Boeing and the FAA want global consensus to get the 737 Max flying again. They may have to wait a while. Aviation regulators from around the world, who met in Fort Worth Thursday, are continuing to press the FAA for details on the fix to the anti-stall system, as well as the process for assessing the software, according to an FAA official. One big sticking point: whether to require that pilots undergo additional training on a flight simulator. If some regulators did require training, the condition would mean that the plane could be out of service in certain countries for months longer than expected. Boeing had recently outlined a target of late June to airlines. But the FAA has been more circumspect. “We can’t be driven by some arbitrary timeline,” Daniel Elwell, the acting FAA administrator, said Thursday <br/>
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US FAA representatives told members of the ICAO they expect approval of Boeing's 737 MAX jets to fly in the US as early as late June, 3 people with knowledge of the matter said, although there is no firm timetable for the move. FAA and Boeing representatives briefed members of the ICAO governing council in Montreal Thursday on efforts to return the plane to service. FAA officials who briefed the council said they expected the ungrounding would take place in the US as early as late June, but it was not clear when other countries would clear the flights, said of the sources. Canada and Europe said Wednesday they would bring back the grounded aircraft on their own terms. <br/>
Once regulators approve Boeing's grounded 737 MAX jets for flight, each aircraft will likely require between 100 and 150 hours of preparation before flying, officials from the 3 US airlines that operate the MAX told Reuters. The estimate is the first indication of the time needed to bring the jets out of storage following a worldwide grounding in March. The preparations were discussed at a meeting between Boeing and MAX customers in Miami earlier this week, and include a list of items ranging from fluid changes and engine checks to uploading new 737 MAX software. The estimated time frame does not include pilot training, they said. Boeing said the company's maintenance and engineering teams have been working with customers to determine how to efficiently stage work once regulators approve the fleet's return to service. <br/>
FAA, leveraging similar requirements issued more than a decade ago for the Boeing 787, has issued special conditions Boeing must follow to demonstrate the 777-9’s composite fuel tanks can withstand tire debris impact. The FAA requirements dictate that “tire-debris impact to any fuel tank or fuel-system component, located within 30 deg. to either side of wheel rotational planes, may not result in penetration or otherwise induce fuel-tank deformation, rupture (e.g., through propagation of pressure waves), or cracking sufficient to allow a hazardous fuel leak.” Testing must be done using a tire debris fragment that is 1% of the tire mass, and the fragment load must be “distributed over an area on the fuel tank surface equal to 1.5% of the total tire tread area,” FAA said. <br/>
Airbus CE Guillaume Faury has defended the airframer’s forecast methodology, in the aftermath of the decision to terminate production of the A380. The airframer had conservatively estimated 20-year demand for nearly 1,300 high-capacity passenger aircraft in 2007, the year the A380 entered service, and was still putting the outlook for 450-seat jets at nearly 1,200 a decade later, despite poor A380 sales. Airbus disclosed in February that it would end production of the type in 2021 after Emirates – on which A380 production heavily depended – opted to cut back its order backlog, in favour of twinjets. Faury said: “Forecasts are a difficult job, especially when it comes to the future.” He says the airframer adjusts its global forecasting methods each year, examining the past in order to “take into account what we learn”. <br/>
Many airlines have unbundled plane tickets to sell a range of extras, such as early check-ins and Wi-Fi access, on their websites. But they’ve struggled to persuade travel agencies and tech vendors to sell their fares and extras in similar ways. But airlines now want online travel agencies to get with the program. Case in point is Travix, an online travel agency group owned by BCD. This month, consumers at all of Travix’s brands began seeing and booking air content powered by the modern technical standards airlines prefer. Content from 16 airlines have been integrated into the back-end within the computers at Amadeus. By the end of the year, Amadeus expects to release the first version of this API that online travel agencies can use to access what Travix has now. <br/>
Health officials in 5 states have warned people believed to be infected with measles and planning to travel that they could prevent them from getting on planes. Eight individuals agreed to cancel their flights after learning the officials could ask the federal govt to place them on a Do Not Board List managed by the CDC, said Martin Cetron, director of the agency’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, which tracks disease outbreaks. “The deterrent effect is huge,” he said. The US is experiencing a record number of measles cases this year – 880 cases have been reported in 24 states. The outbreaks are occurring because vaccination coverage globally and domestically is faltering. Global travel is playing an enormous role in spreading one of the most infectious pathogens from one location to the next. <br/>
European airlines have until Q3 of 2020 to comply with EASA’s aircrew mental fitness regulations, which were introduced in the wake of the 2015 Germanwings pilot-suicide crash. Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately flew an Airbus A320 into the French Alps in March 2015. That kicked off a regulatory response by the EU that resulted in new mental fitness regulations, spanning 3 key areas: psychological testing, pilot support and substance testing. Under the new rules, which were finalised by EASA in July 2018, all pilots working for European airlines must have access to a support program to help them to recognise, cope with and overcome problems that could affect their ability to operate safely. Under the new rules, pilots will also have undergo psychological screening at the start of their careers. <br/>
Australians should prepare to pay higher international airfares, as airlines struggling with rising fuel costs cut their capacity on routes here for the first time in more than a decade. Airline flight schedules show the total number of seats being flown out of Australia are set to fall by about 1% from late October to late March. It will be the first time international summer capacity has fallen since 2005, and is a dramatic turnaround following years of rapid growth from overseas carriers. The "unheard of" retreat was primarily due to oil prices rising, up about 45% over the past 2 years, which made long-haul Australian services less viable, said Tony Webber, a consultant from Airline Intelligence and Research. CAPA said both domestic and international aviation had "ground to a halt", which would have "major ramifications for domestic and international tourism. <br/>