Boeing delivered 48 of its 737 narrow-body jetliners in August, rebounding from a 6-year low as the planemaker tackled production snags on its largest source of profit. Total commercial-aircraft shipments rose to 64 last month from 39 in July, Boeing said Tuesday. While the 737 deliveries were 4 shy of the monthly production rate, they were an improvement from the 29 planes shipped a month earlier as parts shortages and out-of-sequence work ballooned at a Seattle-area factory. The July figure was the lowest for any month since 2012. The company blamed late deliveries of fuselages from Spirit AeroSystems and engines from a GE-Safran joint venture for the 50-odd aircraft parked in nooks and crannies around the Renton, Washington, factory and an adjacent air field. <br/>
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Change fee waivers and flexible rebooking policies were now in place at every big airline serving the mid-Atlantic area that’s expected to be in the path of Hurricane Florence, now a Category 4 storm that could bring “catastrophic” damage. Those flexible-rebooking policies initially included airports in the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia. But, by Tuesday morning, they extended as far north as Maryland. The exact path of Florence still has some uncertainty, but meteorologists appear increasingly confident the storm will make landfall along the coast of Carolinas or – possibly – Virginia. “Based on current models, it’s likely that the biggest impact will be to the Charlotte airport, which is an American Airlines hub,” FlightAware said. “If the storm turns north towards D.C., more airlines will be impacted.” <br/>
The US has issued a fresh warning to airlines to exercise caution when operating in Iran's airspace, citing concerns over military activity including an unnamed US civil operator being intercepted by fighter jets in December 2017. The updated guidance from the FAA to US operators, issued Sunday at the expiry of the prior year's advisory, said there were also military activities emanating from or transiting through Iran's airspace associated with the conflict in Syria. Tensions ramped up between Iran and the US after president Donald Trump pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal with Iran in May and reimposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic last month. Flight Service Bureau said "without seeming alarmist", the deteriorating relationship between the US and Iran must be taken into account when planning flights in Iran's airspace. <br/>
A senior official from Tampa International Airport (TPA) told US lawmakers the risk of cyberattack “without question represents the preeminent and persistent threat” to global aviation. The comments came during a Sept 6 joint hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee’s Cybersecurity and Transportation Security subcommittees, held to examine cyber threats to aviation. TPA EVP-IT and general counsel Michael Stephens said In his testimony that US airports have reached a point “where voluntary compliance is no longer adequate,” and asked lawmakers to consider mandating the adoption of “uniform minimum cyber security standards and frameworks.” He also said the “human factor remains the most highly exploited vector” for breaching cyber defences. <br/>
Britain's aerospace trade body ADS has written to the EC for the second time in 4 months to urge it once again to allow British and European airline regulators to begin technical planning for Brexit. Aviation is one sector that could be most severely impacted by Brexit, as there is no default fall-back option for the industry if there is no agreement on future relations after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019. ADS said that bilateral discussions between the UK CAA and EASA were needed to ensure passenger safety, amongst other things. It said technical bilateral talks had already been held between the CAA and regulators in the US, Canada and Brazil. "As long as the Commission blocks similar bilateral technical discussions between the CAA and EASA, it fosters uncertainty and risks legal liability, insurance and passenger safety," ADS said. <br/>
Chinese airlines will buy 7,690 new planes worth US$1.2t over the next 2 decades to keep pace with booming consumer and business demand for air travel, Boeing said Tuesday, raising a previous forecast. The planemaker's latest estimate for the period to 2037 is 6.2% higher than its previous prediction of 7,240 planes until 2036 made last year. "The growth in China can be attributed to the country's growing middle class, which has more than tripled in the last 10 years and is expected to double again in the next 10," said Randy Tinseth, Boeing Commercial Airplanes' VP of marketing. The company has so far been mostly spared in an ongoing trade war between the US and China. Boeing also predicted that China will account for 18%of the world's commercial airplane fleet by 2037, up from 15% currently. <br/>