The Seamless Air Alliance, an Airbus-led consortium of airlines, communications equipment manufacturers and operators of mobile networks and satellites, is working toward a technology demonstration for improved passenger connectivity experience this year. The Seamless Air Alliance aims at enabling every traveller to use his or her own device “to automatically connect to the Internet with no complicated login process nor paywall to scramble over.” Formed last year, the consortium now has 3 working groups—writing specifications for the technology, requirements and operations. “The passenger experience with in-flight connectivity remains one of the great technology challenges,” the alliance’s CE Jack Mandala said. <br/>
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Hackers are targeting airlines as never before. That's the conclusion of a troubling new study of airline IT outages by Netscout, a provider of application and network performance management products. Attacks against passenger air travel increased by more than 15,000% between 2017 and 2018. “Airlines are unfortunately a major target, due to their huge dependence on computer networks for everything from customer-facing activities such as bookings and support, to vast back-office functions which often affect multiple entities involved in an aviation business," a Netscout executive said. "Cybercriminals could be targeting and impacting any of these functions with any number of intended consequences in mind.” <br/>
Three members of Oregon’s congressional delegation are urging the comptroller general of the US to consider the impact of an “arbitrary” provision from the 2012 FAA Modernisation and Reform Act that they say has jeopardised funding to rural airports across the country. The lawmakers say that Sec. 422 of the law is “exacerbating the challenges” small and rural airports face finding carriers by limiting entry into the Essential Air Services (EAS) program to airports that were already participating in the program between Sept 30, 2010 and Sept 30, 2011. The lawmakers said that many rural airports “meet many of the criteria for the EAS, but are denied eligibility simply because they were not receiving subsidies in 2011.” <br/>
The US is warning pilots to use caution when flying to or over Venezuela because of civil unrest there. The FAA said there is no evidence to suggest that Venezuela's military would target civilian planes, but it said mistakes are possible. And it warned that some of the military's shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles could fall into the hands of groups "who may have different intent and a lower level of training." The FAA issued a notice Friday warning pilots to use caution when flying lower than 26,000 feet over the country. Several airlines halted flights to Venezuela as chaos and political strife grew, but a few still fly there. <br/>