A surge in the price of jet fuel after weekend attacks at several Saudi Arabian oil facilities appears likely to pressure airlines’ margins in the 2019 Q4 and beyond, analysts said. The Sept 14 attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq and Khurais fields knocked approximately 5.7m barrels per day of oil production offline. Saudi Arabian officials have indicated one-third of that amount can be brought back online within days, while full capacity may take weeks or months to return. The price of Brent Crude, the global benchmark, was last up 10.7% at US$66.60, after logging its largest intraday move in history. The sudden move comes against a backdrop of weak fuel price growth through the peak summer travel period, following a move down in prices in late May. <br/>
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A panel of international air-safety regulators is finishing a report expected to criticise the initial US approval process for Boeing ’s 737 MAX jets, according to people briefed on the conclusions, while urging a wide-ranging reassessment of how complex automated systems should be certified on future airliners. As part of roughly a dozen findings, these govt and industry officials said, the task force is poised to call out the FAA for what it describes as a lack of clarity and transparency in the way the FAA delegated authority to the plane maker to assess the safety of certain flight-control features. The upshot, according to some of these people, is that essential design changes didn’t receive adequate FAA attention. <br/>
FAA chief Steve Dickson plans to visit Boeing facilities in Seattle this week to personally assess the status of the grounded 737 Max. Dickson, a former executive and pilot at Delta Air Lines who is qualified to fly the 737, said he intends to perform test runs on a Max flight simulator while on the trip. The agency hasn’t seen Boeing’s final safety assessment and application to return the plane to flight, he said. “It’s really safety first and we’re not on any specific timeline,” Dickson said. When asked about indications that other regulators around the world may wait to return the plane to service and conduct additional scrutiny after FAA acts, Dickson said it’s not unusual for other agencies to validate FAA’s work. “We’re working very hard to ensure that everyone is aligned,” he said. <br/>
One thing about flying from Washington to Los Angeles hasn’t changed: It takes essentially the same amount of time to go from Ronald Reagan National to Los Angeles International now as it did several decades ago. So why have schedules for the flights gotten noticeably longer? The answer is that as the number of travellers has increased and airlines have added flights to accommodate them, airports have become more congested. As a result, planes spend more time waiting to take off and then, when they land, more time waiting for an open gate at the terminal. That means passengers are spending more time confined in the cabin. A4A recently analysed data compiled by the DoT and found that from 1990 to 2018 taxi time increased 19% at the nation’s 30 largest hubs and 24% at 31 medium-size airports. <br/>
Possible US tariffs against Airbus aircraft and European parts are unlikely to have a major impact on the planemaker's 2019 results, but disruption cannot be ruled out, its CE said. Monday, Guillaume Faury said the main risk was that airlines would refuse to buy Airbus jets because of the risk that repeat purchases would be rendered uneconomic by future tariffs. The World Trade Organisation has at least partially approved a US request to impose tariffs on EU aircraft and other goods as part of a 15-year trade dispute in which the EU is also preparing similar action against the US. Analysts say airlines tend to renew their fleets only every 15 years or so, meaning long-term risks must factored in whenever they are making purchase decisions. <br/>
Climate-campaign group Heathrow Pause is “considering escalating” its protest at London Heathrow Airport, after 3 days of illegal unmanned aerial vehicle activity within the airport’s exclusion zone failed to keep flights grounded. Heathrow Pause said signal-jamming has been used to block the action, but it performed “at least 16 successful drone flights” within the exclusion zone. “The airport authority has made contradictory statements about safety and completely abandoned protocols previously held as essential to guaranteeing passenger safety. As a consequence, activists are considering escalating their approach to meet the change in circumstances,” Heathrow Pause said Sept 16. <br/>
Germany’s main political parties are coalescing around proposals to increase the cost of flying, potentially doubling the tax on short-haul flights to slash greenhouse gas pollution. Alarmed that the country is falling short of emissions-reductions pledges it made under the Paris Agreement on climate change, chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats are drawing up policies with their Social Democrat coalition partners and focusing on air transport for some of the most dramatic reductions. A proposal by Merkel’s CDU to double levies on domestic flights was announced by the party’s finance expert, Andreas Jung. They’re part of a broader package that ministers are due to consider at a Sept 20 meeting of Merkel’s cabinet meeting dealing with climate policies. <br/>
Russian and Czech aviation authorities have reached an agreement on Zhukovsky-Prague and Prague-Seoul routes, the Czech Transport Ministry said Sept 13. According to the ministry, capacity on the Zhukovsky-Prague route can be increased from IATA summer season 2020. Czech airlines’ rights to operate Prague-Seoul flights will be permanently confirmed and expanded during the year. In July, Aeroflot Airline and Ural Airlines had to postpone or cancel several flights from Moscow Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky to Prague because of the dispute between the two countries. The Czech Transport Ministry restricted flights between Moscow and Prague, explaining that Russia “unilaterally restricted Czech Airlines’ rights to fly over the Siberian part of the Russian Federation on the route between Prague and Seoul.” <br/>
The Director General of Civil Aviation Monday issued orders making breath analyser test mandatory for all personnel engaged in “safety sensitive aviation functions”. As of now the DGCA conducts 100% BA tests on pilots and cabin crew. The new regulations will cover more than 25,000 aviation personnel including aircraft maintenance engineers, vehicle drivers, equipment and aerobridge operators, marshallers, personnel manning apron control, personnel involved in operational duty on air side, aerodrome rescue and firefighting personnel and air traffic controllers. As per DGCA notification, at least 10% staff of a company involved in the crucial activities will be randomly subjected to BA examination on a daily basis. <br/>