The head of the IATA warned Tuesday that any discrepancy among global regulators over reapproving Boeing's 737 MAX for commercial flight could set a worrying precedent for future aircraft programs. The 737 MAX, Boeing’s newest single-aisle aircraft, was grounded worldwide in March after two deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia within five months. Boeing is updating flight control software at the centre of both crashes that must be approved by regulators before the planes can fly commercially again. The US FAA has traditionally taken the lead on certifying Boeing aircraft, leaving other regulators globally to follow suit. That process has been supported by IATA. But international regulators have indicated they will pursue their own analysis of the 737 MAX and Boeing’s proposed updates, after the FAA suffered a dent to its credibility following 737 MAX crashes. “With the 737 MAX we are a bit worried ... because we don’t see the normal unanimity among international regulators that should be the case,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA DG. “We see a discrepancy that’s detrimental to the industry,” he added, urging regulators to make any changes to the single certification process “collectively.”<br/>
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An IT system outage at French air navigation service provider DSNA on Sunday caused major delays at airports in France and neighboring countries. The computer crash caused delays of 30 min. to an hour-and-a-half at French airports. The failure, deemed “exceptional” by French civil aviation authority DGAC, added to problems in a region where flight punctuality is a challenge. The outage started Sept. 1 at 2:30 a.m. local time. It affected the DSNA’s aeronautical message switch system, which exchanges flight plan and takeoff slot data between Eurocontrol’s and DSNA’s initial flight plan processing systems (IFPS), DSNA director of operations Eric Bruneau said. The first backup scheme did not work and DSNA resorted to a spare arrangement. By 9:00 a.m., it was operational, and by 11:30 a.m. the IFPS database was rebuilt, according to Bruneau. In the meantime, however, air traffic controllers had to manually enter flight plans. The extra workload meant that each controller could take care of fewer aircraft than usual. At the worst time in the morning, ATC capacity was down by 30%-50%, Bruneau said. Not every airport felt the full impact of the outage, as the capacity reduction did not necessarily happen at peak times, depending on the airport.<br/>
This summer, US airlines have enjoyed booming flight demand, immune to a Swedish-born "flight shaming" movement that has hit air travel in Europe, where environmentally conscious travellers are choosing trains over planes. But the head of global lobby IATA says the environmental challenge, which he called the biggest threat to the airline industry in Europe, "will probably come to other parts of the world, especially North America." "If you believe or think that the environmental concern is a world concern touching everyone on the planet (...) there's no reason to believe that other young people won't react," Alexandre de Juniac said Tuesday. De Juniac later acknowledged to Reuters that the lack of a viable train alternative in the United States was a big hurdle to a US movement, but noted the rise of progressives promoting plans like the Green New Deal, which includes investment in high-speed rail. The movement will spread in the United States and then move on to advanced countries in Asia like Korea and Japan, de Juniac predicted. The more anti-aviation sentiment grows, the more eager governments are to tax the industry, he said. In July, France announced a tax on airlines flying from its airports to help support the environment, a move that Air France said would significantly hurt its competitiveness and add over E60m in additional costs per year. Commercial flying accounts for about 2.5% of global carbon emissions today but without concrete steps to alleviate the problem, that number could rise as global air travel increases.<br/>