Britain will allow EU airlines to continue to fly into the country if it leaves the bloc without a divorce deal, the government said in technical papers published Monday, adding that it plans to stick to EU rules on aviation safety. The ‘no-deal’ papers acknowledged the risk that flights could be grounded if Britain leaves the EU on March 29, 2019, without a deal and said some pilot and safety licenses issued by the UK would no longer be recognized in the EU. Britain has said it wants to continue to participate in the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), but without a Brexit deal this might not be possible. The UK government said it was aiming to avoid such a worst-case scenario, and would look for an agreement on flying rights if there was a disorderly Brexit. “In this scenario the UK would envisage granting permission to EU airlines to continue to operate. We would expect EU countries to reciprocate in turn,” it said in a paper published on Monday. A deal between the UK and EU, or between the UK and individual countries, was possible, it said. On aviation safety in a no-deal scenario, the UK said it would retain EU legislation, and that functions currently performed by EASA would instead be performed by Britain’s aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Agency. Story has more details.<br/>
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US accident investigators probing a San Francisco incident last year in which a jetliner was mere feet from landing on top of at least one other plane are poised to recommend new automated safety warnings and better pilot-fatigue protections. An Air Canada flight mistakenly tried to touch down on a taxi strip where four other jetliners were awaiting takeoff. Both pilots told investigators that they were tired as they neared the airport at almost midnight. Because they lived in Toronto, it was the equivalent of 3 a.m. on their body clocks. The NTSB on Tuesday is scheduled to adopt its findings and make recommendations on the July 7, 2017 incident that could have become one of the worst airline disasters in decades if the Air Canada plane had descended just a few feet more. Investigators have concluded that the tired pilots erred by failing to identify the runway and hadn’t adequately reviewed pre-flight warnings about potentially confusing construction at the airport, according to a person briefed on the proposed findings. The action was described by a person familiar with the agency’s work who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. Instead of aiming for a runway, the captain, who was at the controls, flew on a parallel path toward a taxiway, where the other jets were idling. Story has more details.<br/>
A nationwide strike action will shut down much of Argentina’s air travel capabilities Sept. 25, as aviation-sector employees are expected to join the country’s public transportation and port workers in a full-day protest called by Argentina’s major labor unions. As of 6 p.m. EST Sept. 24, at least 440 flights have been preemptively canceled, with Aerolineas Argentinas and its domestic subsidiary Austral Lineas Aereas bearing the brunt of the work stoppage, according to flight tracking site FlightAware. The general strike is in response to Argentinian president Mauricio Macri’s Aug. 29 announcement that the country had entered into a $50b loan agreement with the IMF, a relief package intended to help the country’s recessionary problems, but is expected to come with the price of severe austerity measures.<br/>
Atlanta might have the busiest airport and Asia might have the most in-demand flight routes, but when it comes to the world's best-connected megahubs, London's Heathrow is king. On 2018's busiest day for global aviation, there were 66,000 possible international connections between flights arriving and departing at Heathrow within a six-hour window, a new report by UK-based air travel intelligence company OAG reveals. OAG's Megahubs International Index 2018 pits the world's biggest and busiest airports against each other to discover which lead the way as both regional and global connecting points by comparing the number of scheduled connections to and from international flights with the number of destinations served from each airport. In the US, Chicago O'Hare International Airport has moved up the rankings to second place, while third and fourth place go to European airports Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Singapore Changi Airport -- voted best in the world six years in a row -- ranks highest in Asia (and eighth overall), but another Asian airport, Beijing, is the largest in the world in terms of scheduled airline capacity, or number of seats on flights. However, a comparative lack of international connections means that Beijing ranks just 32nd overall. Toronto Airport is the second best-connected airport in North America, and ranks fifth overall.<br/>Story has more details on airports.<br/>
Asia-Pacific passenger demand is continuing to expand steadily, although the year-on-year growth in cargo demand is beginning to ease, the region’s major airline group said. International passenger demand was strong in August, in economy and premium sectors and in both Asian and long-haul markets, according to data released by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. The statistics include 36 airlines in the region. Traffic increased 8.2% for the month, compared to a “moderate expansion” of 6.2% in capacity. This led international passenger load factor to rise 1.5 percentage points to 83.4%. Asia-Pacific airlines are “benefiting from the sustained growth in air travel demand, and achieving high load factors, but continue to face a challenging operating environment,” AAPA DG Andrew Herdman said. He highlighted high fuel prices and weak local currencies as particular problems. However, airlines generally “remain proactive in adapting to such pressures in a bid to maintain earnings performance.”<br/>
German airport management company Fraport Greece has broken ground on the site of its new passenger terminal at Thessaloniki Airport in northern Greece. The new 34,000 sq m terminal is planned to be operational in two years. Fraport Greece, a subsidiary of Germany’s Fraport AG, is investing some E100m in a wide range of improvements at the airport that serves Greece’s second-largest city. It served 6.4m passengers in 2017. Along with the second terminal, which will stand adjacent to the existing structure, the revitalization program will include refurbishing the existing 24,000 sq m terminal and constructing a new fire station. Other enhancements will increase the airport’s operational capacity with the number of check-in desks rising almost 50%, a doubling of the number of security lanes, 75% more baggage delivery belts and a 50% increase in the number of terminal gates.<br/>