% to an estimated E5.9b, Airbus said in its annual financial statements published Wednesday. While the balance includes other items, the bulk of the discount came from revisions to the A380’s outlook and talks to restructure the agreement. The manufacturer said last week it reached the long-sought deal easing repayments to the countries, including Germany, France and the U.K., that loaned Airbus about E3.5b in 2000 to start the A380 program. Sales of the double-decker have been slow since its commercial introduction in 2007, and the program is unprofitable. As recently as Jan. 15, company executives were warning it could be killed if they couldn’t secure a vital new $16b order from its biggest customer, Emirates. The reduced financial burden gives Airbus crucial breathing room to lower the production rate on the plane to six per year if necessary, from the eight it plans to build in 2019. The accord “is beneficial to governments and certainly also to Airbus, and helps us to carry on with this very important program that the A380 is,” CEO Tom Enders said last week. “It is no secret we have government loans we are paying levies on that is quite a burden for the company going forward.”<br/>