London's Gatwick Airport says flights have resumed after "an air traffic control systems issue" temporarily halted all takeoffs and landings. The airport advised passengers in a tweet Wednesday night to "check the status of your flight with your airline before travelling to the airport, as we return to full operations." All flights to and from Gatwick were suspended for about 90 minutes due to an air traffic control issue. The airport did not say what the problem might have been. Gatwick, located around 45 kms south of central London, is the second-busiest airport in the UK and is especially busy during the summer holiday season.<br/>
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The heads of some of Europe's largest airlines hit back Wednesday against efforts to discourage Europeans from flying, arguing the industry was making huge strides in cutting its carbon footprint and that there was no shame in air travel. The share prices of Europe's largest airlines fell this week when France announced a tax on air travel, the latest move by an EU government to discourage flying, which activists say is a major contributor to climate change. "We are sensitive to the criticism that we are getting a free ride on the environment because frankly it is not true," Ryanair CE Michael O'Leary told a press conference in Brussels. "We have a very good case to push back against these NGOs like the flight shame movement because actually this is an industry that is performing remarkably well and meeting its obligations towards a greener, cleaner planet," he said. O'Leary was speaking as chairman of lobby group A4E (Airlines for Europe), which includes Lufthansa and British Airways owner IAG. The group argues that aviation has roughly halved the carbon footprint per flight over the past three decades and is spending billions of euros in more fuel efficient aircraft and investing in less damaging aviation fuel technologies. O'Leary said his airline paid over E500m of environmental taxes on a fuel bill of E2b last year, equivalent to around E4 per passenger. "We are paying on behalf of our customers a penal level of aviation taxes and these taxes are continuing to rise," he said.<br/>
Soaring domestic ticket prices in Indonesia, the world’s fifth-biggest domestic aviation market, now a duopoly, led the government in May to order Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air to lower fares. But caps and floors on airfares in the vast archipelago nation have not stopped a surge in average ticket prices. Carriers have slashed domestic seat capacity by 15% from March to October, according to data from the air travel intelligence company OAG, putting the country on track for the first annual decline in passenger traffic since 2014 - and pushing up fares. That has stifled the domestic hospitality industry, data shows, with hotel occupancy rates down as much as 30% in the country’s east. Now Indonesia’s anti-monopoly agency, KPPU, is investigating whether Garuda and Lion are behaving like a cartel, as well as looking into Garuda’s operational control of Sriwijaya Air, the country’s third-largest airline group, commissioner Guntur Saragih said on Monday. “We believe there is price setting,” he said, adding that the agency plans to say next week whether it will take the airlines to court. The maximum fine for price setting is 25b rupiah per party per case. Garuda and Lion did not respond to requests to comment on the allegations. Airlines have stopped selling deeply discounted fares on many domestic routes and are instead selling most tickets at or near the maximum limit, according to industry sources and airline information. Passenger yields, which measure what each flier pays per kilometer, a proxy for average fares, rose 43% in the five months ended May 31 in Garuda’s domestic operation and were up 94% at Sriwijaya Air in the same period, according to Garuda data.<br/>
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) hopes an offer of more and better-optimized slots will persuade foreign airlines to move to the new Beijing Daxing International Airport. CAAC said it has acquired some international route rights at Daxing, scheduled to open in September, and is working to obtain more. The airport will achieve an initial scale in international operations when China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines move there from Beijing Capital International Airport, said Yu Biao, deputy chief of the agency’s transportation section. Beijing Capital is closer to Beijing’s business districts, so some foreign airlines are hesitant to move to Daxing. “If they chose to move to Daxing airport, they can get an increase and also optimization” in slots, Yu said. While Chinese airlines are being directed to move services to Daxing, CAAC is allowing foreign carriers choose between the airports or operate at both. Some foreign carriers already plan to move to the new facility. BA said it will shift all operations to Daxing from Beijing Capital beginning Oct. 27. BA operates Boeing 777s and 787s between Beijing and London Heathrow Airport. LOT Polish Airlines said it will begin flying four times a week between Daxing and Warsaw from Oct. 28, using 787-8s and 787-9s. LOT will retain 3X-weekly service between Beijing Capital and Warsaw. <br/>