Annual passengers traveling via the world’s commercial airlines exceeded 4b for the first time in 2017, up 7.3% over 2016 and equivalent to 280m additional air trips, according to IATA’s annual World Air Transport Statistics report, released Sept 6. A broad-based improvement in global economic conditions, combined with lower average airfares, supported the upward trajectory, IATA said. Of the 4.1b air passengers worldwide in 2017, Asia-Pacific carriers continued to dominate, transporting 1.5b passengers during the year, up 10.6%—or 200m additional passengers—compared to 2016, making up 36.3% of the world’s commercial passenger market. An additional 107.6m passengers flew on European carriers in 2017, reaching 1.1b for the year, up 8.2% year-over-year. <br/>
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Impinj is looking to solve one of the most frustrating experiences in the modern world of travel, lost luggage. The Seattle maker of connected tags for billions of items around the world announced a new chip that will help airlines track bags and prevent them from getting lost. Impinj says its Monza R6-B chip is the first one specifically made for airline bag tracking and is designed to handle the issues that come with following luggage that travels great distances, stacks on top of other bags and is surrounded by all the metallic infrastructure in airports. IATA predicts that the move to tracked bags will save the airline industry US$3b by 2023 in reduced costs thanks to not having to find lost bags. <br/>
Boeing is bringing retired workers back on the job as the planemaker tries to fix delays at its 737 jetliner plant outside Seattle, a union official said Monday. The snarl at its plant in Renton, Washington, triggered by shortages of engines and fuselages as Boeing sped production to record levels in June, is likely to hurt Q3 results and threatens its goal to boost build rates again in 2019, some analysts said last week. Investors will get a peek Tuesday at how far behind Boeing is when it releases its order and delivery tallies for August, a month after deliveries fell to the lowest level in years. Boeing started hiring retired mechanics and inspectors on a temporary basis after reaching an agreement with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Aug 15. Boeing had a similar agreement with the union last autumn. <br/>
Airbus’s A320neo family has overtaken the A320 in terms of 2018 deliveries, with the re-engined version accounting for the majority handed over so far this year. The airframer reached the tipping-point around 28-30 July, when deliveries of an A321neo to SriLankan Airlines, and subsequent transfer of A320neos to Avianca, Go Air and IndiGo Airlines, took the re-engined aircraft into the lead. Airbus’s latest delivery figures confirm that the A320neo edged further ahead during August. Over the first 8 months of this year the airframer delivered 349 single-aisle jets, including 5 A220s. The remaining 344 comprised 185 A320neo-family and 159 A320-family jets, meaning that the re-engined version accounted for nearly 54% of A320 deliveries. <br/>