A no-deal Brexit could wreak chaos for travellers and a nightmare at airports, global airline industry body IATA warned, calling on British and EU aviation authorities to put in place a plan to avoid such a worst-case scenario. Britain is set to leave the EU on March 29, 2019 but with just over five months to go, Prime Minister Theresa May has yet to reach a withdrawal deal and both sides have stepped up preparations for the possibility there will not be one. The IATA said Wednesday that planning for a no-deal Brexit needed to move much faster to ensure planes can keep flying and safety and regulatory frameworks keep functioning whatever the new relationship between the pair after March 29. “We predict chaos if nothing is done,” IATA DG Alexandre de Juniac said Wednesday. “On April 1 it will be us, the airlines, who have to manage millions of passengers potentially grounded in airports unable to take a flight ... It will be a nightmare in European airports and UK airports,” he warned. Separately, IATA released forecasts on Wednesday showing that airline passenger numbers could double to 8.2b in 2037, bolstered by strong demand in Asia, though protectionism risks curtailing growth.<br/>
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Three more airlines have joined the Transportation Security Administration’s expedited screening program called Precheck, the agency announced. The new carriers eligible for the program are European airlines Norwegian Air and Icelandair and small US regional carrier Via Air. With the additions, 56 domestic and international airlines are now part of the Precheck program, which is available at 200 airports. The program rose past 5m participants last July. The PreCheck program costs $85 for five years. Applicants must provide some biographical information, pass a background check and provide fingerprints. If approved, travellers get access to the TSA’s PreCheck lanes in which they can leave laptops and small containers of liquids in their carry-on bags. Travellers in the PreCheck lanes are also not required to remove their shoes and belts as they go through the checkpoint’s metal detector.<br/>
Mexicans will vote Oct. 25 to decide the fate of the new Mexico International Airport project, which has come under fire from the country’s president-elect over construction costs and environmental impacts. Just over one million people—2% of the country’s population—are expected to vote during the four-day referendum in 1,000 voting stations set up in town squares across the country. The vote will determine the future of the partially built airport at Texcoco, roughly 25 miles northeast of Mexico City. Voters will be asked to decide whether to continue that construction, or to nix it and instead build new runways at the Santa Lucia (NLU) military base, in addition to expanding the existing Mexico City airport (MEX), as well as the Toluca International Airport (TLC). The new airport, which is about 30% complete, would replace the Mexico City International Airport, aiming to serve about 120m travellers annually.<br/>
Boeing shares jumped Wednesday after the planemaker reported stronger-than-expected quarterly profit and cash flow, helped by soaring demand from airlines and solid defense sales and services, and raised its 2018 sales and profit estimates. Demand from commercial airlines has driven a surge in revenue, pushing shares up by roughly a third over the past 12 months. Boeing shares were up 3.3% to $361.51 after rising nearly 5% earlier, helping limit losses on Wall Street. A $691m charge tied to Boeing’s MQ-25 refuelling drone and T-X training jet defense programs just weeks after it won the latter contract in cooperation with Sweden’s Saab AB took some of the shine off Boeing’s results, however. “Today’s results are all the proof you need that they have a an enormously successful commercial business that’s allowing for very aggressive pricing on the defense side,” said aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group. Boeing said the stronger cash flow was primarily driven by timing of receipts and expenditures as well as planned higher commercial airplane production rates.<br/>