A massive storm brought snow, sleet, and freezing rain across a wide swath of the South on Sunday — causing dangerously icy roads, immobilizing snowfalls and power losses to hundreds of thousands of people. Accidents on snow-covered interstates caused major delays, hundreds of flights were cancelled and drivers in North Carolina and Virginia got stuck in snow or lost control on icy patches. Governors and local officials in several states declared emergencies ahead of the storm crossing several Southern states, which hit portions of North Carolina and Virginia particularly hard. Charlotte Douglas International Airport, the sixth busiest airport in the country, said American Airlines reduced its operations, with more than 1,000 flights cancelled Sunday. American Airlines also issued a travel alert for nine airports throughout the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia, meaning passengers may be able to change travel plans without a fee. Travelers were advised to check their flight status before heading to the airport. Cancellations were reported on flights from as far as the Midwest.<br/>
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Airlines are failing to take up the most efficient planes in sufficient numbers to make a significant dent in their carbon dioxide emissions, a new study has found. The most efficient new aircraft models, such as the Boeing 787-9 and Airbus A350-900 and A320neo, can achieve substantial carbon savings over older models, but no airlines have invested sufficiently in the new types to reach the top levels of energy efficiency, according to a ranking by Atmosfair, a German NGO. In the annual Atmosfair Airline Index for 2018, published on Saturday, no airlines received an A for efficiency, and only two airlines were ranked in efficiency class B. TUI Airways, the British holiday airline, came top of the rankings for the second year running, reaching just under 80% of the possible optimum level of carbon emissions. TUI Fly, the company’s German counterpart, came in fourth. Atmosfair also found that only one in 10 airlines worldwide were succeeding in keeping their greenhouse gas emissions constant while achieving economic growth. Among these were Thai Airways, Finnair, American Airlines and All Nippon Airlines.<br/>
China is poised to overtake the United States as the world's biggest air travel market by 2022 -- and it's little wonder the country's airport construction craze shows no signs of abating. The government has plans to build or expand 74 airports nationwide by the end of 2020, aiming to accommodate a whopping 720m passengers a year. No project is attracting more attention than Beijing Daxing International Airport, the Chinese capital's new multibillion-dollar aviation hub slated to open in September 2019. Beijing is in desperate need of a second global gateway. The existing Capital International Airport is hitting full capacity, making it nearly impossible for airlines to add flights at desirable times.<br/>In 2017, more than 95m passengers passed through the three terminals of Beijing Capital, the world's second busiest airport behind only Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. The new Daxing airport, designed by the late architect Zaha Hadid and her Chinese partners, is built for the future, boasting four runways and a terminal the size of 97 soccer pitches upon opening of the first phase. The "modest" initial operational target is to accommodate 72m passengers and two million tons of cargo annually by 2025. The ambitious master plan calls for the building of a total of seven runways, and moving at least 100m passengers and four million tons of cargo a year through the airport. Construction for the $11.5b project began in 2014, with more than 40,000 workers currently on site. The nearly completed terminal bears all the hallmarks of Hadid's signature contour lines, with plenty of natural light shining through rooftop windows. Story has more details.<br/>
Heathrow airport will pay for its 350 eligible employees who are non-British EU nationals to apply for the right to remain in the UK after Brexit in order to provide them with some certainty. The airport will cover the GBP65 application fee for “settled status”, which allows recipients to live and work in the UK after December 31 2020, at a total cost of GBP22,750. Heathrow has 7,000 employees. The airport’s other precautions against Brexit, which is due to take place on March 29 next year, include raising GBP1.6b to keep it financially secure even if flights are grounded. John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow’s CE, said: “Heathrow is an international business and we need a workforce that reflects this. It is critical for us to have diverse, happy and valued colleagues. Many of our people are worried about Brexit and this move will provide reassurance and certainty. We want to ensure that we retain and attract the best for life post-Brexit.”<br/>
Air fares in Sudan skyrocketed this week after aviation authorities ordered airlines to price tickets in line with a new exchange rate mechanism that sharply devalued the local currency. Under the exchange regime introduced in October in a bid to tackle an acute shortage of foreign currency, the Sudanese pound was devalued to 47.5 per US dollar from 29 pounds per US dollar previously. That has led to a surge in the cost of many goods and services, but air ticket prices had been set according to the customs exchange rate — 18 pounds per dollar — until Wednesday when the country’s Civil Aviation Authority announced the hike in a memo sent to airlines.<br/>
Airbus has left itself a slightly less challenging task on deliveries for the final weeks of the year than 2017’s record surge in December, but only after trimming the target with its most recent results, company data showed on Friday. Airbus said it had delivered 673 aircraft up to the end of November, leaving 109 aircraft still to be delivered in December in order to reach a core target of 782 deliveries - excluding the recently acquired Bombardier CSeries, now selling as the A220. Airbus in October said it maintained a target of 800 deliveries for 2018, but that these would now include 18 A220 models previously been excluded from the goal - a move equivalent to cutting the core Airbus target by 2% to 782 aircraft. Had it not done so, it would have had to repeat last year’s record feat of 127 deliveries in December, after taking into account a 20% rise in deliveries last month.<br/>
Chinese-owned Irish leasing company Avolon firmed up its largest ever purchase on Friday with an order for 100 Airbus jets worth $11.5b at list prices, lifting the covers off a deal struck in the face of global trade tensions. Reuters reported in July that Chinese financial firms had placed large orders at the Farnborough Airshow without initially being identified, including Avolon’s preliminary order for 100 jets that has now been finalised and made public. Airbus’s then sales chief Eric Schulz said at the time some Asian buyers were asking not to be named due to sensitivities over trade tensions between China and the United States. Although Europe’s Airbus has not reaped the benefit some had predicted from the standoff - with its own direct sale of jets to China blocked for almost a year - finance sources say China-linked firms have generally been keeping a low profile in order not to be caught on the wrong side of the shifting dispute. China’s Bohai Leasing Co Ltd, controlled by conglomerate HNA Group, said its Dublin-based Avolon Aerospace Leasing unit had signed a firm deal to buy 75 Airbus A320neo jets and 25 of the larger A321neos. The aircraft will be delivered between 2023 and 2026. The deal underscores Avolon’s continued expansion despite financial difficulties faced by the HNA group of companies.<br/>