Argentina and Britain are analysing five South American airlines’ proposals for new flights between the Falkland Islands and Argentina, Argentina’s Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie said on Tuesday. Two of the carriers are based in Chile, two in Brazil and one in Uruguay, Faurie said in a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, without naming them. LATAM Airlines operates the only flight to the Falkland Islands from South America, once a week from Chile. Once a month the flight stops in Rio Gallegos, Argentina. The new flights would originate outside Argentina, with a stopover in the country. A decision on the new flights will be made in coming months, Faurie said. “I certainly intend to be among the first passengers,” Johnson said. Argentina and Britain have been seeking better ties in recent years despite competing sovereignty claims to the British-held islands 500 kilometers off Argentina’s coast. Johnson’s visit for a G20 meeting was the first by a British foreign secretary to Argentina in 22 years.<br/>
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Global airlines are obeying Beijing's demands to refer to Taiwan explicitly as a part of China, despite the White House's call this month to stand firm against such "Orwellian nonsense." The AP found 20 carriers, including Air Canada, British Airways and Lufthansa, that now refer to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing considers Chinese territory, as a part of China on their global websites. There are just three days left for dozens of foreign airlines to decide whether to comply with Beijing's orders, or face consequences that could cripple their China business, including legal sanctions. Many have already sided with Beijing. The spread of "Taiwan, China" on the drop-down menus and maps of airline websites represents another victory for China's President Xi Jinping and his ruling Communist Party's nationalistic effort to force foreign companies to conform to their geopolitical vision, even in operations outside of China. Critics say China's incremental push to leverage its economic power to forge new international norms — in this case regarding Taiwan's status — creates worrying precedents. Story has more details.<br/>
Ownership limits in Canadian airlines and the country’s biggest railway are set to rise in coming days, with the wrangling over a controversial transport law poised to come to an end. Transport Minister Marc Garneau’s sprawling reform of transport laws, known as Bill C-49, is due for a vote Tuesday that will likely see elected lawmakers reject changes proposed by the unelected Senate. The bill has ricocheted between the two legislatures, but the Senate is signaling it will eventually bow to demands of elected officials to avoid what one Senator called a potential constitutional crisis. If they do, it means the bill, first proposed a year ago, is probably set to become law this week. Though it could still face surprise delays, key portions would kick in immediately, Garneau’s spokesman Marc Roy said. These include raising the foreign ownership limit in airlines like Air Canada and WestJet to 49%, from 25% now. <br/>
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) will launch a major rehabilitation project May 24, closing part of its Runway 17-Center/35-Center (17C/35C) and beginning work on replacing the center third of the 13,400-ft. runway. DFW is replacing a section of the runway that measures 6,000 ft. by 50 ft., including the sub-base. The airport plans to keep part of the runway open for at least two months, which will allow the southern portion of the strip to be used during the day. Full closure is planned for August as the project expands. Work is slated for completion by year end. The new runway will include special pavement sensors to help monitor weather. The project also includes building connections to a planned northeast airport perimeter (or end-around) taxiway. DFW has a perimeter taxiway at the southern end of two east-side parallel runways, including 17C/35C. Built in 1984, the runway handles the most arrivals at DFW. But the airport expects operational impact to be minimal thanks to the airport's six other runways.<br/>
Budget carriers in South Korea saw their earnings more than double in the first quarter thanks mainly to their efforts to diversify air routes, data showed Wednesday. According to the data from industry sources, brokerages and the government, the combined operating profit of six low-cost carriers spiked 131% on-year to 186.1b won ($171m) in the January-March period. The low-fare airlines registered total sales of 1.18t won during the three-month period, up 34.2% from the same period last year. Their stellar performance came despite still weak demand for their Chinese routes in the wake of China's retaliation against South Korea for its installation of an advanced US missile defense system. In a bid to counter the fallout, the budget carriers stepped up efforts to diversify routes to Japan and Southeast Asia, market watchers said. Also responsible was the continued strength of the South Korean currency against the dollar, which helped ease their burden of servicing foreign debt, they added.<br/>
US regulators say they will ease the glide path for next-generation supersonic jets. The FAA is crafting a regulation “to accommodate noise certification of new supersonic aircraft,” the agency said in a post on a White House website. Lockheed Martin last month won a $247.5m contract from NASA to develop a quieter supersonic aircraft. Aerion Corp., a business jet startup backed by Texas billionaire Robert Bass, and Boom Technology Inc., a Colorado startup, are among companies developing planes capable of flying above the speed of sound. Typical airliners fly at a maximum of 80% the speed of sound or slightly higher. Sound travels at roughly 1,078 km an hour at cruising altitudes above 30,000 feet. The only noise standards in US regulations apply to the Concorde, the European jet that was capable of flying more than twice the speed of sound, the FAA said. The Concorde ceased operations in 2003, its economic use limited because it couldn’t fly over many land areas because of noise restrictions and a crash in 2000 near Paris. The initiation of the FAA’s new rules was listed in the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ spring agenda of government planned actions. A formal proposal is expected to be ready by December.<br/>
Airlines' insatiable demand for pilots threatens to sabotage flight schools' ability to train new ones. Carriers are raising wages and hoarding every available pilot — including the instructors schools rely on to teach incoming students. The very pilot pipeline that is supposed to meet decades of projected labor shortfalls is being squeezed. According to a report from the Government Accountability Office, some schools have been forced to scale back operations or turn down qualified students because they do not have enough instructors. Michael Farley has been teaching at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts for 18 years. Applications for his program are up, but the aviation department chair is so short on instructors, he has had to cap the number of students in his program. "In my tenure, this is unprecedented," Farley said, reflecting on the speed with which airlines were hiring recent graduates. The problem is rooted in how collegiate aviation is structured. Classroom courses such as meteorology and aviation law are taught by academic faculty, but flight instructors are usually experienced students or graduates looking to gain flight hours before heading off to the commercial big leagues. Story has more details.<br/>