China will ease its near decade-old “one route, one airline” policy, the country’s aviation regulator said Monday, opening the door to greater levels of competition on long-haul routes between the nation’s state-backed and private carriers. The CAAC in a statement on its website said the move was in recognition of the changing nature of China’s aviation market, and also to prepare for the opening of Beijing’s second international airport scheduled for 2019. The regulator said it would divide international routes into two categories based on how open China’s air transport agreement was with the destination country. The number of carriers would be unrestricted for one group, while some restrictions would be placed on the other. The measures will go into effect on Oct. 1 this year, it said. The CAAC issued a draft of the proposed regulations in August.<br/>
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Police will be given sweeping new powers to demand identification from travellers under new laws to boost counter-terrorism efforts at Australia's airports. The Australian Federal Police will be able to ask anyone for ID and eject them from the airport under the changes that will also see the introduction of advanced X-ray and body scanning machines. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull conceded the new powers were a big step but said they were necessary for "dangerous times". Turnbull said the terror attacks in Indonesian city of Surabaya in recent days were a reminder that the threat still existed. "The justification for changing the law so that police at an airport can ask you to identify yourself, the justification is the safety of the Australian people," he said. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said that, under current laws, certain conditions need to be met before police can ask for ID. "We are addressing an anomaly and a deficiency in the law at the moment," he said. The law will not require travellers to carry ID. The Turnbull government's budget laid out $294 million in funding for airport security, which will see 190 further counter-terrorism police officers and 50 in technical and intelligence support positions.<br/>
A group of bipartisan lawmakers in the US House have introduced a bill to expand the ranks of skilled aviation maintenance technicians in the US. The bill, called the Aviation Maintenance Workforce Development Pilot Program Bill, is intended to stave off a looming shortage of maintenance workers by launching a pilot program that would allocate $500,000 in grants to aviation workforce development programs run by governments, industry and academia. “As a pilot and an ATP [airline transport pilot-certified commercial pilot], I have seen firsthand the importance of having a skilled workforce of aviation technicians and mechanics,” Rep. Graves said May 9 when the bill was introduced. “This legislation provides a viable path forward to address the skills gap and ensure the United States remains a world leader in the aviation industry.” The bill is similar to a bill introduced in the Senate in March, although the House bill would allow high school students to participate in the workforce development pilot program.<br/>
Airports all over the US are looking for new ways to cover their costs, as they seek more income for terminal and other improvements. That means the fees and rents paid by parking lots, rental car companies, taxis and the businesses under their roofs are also increasingly important as airports try to hold the line on, or even lower, the fees paid by airlines. If an airport can reduce airlines’ fees, it can keep carriers that might otherwise switch to another city, said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and president of the Atmosphere Research Group, as well as appeal to budget carriers that prefer low costs and even persuade carriers to enter new markets by making it more economical. The lower the fees, Harteveldt added, “the more likely it is an airline can offer lower fares to passengers.” And by bringing in new businesses, the airports are attracting new customers. A study released last year by Technavio, a market research firm in London, predicted that nonairline revenue would grow at a compounded annual rate of nearly 9% from 2017 to 2021. And as the airports open more of their land to commercial development, the report said, they are converting “from being just infrastructures to commercial enterprises.” Story has more background.<br/>