The mounting political crisis in Venezuela has prompted European airlines to add a stop in the Caribbean so that pilots and flight attendants don’t have to spend the night in the strife-torn country. Iberia has begun using Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic as a staging post for its three weekly services from Madrid to Caracas, while Portugal’s TAP has introduced a crew change on the Dutch island of Curacao for two services from Lisbon operated by partner EuroAtlantic. “There’s an extra cost for this, but the crew’s safety is our priority,” TAP said. Iberia declined to comment on the expense involved. Air France-KLM Group, the other big European carrier serving Venezuela, said it hasn’t introduced any changes to its six weekly flights from Paris and doesn’t currently plan to do so.<br/>
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O'Hare International Airport in Chicago was the busiest airport in the US in 2018, surpassing Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for the first time in four years. The FAA released data on Monday showing that O'Hare had more than 903,000 arrivals and departures during 2018. Atlanta's airport was second, with more than 895,000 arrivals and departures. Los Angeles International Airport, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Denver International Airport round out the top five. O'Hare last held the top spot in 2014. Last year, O'Hare operations increased 4.2%, compared with a 1.8% increase in Atlanta. United is the largest carrier at O'Hare and has been adding more flights from its hub at the Chicago airport to smaller cities throughout the Midwest.<br/>
A surge in air travel has yet to pay off for Southeast Asian airlines, with experts predicting that 2019 will see more fierce competition as regional carriers struggle to return to profitability. Only six of the region’s 20 publicly traded airlines made a profit in the last reported quarter, according to a study by the Sydney-based CAPA Centre for Aviation, while 19 airlines posted declines in profits from the same July to September period a year before. The study said Southeast Asia was a market of “rapid growth but meagre profits” and forecast that “profitability will likely slip further following a deterioration in market conditions”. “This has been happening for several years. The main reason is the intense level of competition,” said Brendan Sobie, the study’s author. “Airlines have struggled to increase fares, which keep going down despite an increase in demand. And they weren’t able to increase fare prices when fuel went up.” Executives from legacy airlines and low-cost carriers alike have been left scrambling for answers. Krittaphon Chantalitanon, VP of commercial strategy at Thai Airways, said the Bangkok-based flag carrier had faced up to the challenges of competition “with difficulty”. “The figures have been good and not so good,” he said. “We have to work very hard, just to look at the market and to try and adjust the inventory and the demand and everything else to mix and match with the markets. We have to become leaner, become even more efficient. We need to look left, right and centre for new markets just to sustain ourselves.” Story has significantly more detail.<br/>
Russian airlines carried 116.2m passengers in 2018, up 10.6% year-over-year. International traffic was up 11.5% YOY to 47.4m; domestic traffic grew 10% to 68.8m. Load factor was up 0.6 points to 83.8% YOY. Load factor on international flights was down 0.6 point to 84.6%, while load factor on domestic flights was up 2.1 points to 82.8%. Cargo and post traffic decreased 0.1% YOY to 1.2m tonnes.<br/>
Airlines are turning the heat up on Auckland Airport, saying it should reduce its prices rather than "exploit its monopoly position" and ignore a Commerce Commission finding that the company could be overcharging by up to $37m. As commerce minister Kris Faafoi grows increasingly impatient with a lack of a response from the airport, the Board of Airline Representatives New Zealand says the company should reveal its intentions around its pricing regime before its next shareholder dividend is fixed in mid-March. Barnz executive director Justin Tighe-Umbers said Auckland Airport has an important choice to make - "do the right thing by its customers and reduce its prices, or continue to exploit its monopoly position and enrich shareholders'." His group has a meeting scheduled with the company for later this week.<br/>
The government has said 10 new airports started operations in 2018, but it recorded a decrease in the number of airplane passengers. The Transportation Ministry's Air Transportation Directorate General plans to complete the construction of four other airports -- in Siau, North Sulawesi; in Tambelan, Riau Islands; in Muara Teweh, Central Kalimantan and in Pantar, East Nusa Tenggara. Meanwhile, the 10 airports completed in 2018 were Letung - Anambas in Riau Islands, Namniwel in Maluku, Miangas in North Sulawesi, Morowali in South Sulawesi, Werur in West Papua, Maratua in East Kalimantan, Koroway Batu in Papua, Kertajati in West Java, Samarinda Baru in East Kalimantan and Tebelian in West Kalimantan. The ministry previously targeted to complete 15 new airports in 2018 and 2019, but Buntukunik Airport in the tourist destination of Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi, is set to begin operations in 2020. Despite the increasing number of the airports in operation, the number of last year’s airplane passengers decreased by 10% to 126m passengers as of November 2018 compared to the figure in the corresponding period in 2017. Average passenger growth from 2014 to 2018 was 9.2%.<br/>
Boeing is pushing to speed up assembly of its best-selling 737 jetliner the first week in June, two people familiar with the plan said Monday, as it tries to keep up with soaring global demand and its European rival. Boeing aims to reach the new rate of 57 single-aisle jets per month starting on June 3, up from the current rate of 52, said one of the people. The goal is contingent on the world's largest planemaker overcoming persistent supplier delays on engines and other issues that have hobbled the 737 factory to varying degrees since last summer, though Boeing says it is making progress. The extra five planes a month is key to Boeing's effort to raise profit margins on its top-selling jetliner, which can carry a list price ranging from around $85.8m to $129.9m and are the company's largest source of profit. <br/>