The global travel industry is looking to replace your paper tickets and security documents with your biometric data in an effort to ease gridlock. The ICAO met last week to discuss ways to bridge the gulf between physical and digital travel documents. At least 53 biometric systems are used by the industry for everything from airline boarding to hotel check-in, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. Each is typically unique to a particular venue. “Right now it’s very fragmented,” said Gloria Guevara, the council’s president and CE. “We need to make sure that there is some interoperability among these different models.” Reducing travel friction and increasing security is critical for the industry, which is expecting passenger growth from 4.6b this year to 8.2b in 2037—a surge that current methods will be unable to handle, Guevara said. <br/>
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The family of a British woman who died when an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed in March is taking action against Boeing, claiming “a catalogue of serious failures” by the aeroplane manufacturer. The family of UN-worker Joanna Toole have begun legal action in a federal court in Chicago. The family say it is the first case to have been filed on behalf of a British passenger in connection with the 2 crashes of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft. The new claim, which is being led by law firm Irwin Mitchell, includes Rosemount Aerospace, a subsidiary of United Technologies, which made the faulty angle-of-attack sensors implicated in the 2 crashes. A partner at Irwin Mitchell said the allegations against Boeing included criticism of the company’s decision to fit new, larger engines to the existing 737 airframe. <br/>
People in Sweden seem to be following climate activist Greta Thunberg’s example in shunning air travel. The percentage that opted to take a train rather than fly has doubled in a year and a half. Flight shame may be at work. One flight between Sweden’s two biggest cities, Stockholm and Gothenburg, generates as much carbon dioxide as 40,000 train journeys, according to SJ, the country’s biggest train operator. Awareness of air travel’s impact on the planet has many Swedes opting to forgo air travel. Almost twice as many Swedes chose to travel by train instead of plane in the past year and a half — from 20% to 37%. Sweden’s airports have noticed a change, too. Passenger numbers dropped by 8% domestically and 4% to destinations abroad from January to April 2019, compared to Q1 of 2018. <br/>
Nigerian pilots have raised the alarm over the poor state of runways in some airports. They are seeking urgent intervention from govt agencies to avert accidents. Measures, they said, should be taken to clear the runways of foreign object damage , including debris at the airside, which affects aircraft tyre types and other underbelly components. According to them, FOD was causing airlines large expenses in replacing aircraft tyres and other vital parts of their equipment. Besides the deplorable state of the runway at airports in Port Harcourt; Lagos and Abuja, the govt they said, should urgently look into the poor state of radio communication in the airspace. Pilots said, that unless urgent steps are taken, disaster was looming in the aviation industry. <br/>
At the Paris Air Show in June 2007, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries unveiled a sleek, gleaming silver mock-up of an aircraft it hoped would conquer the world’s regional jet market. Twelve years and billions of dollars in overruns later, the conglomerate was back at this year’s show, rebooting a programme that was billed as the fulfilment of a national and corporate dream but instead became an investor nightmare. At the pavilion of Mitsubishi Aircraft, many turned out to see the renamed Mitsubishi Regional Jet — now the SpaceJet — and hear how executives plan to rise above the design flaws and other setbacks that delayed deliveries 5 times. The buzz was also fuelled by the news last month that Mitsubishi Heavy is negotiating to buy the regional jet programme of Bombardier. <br/>
Beijing’s second international airport has been completed -- and it’s expected to become one of the world’s busiest. Designed to take the pressure off overcrowded Beijing Capital International, the new site south of the city will be able to handle 72m passengers a year by 2025, and 100m by 2040. Combined, the two airports will handle 170m fliers annually by 2025, according to official estimates. Operations at Beijing Daxing International will start by the end of September following 6 major test runs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Road and rail links, including a high-speed subway line, are already in place. Carriers such as China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines will start flying from the new facility later this year. The transition should be completed by the winter of 2021. <br/>