Boeing’s grounded 737 MAX airliner is likely to return to service in Europe during the first quarter of 2020, the head of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said Monday. While the European regulator expects to give its approval in January, preparations by national authorities and airlines may delay the resumption of commercial flights by up to another two months, EASA executive director Patrick Ky indicated. “If there are training requirements (and) coordination to be done with the EU member states to make sure everyone does the same thing at the same time, this will take a bit of time,” Ky said. “That’s why I’m saying the first quarter of 2020.” Boeing has said it aims to return the 737 MAX to service by the end of 2019 after making software changes in the wake of two deadly crashes, which killed 346 people and led the US FAA to ground the plane in March. Besides damaging Boeing, the grounding has hit airline customers due to the hundreds of jets now stuck on the tarmac. Ryanair, one of Boeing’s biggest MAX clients, said on Monday it expected further delays to MAX deliveries to reduce its growth in 2020. The FAA has primary responsibility for vetting a Boeing-designed fix to avoid situations in which data from a single faulty airflow sensor can cause the flight software to send the plane into a dive. Instead, the so-called MCAS software will monitor data from a pair of the sensors. EASA also plans to carry out its own programme of checks including simulator and flight tests, before allowing flights to resume in Europe.<br/>
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Airlines struggling to cope with the grounding of the 737 MAX could face a markedly different problem when Boeing’s best-selling jet is cleared to re-enter service: a switch to concerns about aircraft oversupply, carriers have been warned. The planemaker has continued to produce the jet since it was grounded in March after two fatal accidents, and is expected to speed deliveries by 40%, to 70 units a month, when its factory doors reopen, in a bid to clear the backlog. Rob Morris, global head of consultancy at UK-based Ascend by Cirium, said the combination of any rapid rebound in deliveries, economic worries and an accumulation of market pressures dating back before the crashes could make it hard to absorb the jets. “Next year is the challenge. When the dam breaks and the MAX starts to flow, there are going to be a lot of aircraft,” Morris told financiers at a Hong Kong briefing late on Monday. “There could potentially be as many as 1,000 surplus aircraft next year.” The forecast is based on both a rebound in MAX deliveries and a potential glut of second-hand airplanes flooding back onto the market after standing in for the MAX during the grounding. The crisis has rekindled demand for older and less efficient jets, with airlines using more than 800 planes that are more than 15 years old, compared to conditions four years ago, Morris told the Airline Economics Growth Frontiers conference on Tuesday. Until now, most concern has focused on whether regulators would permit an orderly return to service by avoiding gaps in approvals by different countries. But Morris, who has warned a long up-cycle in aviation is nearly over, said there were also risks in opening floodgates too quickly, overwhelming fragile growth in travel demand.<br/>
Boeing’s struggle to return its 737 MAX planes to the skies after two fatal crashes has been a boon for Marc Lasry, the billionaire chief executive of Avenue Capital Group, who is buying inexpensive, older aircraft for his leasing business. Lasry said he is raising $1b to buy “mid- to end-of-life” planes, including the narrow-body Airbus 320 and wide-body Airbus 330, to lease to airline customers, often for three or five years. Lasry specialises in distressed and undervalued debt, as well as equity opportunities in the US, Europe and Asia at Avenue, which invests $10.4b of assets. Forbes magazine estimates Lasry’s net worth at $1.8b. He said older planes can be more profitable to lease than newer, more fuel-efficient planes because they cost far less to buy, at a time when fuel prices are low. “There’s just more and more people flying,” Lasry said. “You can either go out and buy a plane for $100m that’s more fuel-efficient, or buy a plane for $10m and lease it out. They’re paying more in fuel but they didn’t spend $100m.”<br/>
A group of 11 Democratic senators is urging the Trump administration to reverse new restrictions that ban US commercial flights to all Cuban destinations except Havana. In a Nov. 1 letter to the heads of the Departments of State and Transportation, the lawmakers, led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), called the decision “another step backwards for the people of Cuba and the US,” adding that officials estimate it will reduce the number of American visitors to Cuba by more than half. The DOT on Oct. 25 issued a notice suspending the authority granted to US airlines to fly between the US and any point in Cuba except José Martí International Airport in Havana. The suspension is set to go into effect on Dec. 9. The DOT said it took the action after a request from the State Department made in an Oct. 25 letter from secretary of state Mike Pompeo to transportation secretary Elaine Chao. Suspending flights to non-Havana airports “sends a clear message to the Cuban Government” regarding alleged human rights violations and the county’s support for Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, Pompeo wrote, while maintaining flying to HAV “preserves the main gateway for travel from the US to Cuba on commercial flights for family visitation or other lawful purposes.” The flight ban would mainly affect Dallas/Fort Worth-based American Airlines and New York-based JetBlue Airways. Both fly to Camagüey, Holguín and Santa Clara, and American also serves Santiago de Cuba and Varadero.<br/>
From 25 October 2020, Changi Airport will operate using only two of its three existing runways – Runway One and Runway Three. Changi Airport Group (CAG) said Monday Runway Two will be closed temporarily for the next phase of infrastructure works for the Changi East project, which includes the airport’s fifth terminal, the Changi East Industrial Zone and supporting facilities. The closure will thus ensure the safety of flight operations during the infrastructure works, which are expected to be completed by the early 2030s. The three-runway system is expected to resume operation in the mid-2020s. During the closure of Runway Two, a longer taxi-ing time can be expected for flights assigned to Runway Three. CAG said it will work closely with stakeholders – such as the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, airlines and ground handlers – to ensure a smooth and safe transition of runway operations at Changi Airport. The Changi East development is Changi Airport’s biggest expansion project in more than three decades. When completed, T5 will increase the airport’s annual capacity by 50m passengers initially and up to 70m.<br/>
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) on Monday detained and charged a cabinet minister and long-time ally of President Emmerson Mnangagwa for abuse of office alleged to have cost the government $3.7m, the second high-profile graft case this year. Joram Gumbo, a minister in the presidency, was arrested on suspicion of directing a govt-owned airline formed in 2017 to use a property owned by his relative as its headquarters, according to a charge sheet seen by Reuters. Gumbo, who was transport minister at the time, is also accused of abusing his position by forcing the re-appointment of the head of a state-owned company after the official was found guilty of corruption and fired by a tribunal. ZACC said the government had suffered total losses to the tune of $3.7m. <br/>
Labour is exploring plans to ban private jets from UK airports from as early as 2025 should it win the election, in the party’s latest broadside against the super-rich. After a report revealed carbon emissions from the sector equivalent to 450,000 cars each year, Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, said that billionaire users of private fossil fuel aircraft were damaging the climate and the party would consider a ban. He tweeted on Monday: “The multi-millionaires & billionaires who travel by private jet are doing profound damage to the climate, and it’s the rest of us who’ll suffer the consequences. A phase-out date for the use of fossil fuel private jets is a sensible proposal.” The warning shot came in response to a report from Common Wealth, a thinktank with close links to Jeremy Corbyn, and A Free Ride, a campaign group that called for a ban in Britain from 2025 to encourage the development of electric aircraft. McDonald said he would “examine these proposals closely and consult with industry on the introduction of a phase-out date for the use of fossil fuel private jets”. The Common Wealth report found that 128,000 flights between UK and EU airports were made using private jets in 2018, representing 6% of all UK air traffic. A further 14,000 trips were made to destinations outside Europe. It said the global heating impact of the flights was roughly 1m tonnes of CO2 equivalent each year, the same as the annual emissions of about 450,000 typical cars on Britain’s roads. A private flight from London to New York was equivalent to driving a typical UK car non-stop for four and a half years, it said.<br/>