President Trump announced a deal to end the government shutdown in January after a shortage of air traffic controllers briefly stopped flights into La Guardia Airport. At the time, many concluded that workers’ impact on travel had led the White House to retreat. “I think it’s really obvious to all aviation workers that that’s what happened,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. “There are also many people in government who echo” that analysis. Now, other airport workers are testing that proposition. This month, about 11,000 airline catering employees — the people who prepare and transport food and beverages that millions of passengers consume on flights each year — will vote on a first step toward a possible labor stoppage. Many make the minimum wage in their areas, or less, and toil in harsh conditions with limited benefits. But collectively, they have the power to disrupt the air travel network. “The smallest mishap or interruption in any kind of service ripples out,” said Liesl Orenic, a labor historian at Dominican University in Illinois who has studied airport workers. “If a plane doesn’t get catered, it can interrupt all the people getting on that plane and all the other flights that plane has to do.”<br/>For decades, as unionization rates fell and the country moved to a service economy, organized labor has found that it has less power to affect employers’ bottom lines. The muscle-flexing by airport workers may reflect the return of a model in which aggrieved employees threaten the wheels of commerce.<br/>
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US airlines have their work cut out for them in trying to coax frightened travellers back onto Boeing’s 737 Max once a worldwide grounding ends. At least 20% of US travellers say they will definitely avoid the plane in the first six months after flights resume, according to a study led by consultant Henry Harteveldt. More than 40% said they’d be willing to take pricier or less convenient flights to stay off the Max. A separate UBS Group AG survey found that 70% would hesitate today to book a flight on Boeing’s best-selling jet. “Travellers aren’t merely scared of the 737 Max, they’re terrified of it,” Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, said in the report, which was released Tuesday. “The 737 Max is, for now, an ‘airplane non grata’ -- a plane passengers do not want to fly.” The surveys underscore the challenge looming for Boeing as it seeks to regain public trust after two deadly crashes and a global flying ban that’s nearing the three-month mark. Boeing is finalizing a software fix for a flight-control system malfunction linked to the accidents, as well as proposed new pilot training. Regulators in the US and other countries say there’s no timeline for when the plane will resume flights. Only 14% of US passengers would definitely fly on a 737 Max within six months of its return, according to the online study for Atmosphere of 2,000 US airline passengers from April 27 to May 1.<br/>
Russian authorities have ordered carriers to conduct a one-time inspection of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 fleet, in the wake of the fatal Aeroflot accident at Moscow Sheremetyevo last month. Federal air transport regulator Rosaviatsia says the work must be conducted "within the shortest possible time", and that findings must be submitted to the authority's airworthiness management department. The work covers such items as a general check of the aircraft's condition, as well as examination of aircraft and engine logs to check performance of maintenance tasks and implementation of service bulletins. It also requires checks of the on-board emergency equipment, including portable firefighting systems, and aids to communication and guidance. Rosaviatsia states that operators should examine the effectiveness of measures to address logged issues affecting flight performance. Investigators are still probing the 5 May accident in which a Superjet 100 suffered a hard landing, after returning to Sheremetyevo with degraded flight controls, and caught fire.<br/>
Indonesian president Joko Widodo perceives a lack of competition in Indonesia's airline market, and hopes to find ways to make the industry more efficient. In an interview with local news portal Kumparan, Widodo says allowing foreign carriers to set up their own units in Indonesia is aimed at offering greater options for consumers, lowering the airfares on domestic routes, and forcing local carriers to be far more efficient through greater competition. Indonesia's domestic airline scene is now dominated by Lion Air Group and Garuda Indonesia Group, which control eight carriers amongst themselves. "Maybe there isn't enough competition," says Widodo. "We will increase [the level of] competition, so that airlines will be more efficient." The president adds that existing laws already permit foreign airlines to establish local units, on the condition that they own up to 49% in their Indonesian companies. To date, only AirAsia has an Indonesian unit where it acquired a 49% stake in local operator Awair in late-2004, rebranding it Indonesia AirAsia in 2005. He admitted that recent moves by his administration to limit domestic air fare prices and lower fuel costs for airlines are not working fast enough. Airfares have remained constant since end-2018, which is one of Indonesia's peak travelling seasons. This has resulted in declining domestic tourist numbers to places such as Bali, Lombok and Yogyakarta. <br/>
Airline pilots are often exhausted. An extreme example happened in 2008, when a pilot and a co-pilot both fell asleep at the controls, missing their landing in Hawaii -- earning pilot's license suspensions as well as getting fired. More recently, overtired pilots came very close to landing on top of another airplane at San Francisco International Airport in 2017. It's not uncommon for a pilot for a major commercial airline to, for instance, start work in Florida at 5 p.m., with her first flight departing an hour later for a five-hour trip across the country, arriving in California just after 8 p.m. local time. Then she might get a short break and fly a 90-minute short-hop flight to to another California city. When she lands from this second flight, she has spent six and a half hours of the last nine in the cockpit. She is also three time zones from where she started work, and her body thinks it's 2 a.m. There's no doubt she's tired -- and she's lucky not to have encountered any schedule adjustments for aircraft maintenance or weather delays. The airline industry and the FAA have taken steps to reduce pilot fatigue, but many pilots and others remain worried that two pilots are required to remain awake and alert for the entire flight, though one or both may be dealing with symptoms of fatigue. One possible suggestion is letting pilots take brief naps in the cockpit. As researchers of consumer opinions about the airline industry, we've found that the American public is wary of this idea, but may feel better about it once they've heard an explanation of how it actually makes their flights safer. Story has details.<br/>
The airline industry claims it's getting better at not losing our luggage, partly through improved tracking technology. But tens of millions of bags still go astray every year. So is it doing enough? How can an industry that employs the very latest technologies in its aeroplanes and air traffic control systems still be so backward when it comes to our luggage? But first, let's start with some good news. Sita, an international IT provider to the industry that monitors global baggage handling, says that the total number of "mishandled" bags has fallen from 46.9m in 2007 to 24.8m in 2018. And this is during a period when the total number of air passengers nearly doubled. Investments in tracking technologies, Sita says, are paying off. For example, US airline Delta now includes a tiny RFID [radio frequency identification] tag in the familiar barcoded label that goes around your bag handle. This means each bag can be scanned automatically by machines as it weaves its way through the airport system. Wandering bags can be spotted more easily via a central monitoring system. "You could assume that of the 150 million bags we're moving every year, each one is getting a tag," says Gareth Joyce, an executive at Delta. Delta now claims to handle 99.9% of its customers' bags "perfectly". Other airlines are also incorporating RFID tags, and mobile scanners for baggage handlers. But 25 million bags - out of 4.3b bags in total - still get misdirected or lost every year. Why? Story has more.<br/>