Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Tuesday the city’s recovery from protests that have swept the Asian financial hub could take a long time and that she would be responsible for rebuilding its economy “after the violence eases”. Her comments followed serious developments in the growing crisis over the past week. Beijing said on Monday the protests had begun to show “sprouts of terrorism”, and the city’s airport was closed in an unprecedented move that forced hundreds of flight cancellations. She said violence by protesters had pushed Hong Kong into “a state of panic and chaos”. “Hong Kong, as an open, free, very tolerant, economically stable city will see severe wounds ... The recovery may take a long time,” she said. The increasingly violent demonstrations have plunged the Chinese-ruled territory into its most serious crisis in decades, presenting Chinese leader Xi Jinping with one of his biggest challenges since he came to power in 2012. Hong Kong’s airport reopened on Tuesday with some flight resumptions but hundreds of others were still cancelled, with airlines such as Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific and Malaysian Airlines advising travelers of rescheduling. The airport was the latest focus of protests that began two months ago. Its administrator blamed demonstrators for halting flights Monday but the exact trigger for the closure was not clear because protesters occupying the arrivals hall for the past five days have been peaceful. Most protesters had left the airport shortly after midnight, with about 50 protesters still there on Tuesday morning. Hong Kong’s airport is the eighth busiest by passenger traffic, handling 73m passengers a year.<br/>
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US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said on Monday she has asked the new head of the FAA to assess the agency’s performance in the wake of two fatal crashes of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes since October. Chao, who administered the oath of office to new FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson, a former Delta executive, at an event in Washington, said Dickson’s arrival “is an important opportunity to take stock of how well the FAA is doing in carrying out its critical safety functions.” She added that she has asked Dickson “to assess the performance of the agency and the results of the ongoing investigations to make recommendations about any needed reforms.” Dickson reiterated the position of his predecessor, Dan Elwell, who has been the acting FAA chief since January 2018, that the Boeing 737 MAX “will not fly in commercial service until I am completely satisfied that it is safe to do so. FAA is following no timeline in returning the aircraft to service. Rather we are going to where the facts lead us.” <br/>
Shortly before taking office last year, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador upended construction of a $13b airport for the nation’s capital. The glitzy, modernist project was riddled with corruption, AMLO said, and congestion could be eased more cheaply with a plan that included improvements for the existing hub. But now, nine months later, the full extent of the risks to that plan are emerging. Mexico City’s airport has recorded a 52% increase in aborted landings in the first five months of the year, according to data obtained through a freedom of information request. Landings thwarted specifically because other planes were still on the runway at the overcrowded airport climbed even faster — by 84%. While pilots are trained to safely handle go-arounds, the surge in frequency of such events is adding to operational headaches at Latin America’s busiest airport. What’s more, a key component to AMLO’s alternative plan -- diverting some commercial air traffic to a nearby military base -- is bogged down in Mexican courts. And even if it were to win legal approval, experts say the plan has little chance of meeting the growing demand for runway space caused by the rise of budget airlines in Mexico. “It’s an unnecessary risk factor,” said Guillermo Galvan, a private-jet pilot and safety instructor at Mexican aviation schools. Landing attempts can be scrubbed for a variety of reasons and they happen at all airports from time to time. Sudden changes in weather conditions have contributed to go-arounds in Mexico City in the past few months, said Gabriel Yee, Grupo Aeromexico SAB’s flight operations manager. As for the congestion, the hub doesn’t have a policy known as “minimum runway use” to get planes out of the way quickly, Yee said. “There’s no denying the airport has more operations than before,” he said. “This is the airport we have for the time being and there are ways to make it work more efficiently.” Story has more details.<br/>
Americans love to fly and it shows. US airlines carried a record 889m passengers in 2018, a 20% increase from five years earlier, according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics records that date to 2002. That wanderlust appeared in US airlines’ robust Q2 revenues and executives across the industry said they’re seeing continued strong consumer demand throughout the peak summer travel period. What’s most intriguing about this ardor for air travel, however, isn’t full planes at the peak of summer travel season, but that the planes have remained full even as US airlines add new flights, larger planes and more seats. “It’s the persistence of this [demand] that’s been interesting,” said Jamie Baker, a JP Morgan analyst who has tracked airlines for 17 years. The boom poses a big question for the industry, especially amid trade wars and worries about whether a recession looms: “Is this just a flash in the pan?” Baker said. The airlines’ traffic surge has outpaced the nation’s economic expansion over the same period. Current airline demand is roughly twice the rate of US growth. Historically, that figure “has been closer to 1.5 times,” said Rajeev Lalwani, a Morgan Stanley aerospace analyst. Airline stocks, however, have been a flop for investors. An index of five US carriers is up 9% this year, compared with 17% for the S&P 500. Only Delta’s 19% return is currently outperforming the index. The carriers have also underperformed the S&P index three of the past four years and merely matched its return in 2016. The demand trends suggest the world’s largest aviation market remains a growth business, and possibly not a mature industrial sector yoked firmly to economic performance. Airline executives and analysts point to a variety of sources for demand, which story explores. <br/>