Boeing is unlikely to resume production of the passenger version of the 767-300ER, even as airlines look to meet fleet needs until the possible New Mid-market Aircraft comes on the market in the next decade. "Bringing back the 767 passenger airplane – I just don't see it," says Randy Tinseth, VP of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The airframer continues to build military and freighter versions of the 767, and executives have said as recently as Nov 2017 that resuming production of the passenger variant was an option. Reports last fall suggested that Boeing could resume production of the passenger 767-300ER to act as a bridge until the NMA debuts in the 2024 to 2025 timeframe. United Airlines was understood to have expressed interest. <br/>
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The US has offered the UK a more limited “Open Skies” aviation deal after Brexit than it has as a member of the EU, but participants expressed confidence that the lucrative transatlantic market would continue unimpeded. The main stumbling block in the negotiations is that the US is using its standard template for aviation agreements, which has less generous terms than its deal with the EU, according to people familiar with the matter. Those terms could affect transatlantic flights operated by companies such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. In spite of the potential hang-up, A4A doesn’t see any major hurdles to reaching an Open Skies agreement with the UK and believes it can be finalised soon. “For the airline industry, discussions with the UK are making significant progress,” Sean Kennedy, an A4A VP, said. <br/>
Philip Hammond has stressed the urgency of securing an implementation deal between Britain and the EU by the end of this month, warning that without it airlines will not know if they can safely schedule flights for spring 2019. The chancellor told a parliamentary committee that it was in the interests of both sides to agree to the terms of the transition period at the March EU council meeting. He acknowledged that the clock was ticking, but pointed to the need for business certainty and a range of other “immediate pressing issues”. “Airlines will need to know April 1 whether they can safely schedule flights in April 2019. There are lots of practical issues that are going to become very problematic across the continent of Europe unless we agree this implementation deal,” Hammond said. <br/>
Aircraft cabins have remained one of the few connectivity “black holes’ in Europe as the communications industry has largely failed to tempt passengers to pay for the patchy Wi-Fi services on offer. That is set to change with the advent of the European Aviation Network (EAN), a purpose-built system for in-flight communications developed by Inmarsat which is due to go live in June. The service will deliver broadband speeds that are equivalent, if not faster, than those available in most households. Both the satellite and airline industries believe that opening up the aeroplane cabin will create a gold rush of revenue in the next 2 decades as passengers opt to pay to stay online. A London School of Economics report predicts in-flight broadband will generate US$130b of total revenue for the entire sector by 2035. <br/>