Boeing has delayed plans to reach a record production rate of 57 737 jets per month next year, industry sources said on Thursday, even before the US FAA announced a new delay in the 737 MAX’s return to service which raised uncertainty over production plans. The world’s largest planemaker has also delayed plans to step up from the current rate of 42 jets per month to 46 jets this year until March 2020, as the company struggles to win regulatory approvals for its best-selling jet after two deadly crashes. The US FAA said Wednesday that the agency will not approve the grounded commercial jet for flight before year end, and said it was investigating production issues at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington. FAA chief Steve Dickson, who met with Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg on Thursday, is concerned that the U.S. airplane maker is pursuing a 737 MAX return-to-service schedule that is “not realistic,” according to an email seen by Reuters. A Boeing spokesman declined to comment on the company’s specific production plans. <br/>
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Two top Boeing executives met Thursday with FAA chief Stephen Dickson amid signs of further delays in the return of the grounded 737 Max. In an email to key congressional committees, the FAA said Dickson is instructing agency safety experts to take as long as they need to review changes Boeing is making to the plane after two fatal crashes. Boeing, meanwhile, struck an upbeat tone in describing the meeting. CEO Dennis Muilenburg and the new head of Boeing's commercial airplanes business, Stanley Deal, “had a productive meeting" with Dickson and FAA Deputy Administrator Daniell Elwell, said Boeing spokesman Gordon Johndroe. "Boeing reaffirmed with the FAA that safety is our top shared priority, and we committed to addressing all of the FAA’s questions as they assess MAX certification and training requirements," Johndroe said in a statement. "We will work with the FAA to support their requirements and their timeline as we work to safely return the Max to service in 2020.”<br/>
China has raised “important concerns” with Boeing regarding design changes proposed to end the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX airliner, Beijing’s aviation regulator said Thursday, declining to say when it might fly in China again. The remarks broke months of public silence from China, the first country to ground the 737 MAX in March following the second deadly crash involving the model in less than five months. “Boeing is currently upgrading its software to the 737 MAX, and it is still a work in progress. The CAAC has raised our important concerns on areas such as system reliability and safety assessment,” CAAC spokesman Liu Lusong said. The 737 MAX would need to be re-certified and pilots given comprehensive and effective training before it could fly in China, he reiterated. He said the causes of two crashes that killed 346 people needed to be investigated with effective measures put in place to prevent another one. China in April said it had set up a task force to review design changes submitted by Boeing.<br/>
Air cargo markets, an economic bellwether linked to global trade, are beginning to stabilise after a downturn in 2019, the IATA said Thursday. "We are seeing some tentative signs of improvement," said Andrew Matters, deputy chief economist at the global airlines body. IATA is predicting a 2% recovery in global air cargo traffic in 2020 after a 3.3% decline in 2019, driven by a tariff war between the United States and China. The recovery is fragile with risks tilted to the downside, led by the impact of a trade war, Matters said. Air freight typically rebounds strongly in a 'V-shaped' recovery after a downturn, but the predicted 2020 recovery is relatively flat.<br/>
Flights resumed Thursday at the Libyan capital Tripoli's sole functioning airport, after a more than three-month suspension due to repeated rocket attacks, an official said. "We have reestablished flights at the Mitiga International Airport," airport director Lotfi al-Tabib said. Two flights from Libyan carriers Afriqiyah Airways and Libyan Airlines are scheduled to operate to Istanbul and Tunis respectively, Tabib said, adding that "all flights will be restored gradually". Other Libyan airlines, including Buraq and Libyan Wings, have announced they will resume flights in the coming days. Mitiga has been hit by several air strikes and rocket attacks since the launch of an offensive in April by forces of military strongman Khalifa Haftar to take the capital from the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA). Haftar's forces, which accuse the GNA of using Mitiga for military purposes, say they are targeting "Turkish drones" being launched from the airport to attack their troops in southern Tripoli. The GNA has denied the accusations. After fresh rocket fire on the airport on September 1 that left four people wounded, Mitiga was closed and flights transferred to Misrata, to the east. The reopening of the airport is a boon for travellers to the Libyan capital, where more than a third of the country's six-million strong population lives.<br/>
The Russian government has approved a new zone structure for Moscow’s air traffic control, which will be introduced Dec. 3, 2020. The new structure has optimised restricted areas and flight restriction zones for Moscow’s main airports (Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Ostafyevo and Ramenskoye), Russia’s TASS news agency reported. It will replace rules previously implemented in the 1970s. The new structure has been a collaborative effort that has been in development since 2011. It will increase Moscow’s zone acceptance rate by 1.5 times, reduce the ATC stress load by 50%, and decrease landing delays by more than 70%, the government said in a statement. Even if the flight intensity at Moscow airports grows 1.5 times, the flight time in Moscow’s new air traffic zone will decrease by 15%, route lengths by 21%, and fuel consumption by 14%, the government added.<br/>
U-Tapao Rayong-Pattaya International Airport has officially opened Terminal 2. The airport is located on a 6,500 rai plot of land in tambon Phala in Rayong's Ban Chang district. Opened for commercial flights in 1989, the airport has one runway (3.5km long and 60m wide) and can support 700,000 passengers a year. However, the airport handled almost 2m passengers last year, with about 15,000 flights connecting to more than 30 destinations in Thailand and abroad. The government invested about 600m baht for the new terminal. With 30,000m² of space, the new facility will be able to handle 3m passengers a year. The government invested about 600m baht for the new terminal. With 30,000m² of space, the new facility will be able to handle 3m passengers a year. The government also plans to add new facilities including a third passenger terminal, a 675 rai commercial area, a new runway, a 200 rai training centre and a free-trade zone. The airport expansion is part of the government's plan to promote the Kingdom as a regional aviation hub. It will link to the Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang international airports by high-speed train in the future.<br/>