Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday that his country was eager to work with Egypt to boost airline security, three years after a bomb attack downed a Russian plane, killing more than 200 holidaymakers. In a column published in the Egyptian state newspaper al-Ahram ahead of a visit by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to Moscow next week, Lavrov praised what he described as a “multifaceted partnership” with Egypt. “It is important today to continue joint efforts that target supporting the safety of both countries’ citizens, including aboard airplanes,” Lavrov said. Similar remarks appeared on the Russian news agency TASS. Russia halted civilian air traffic to Egypt in October 2015 after Islamist militants detonated a bomb on a Russian Metrojet flight departing from the tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board. Since then Egypt has allowed Russian experts to inspect its airport security arrangements several times and the two countries have signed an agreement covering civil aviation security. Flights between Moscow and Cairo resumed in April, but Egypt hopes to secure the return of Russian flights to its Red Sea resorts.<br/>
general
Istanbul’s new airport will not open fully until the end of this year, a newspaper on Saturday cited the general manager as saying, two months later than an official opening scheduled for the end of this month. The airport is a centrepiece of a 15-year construction boom under President Tayyip Erdogan. It has an initial planned capacity of 90m passengers a year, making it one of the world’s biggest. Its official opening has been set for Oct. 29, the anniversary of the Turkish Republic’s proclamation in 1923, but the general manager, Kadri Samsunlu, said it would only open partially on that date. “We postponed the big transfer from Ataturk Airport to Dec. 31,” Hurriyet Daily News quoted Samsunlu as telling a group of reporters visiting the new airport with him. Ataturk is the city’s current main airport. Hurriyet said that as of Oct. 29, Turkish Airlines will fly from the new airport to Ankara, Izmir and Antalya on domestic routes, with the only international route being to Baku, in Azerbaijan.<br/>
Air traffic could be grounded for up to a week after a disorderly exit of Britain from the EU due to uncertainty over future air traffic rules, Christoph Debus, head of Thomas Cook Airlines, said Friday. British airlines currently have unlimited flying rights to and from the EU as part of the single market’s common aviation rulebook. But it remains unclear what rules will govern flying rights after Brexit, so Thomas Cook has drawn up contingency plans, Debus said. “We have done our homework even for the scenario of a ‘no deal’,” Debus explained. “It cannot be ruled out that air traffic will be grounded for a day or a week,” Debus said, referring to the period immediately after the end of March 2019, when Britain formally exits. "In a period of political instability we need to be prepared for a no-deal scenario,” he said.<br/>
A provision in the 1,200-page bill to reauthorise the FAA will create an aviation consumer advocate within the Aviation Consumer Protection Division (ACPD) of the US DOT. The new position will be charged with assisting consumers in resolving carrier service complaints, reviewing the resolution by DOT of such complaints and recommending actions the agency can take to improve enforcement of aviation consumer protection rules. DOT has opposed the creation of the aviation consumer advocate, arguing that it will be redundant, given the work of the analysts at the ACPD. That division publishes monthly Air Travel Consumer Reports and shares passenger complaints with airlines, although industry-watchers claim it has been underfunded in recent years. <br/>
Americans are getting larger and airline seats are shrinking. So confrontations between oversize airline passengers and their fellow travelers are inevitable. The average American man weighs 15 pounds more than he did 20 years ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The average American woman weighs 16.2 pounds more. The average seat pitch, a rough measure of legroom, has dropped from 35 inches in the 1970s to about 31 inches today. And the average width has shriveled from 18 inches to about 16.5 inches. Airlines are more sensitive to territorial seat skirmishes than ever. Oversize airline passengers fall into two broad categories. Some travelers can't fit into the seats because of their hip size. Others are too tall to contort into an economy-class seat with limited legroom. The ones that generate the most complaints are the ones who spread into the next seat. JetBlue offers seat belt extenders for oversize airline passengers on its site but is otherwise silent on its passengers-of-size policy. Other airlines require large travellers to buy two seats.<br/>