The House voted Wednesday to direct the federal government to set a minimum size for airline seats, bar passengers from being kicked off overbooked planes, and consider whether to restrict animals on planes. Those and other passenger-related provisions were included in a bill to authorise FAA programs for five years. The House approved the measure by a 398-23 vote, sending it to the Senate, which faces a Sunday deadline. The FAA bill is also notable for what is not included. Lawmakers abandoned a plan backed by airlines to privatise the nation's air-traffic-control system. And congressional negotiators dropped a proposal to crack down on "unreasonable" airline fees. The bill includes several provisions backed by consumer groups. Story has list.<br/>
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Foreign airlines that fly on 20 popular long-haul routes to China will face fresh competitive pressure as Beijing begins to ease decade-old restrictions on Oct. 1, allowing more Chinese carriers to offer service. The change affects about 20% of Chinese long-haul daily capacity, according to data compiled for Reuters by Chinese aviation data firm Variflight. It will turn up the heat on US and European carriers like United and Air France KLM, which have higher costs, lower outbound demand from their countries and less cultural appeal to Chinese travellers. “The North American and European airlines are no match for the Chinese carriers,” said Corrine Png, CE of Singapore-based transport consultancy Crucial Perspective, citing the majority of traffic being driven by Chinese customers. Some have already abandoned Chinese routes, with American Airlines recently planning to drop Shanghai-Chicago service after also cancelling Beijing-Chicago and describing the routes as a “colossal loss-maker” that cost it $30m a year. The “one route, one airline” policy had been in place since 2009; altering it now is a response to the changing aviation market, China’s Civil Aviation Authority has said. Two of the routes, Shanghai-Paris and Shanghai-Frankfurt, already have two Chinese airlines flying them but can add one more. Variflight’s chief data analyst, Cong Wei, said Chinese airlines controlled about 50% of the seats on the 20 routes, which include Beijing-Los Angeles and Shanghai-London, and had the potential for a much higher share.<br/>
China’s escalating trade war with the US has revived prospects of an $18b jet order from Airbus, with a high-powered delegation from the European planemaker seeking to seal the sale during a visit to Beijing, according to people familiar with the matter. The possible order for about 180 A320 Neo narrow-body planes, first touted in January, will be discussed during the trip involving Airbus CEO Tom Enders and commercial aircraft president Guillaume Faury, said the people. The executives are in China to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Airbus’s first Chinese assembly line and the opening of a helicopter plant. The European company said it doesn’t comment on the travel plans of management or confidential discussions with customers. The CAAC, China’s aviation regulator, said Wednesday it had met with Faury, without elaborating on the context. “The timing of this will not be a coincidence,” said Sash Tusa, an analyst at Agency Partners in London. “The Chinese are political in the way they announce deals, they use aircraft orders as a means of doing international politics.” While a final deal may not be reached, President Xi Jinping is keen to parade the purchase at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai from Nov. 5, where a series of deals demonstrating the nation’s role in global trade is expected to be announced, according to the people. The order could also take centre stage at the Zhuhai air show in southern China, starting a day later.<br/>
Africa’s aviation industry safety performance improved in 2017 in all sub-Saharan countries, IATA DG Alexandre de Juniac said. Airlines in the sub-Saharan Africa region had zero jet hull losses and zero fatal accidents involving jets or turboprops for the second consecutive year. Both the turboprop hull loss rate and the all-accident rates declined against the average of the previous five years. However, the turboprop hull loss rate increased compared to 2016 (5.70 vs. 1.52). In turn, this largely was responsible for causing an increase in the all-accident rate compared to 2016 (6.87 vs. 2.43). “Meaning, there is still a large gap to cover in the safety performance of the continent’s turboprop fleet,” according to an IATA release. De Juniac said 34 African airlines are now member of IATA’s IOSA Operational Safety Audit program. “We say the safety level for IOSA carriers is much better than without it. But we are also asking governments to adopt IOSA to their own regulations as their standard, as it is now in many countries outside of Africa,” de Juniac said.<br/>