The number of European flights delayed by up to 2 hours is set to increase seven-fold by 2040 due to greater travel demand and a lack of capacity on the ground and in the air to keep up with the growth, European network manager Eurocontrol said. Eurocontrol, which manages Europe’s air traffic network, said in a report Tuesday that flights in its region are due to increase 53% by 2040, but that airport capacity is set to rise by only 16%. It predicts that by 2040, around 470,000 passengers per day will be delayed by up to 2 hours, compared with around 50,000 passengers today. Airports therefore need to construct more runways or deploy technology to make better use of the runways, Eurocontrol DG Eamonn Brennan said. “By 2040, there will be 1.5m flights we can’t handle, that’s 160m passengers who can’t fly,” he said. Plans for a new runway at London Heathrow were earlier this month backed after decades of delay, although the project could still face challenges before building starts. “It’s nearly impossible to build a runway in Europe today,” Brennan said. Europe is already struggling to cope this year, Brennan added. Airlines have squarely attacked air traffic control as the reason for recent flight delays, citing strikes in France and staff shortages. Eurocontrol has said it expects 14.3m minutes of delay for 2018, up by 5m, or a 53% jump from 2017. With each minute of delay estimated to cost E70, that’s an extra E30m of costs for airlines to cope with.<br/>
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A US DoT watchdog is reviewing federal oversight of aircraft evacuation standards, as airline seating gets tighter and passengers bring more carry-on baggage with them on board. The FAA requires that aircraft can be evacuated within 90 seconds in the case of an emergency. But the inspector general's office of the Department of Transportation said these standards haven't been significantly updated since 1990, while passenger behavior and cabin configurations have changed. Airlines have added more seats and cut seat pitch on board as air travel demand has grown. The inspector general's office will evaluate how FAA is updating standards given those changes and assess the agency's "process for determining whether aircraft as currently configured meet evacuation standards." "We look forward to working with the OIG to explain how we ensure airlines are complying with our regulations on emergency evacuations," the FAA said. Passenger behaviour that could hamper evacuation could include the retrieval of cabin baggage, which many passengers carry on board to avoid checked-luggage fees.<br/>
Heathrow’s third runway is facing a further disruption after a rival bidder prepared to launch a judicial review citing “serious errors” in the analysis which underpinned the UK government’s recent airport expansion decision. The Heathrow Hub, which is arguing for an extension to the airport’s current runway rather than the building of a new one, has hired a heavyweight City law firm to write to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling warning of mistakes in the Airports National Policy Statement. In a letter to Grayling, lawyers from DAC Beachcroft said a recent report by York Aviation consultants – which were engaged by the government to consider the Heathrow Hub bid – “contains serious factual errors as well as inaccuracies”. Unless the government reneges on its decision “it is likely” it will be legally challenged. After experiencing years of delays, consideration under section 13 of the Planning Act put several more months into the process as the legal ramifications are considered.<br/>
Two incidents involving dangerous use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) near Oslo Gardermoen Airport (OSL) have led to a stiff warning from Norwegian airports authority Avinor. On June 13, two instances of UAVs being flown illegally near the airport forced air traffic controllers to close runways, diverting several flights to Torp, north of the Norwegian capital. A similar incident in mid-May also resulted in runway closure for around 20 minutes. “We take these incidents very seriously,” OSL director of airside operations Henning Bråtebæk said. “This is illegal, and we ask that everyone who owns and operates a drone to be careful and familiarise themselves with and respect the rules.” He said drones constitute a particularly serious hazard for aircraft in the landing or takeoff stage, “quite simply because the aircraft are so close to the ground that there is a real risk of a collision between aircraft and drone. This could lead to an adverse aviation incident or in the worst case a plane crash where a lot of people are endangered.” Rules for UAV use in Norway include a prohibition on flying within 5km from airport perimeter fences unless special permission has been granted, and an altitude limit of 120m.<br/>
Airbus is in talks to rescue a plane sale to China thrown into doubt earlier this year shortly after a perceived gaffe by two European envoys over China’s sensitive historical relationship with Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The Airbus talks come as France’s PM embarks this week on a trip to Beijing and as the United States threatens new tariffs on Chinese goods. French officials cautioned there were no signs of an imminent airplane deal. State-controlled China Eastern is seeking 150 single-aisle jets like the Airbus A320 or the competing Boeing 737, industry sources said. China’s ICBC Financial Leasing has also expressed interest in placing an Airbus aircraft order, the sources said. The fate of a landmark Chinese order for 180 Airbus jets was left uncertain in January when French President Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly failed to clinch the order during a Beijing visit. China often marks such visits with industrial deals. A person familiar with the January negotiations said they had been complicated by the fallout from comments published by French and German envoys over the 1937 Nanking Massacre, in which China says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people.<br/>
Pratt & Whitney is close to finalising the redesign of a faulty engine part that forced Airbus to halt deliveries of its A320neo narrow-body jet at the start of the year. Once approved by regulators, the revamped knife-edge seal would be fitted to turbines during regular maintenance and without any further disruption, Airbus executive Klaus Roewe, who heads the A320 program, said. Pratt first redesigned the seal last year after the original version was found to be prone to excessive wear. The new variant proved even more problematic, introducing a glitch that safety regulators warned could lead to mid-flight shutdowns. The United Technologies unit reverted to the initial design in order to maintain production while working on a permanent replacement. A spokeswoman for Pratt & Whitney declined to comment on work on the company’s geared turbofan engine, which is used on the A320neo. GE-led CFM International, which competes to power the plane, has also suffered issues with its Leap design. All told, Airbus has been forced to store up about 100 of the narrow-body aircraft while they await engines, about two-thirds of them because of the issues at Pratt. Roewe said that with fixes at hand deliveries this year should still be completed as planned.<br/>