Planes will be packed as Americans head out on summer vacations this year. Airlines for America, a trade group that represents most major US carriers, forecast Wednesday that 246.1m passengers — about 2.7m a day — will fly on a US airline between June 1 and Aug. 31. That would be a 3.7% increase from last year's record. The group's chief economist, John Heimlich, credits a strong economy, rising household net worth, and low fares. The CEOs of American Airlines and United Airlines have warned, however, that rising fuel prices are likely to lead to higher fares. Memorial Day weekend is the traditional kickoff to the peak travel season. Last summer the airline group predicted a 4% increase, which turned out to be too low.<br/>
general
Canada Wednesday approved broad air and freight reforms that will spell out passengers’ rights on planes, mandate the use of voice and video recorders in rail locomotives, while providing more options for shippers with limited transportation choices. The government announced plans last year to modernize the country’s Transportation Act, which would ensure ticketed passengers could not be hauled off overbooked flights. The law would apply to all carriers flying in and out of Canada. <br/>
The view from the CE’s office window at Memphis International Airport is as sweeping as it is dispiriting: On a recent afternoon, he could see 10 empty jet bridges and not a single airliner. Later, at the curb in front of the terminal, there were only three cars dropping off passengers, and inside, a pair of moving walkways carried just three people between them. An empty airport may sound heavenly to anyone who has had to cope with the crowds and chaos at La Guardia or Hartsfield-Jackson or O’Hare. But it is a humbling reality for Memphis. To walk the airport’s deserted corridors now is to know that its glory days of just a decade ago are gone, a glaring casualty of an airline merger that transformed the American aviation industry but cost the Mid-South’s most important city its status as a hub. So now, while many airports are desperately trying to figure out how to add more gates, more destinations, more parking, more restaurants and more bathrooms, Memphis is grappling with the opposite, much rarer riddle: how to shrink gracefully. Story has full details.<br/>
UK pilot representatives are emphasising speed reduction as the best strategy to lower the risks posed by an unmanned aerial vehicle collision threat. Crews of commercial aircraft filed 92 reports of drone sightings in UK airspace last year, and cockpit union BALPA states that the structural composition of drones makes a collision potentially more damaging. "It is important therefore to slow down to reduce the kinetic energy of a potential drone impact," it says, having drawn up guidance for pilots in co-operation with air traffic controllers guild GATCO. When a drone report is received, says the union, pilots should decelerate to the "minimum clean" speed – the lowest speed an aircraft can fly in clean configuration – during climb and descent, and to 180kt during approach. Although crews have claimed to sight drones above 10,000ft they are more likely to encounter them at lower altitudes, especially during approach and departure. "The speed reduction should be requested first so [air traffic control] can assess the traffic situation and accommodate the request safely," says BALPA.<br/>
Airbus and its four home countries—France, Germany, Spain and the UK—have made changes to reimbursable launch investment loans that they believe will bring the aid in compliance with WTO rules. “We are confident that we have now achieved full compliance in the DS316 case as a clear demonstration of the will to ensure a fair-trade environment respecting international trade agreements,” Airbus general counsel John Harrison said. The measures follow a May 15 WTO Appellate Body ruling that launch aid on the A350 and A380 programs was improper. The appellate ruling left about $9b in subsidies in play on which the US said it would seek authority from the WTO to impose countermeasures, which would take the form of tariffs against EU products. The details of what Airbus has changed are confidential, although Airbus is understood to have agreed to repay a UK government-backed loan before the end of this year, which would be earlier than planned, and to not take some support as initially planned for the A350 program. Airbus said the changes “are aligned with current market conditions.”<br/>
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, one of the world's largest aircraft lessors, is in talks to buy 400 jetliners from Airbus and Boeing and is prepared to expand its fleet through acquisition if talks fall through, its CE said Thursday. The move comes months after a leading US airline investor orchestrated a record deal last November for a group of airlines to buy over 400 planes from Airbus as economists project strong growth for air travel. Dubai government-controlled DAE is interested in buying single-aisle Airbus A320neo-family and Boeing 737 MAX planes following its acquisition last year of Dublin-based lessor AWAS, DAE CE Firoz Tarapore said. Any deal would not necessarily be evenly split between the two planemakers, Tarapore said, adding DAE was "nowhere near where we thought we would be" in finalising an order. "We are not happy with the price," he said. A 400 single-aisle jet order would be worth over US$40b at list prices.<br/>