A week after Boeing offered $100m to help families and communities affected by the deadly crashes of its 737 MAX planes in Ethiopia and Indonesia, affected farmers in Ethiopia, victims’ relatives and the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments say they have not heard anything about the funds. The planemaker said it would give the money to local governments and non-profit organizations, adding the funds were not connected with a slew of lawsuits from victims’ families. It is unclear who will qualify for the aid or what the timeline is for the offer, which was unusual in that it comes from a planemaker rather than an airline. Farmers where an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed on March 10 say their lands have been fenced off since, with the site still littered with small shards of debris, and they cannot afford to rent plots elsewhere. They told Reuters this week they were not aware of any offer from Boeing. Neither the Ethiopian nor the Kenyan governments, whose countries suffered the most deaths in the crash of Flight ET302, have had any discussions with Boeing, officials said. Ethiopian Airlines spokesman Asrat Begashaw said the airline had no details on Boeing’s offer. In its statement last week, Boeing said, “These funds will support education, hardship and living expenses for impacted families, community programs, and economic development in impacted communities”. Some victims’ families were angered by the July 3 announcement, describing it as a publicity stunt.<br/>
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While Tropical Storm Barry might ruin some travellers' plans this weekend, airlines are trying to to minimise the effects on their budgets. Tropical Storm Barry is expected to make landfall in Louisiana as a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday, and airlines are offering travel waivers to those with flight reservations. The waivers allow those with previous tickets to change their reservations without fees, as long as they make the switch by a certain deadline. Below are the airlines offering waivers to passengers. Details vary by carrier. Most waivers are good for flights to, from or connecting through certain airports, but travellers should check the airlines' websites for specifics. Story has details.<br/>
A US House of Representatives panel will hold a hearing next week on aviation safety in the aftermath of two deadly Boeing 737 MAX crashes since October. The July 17 hearing by the House Transportation Committee’s subcommittee on aviation will include Paul Njoroge, who lost his wife, three children and his mother-in-law on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 that crashed in March, the committee told Reuters. Witnesses scheduled to testify include Dana Schulze, acting director of the NTSB’s Office of Aviation Safety, and officials from the Air Line Pilots Association, Association of Professional Flight Attendants, Professional Aviation Specialists and Transport Workers Union. A committee official said the hearing will cover the overall state of aviation safety, including airports, runways, aircraft certification, and new entrants. Boeing is expected to formally submit its proposed software upgrade and training revisions to the FAA in September after a separate software flaw emerged last month. The 737 MAX is unlikely to resume flying before November because of the time needed for the FAA to review the fix and for airlines to update their planes and complete pilot training.<br/>
The US TSA said Thursday that its officers screened 2,795,014 passengers and airline crew members, barely beating a record set just five weeks earlier, over the Memorial Day weekend. TSA screens about 2.2m people on an average day. The top four days and eight of the busiest 10 in TSA history have occurred this year, as airlines report booming travel demand. TSA says that despite Sunday's record crowds, fewer than 1% of passengers waited 30 minutes or more in checkpoint lines. The agency is telling summer travellers to arrive at the airport two hours before a domestic flight and three hours before an international one.<br/>
US Customs and Border Protection is clarifying that airline passengers aren't required to submit to suspicion-less document checks as a result of a settlement in a lawsuit. The settlement comes in a lawsuit filed by passengers aboard a Delta flight from San Francisco to New York's Kennedy Airport in February 2017 who were met by Customs officers and were forced to hand over identification as they left the plane. It was just weeks after President Donald Trump's first travel ban. Customs and Border Protection officers were searching for an immigrant with a deportation order. The person wasn't aboard. The settlement must be OK'd by a judge. Customs officials will issue a policy directive clarifying ID searches while deplaning.<br/>
Boeing said the head of its 737 programme is retiring, as the company works to restore confidence in the 737 Max aircraft, which has been grounded following two fatal accidents. Eric Lindblad, 57, took over the 737 programme in 2018 and has been at Boeing for 34 years. The aircraft maker said on Thursday that he will be replaced by Mark Jenks, who previously led the company’s 787 programme. Kevin McAllister, Boeing’s CE of commercial aeroplanes, said in a message to staff: “I am grateful to Eric Lindblad for his strong leadership and tireless drive over the past 12 months leading the 737 programme, as he has navigated some of the most difficult challenges our company has ever faced. He shared with me his desire to retire last year, and we will now begin to embark on a thoughtful and seamless transition plan.” Lindblad has been in charge of Boeing’s 737 programme during one of the company’s most difficult periods. In March, all 371 Max jets being flown anywhere in the world were grounded following two accidents which killed a total of 346 people. Since then, the company has been developing a software fix for the aircraft’s anti-stall system, which was implicated in both crashes but so far regulators have not signed off on the update to allow the aeroplanes to fly again. Boeing said Lindblad’s retirement had nothing to do with the recent troubles with the Max. But it has the potential to cause further disruption while Boeing is still trying to satisfy regulators around the world that the Max is safe to fly once more.<br/>
Russia’s Gagarin International Airport will begin operations Aug. 20 to serve Saratov, Russian aviation authorities said. Validation tests will run July 28 through Aug. 8, while a test flight is scheduled for Aug. 18. All flights from Saratov Tsentralny Airport will be transferred to Gagarin within one day and the old airport will be closed. Gagarin airport is located 20 km from Saratov and will have the IATA code GSV. The new airport was built as a public-private partnership, although according to Russian legislation, airfields cannot be private; they are built by the government and designated government property, even if the airport is managed by a private company and its terminal infrastructure was built privately. The government selected a Renova Group subsidiary, Airports of Regions, to lead the terminal construction and manage the airport. Airports of Regions also operates Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo, Kurumoch Airport in Samara, Strigino International Airport in Nizhny Novgorod and Platov International Airport in Rostov-on-Don.<br/>