IATA will launch the industry’s first carbon exchange, an effort to limit emissions amid pressure to fight climate change. IATA formed a partnership with Xpansiv CBL Holding Group to develop the Aviation Carbon Exchange. A pilot phase for offsetting voluntary credits will begin this quarter. The commercial aviation industry accounts for 2% of the world’s greenhouse emissions and has gained some “flight shame” notoriety. The ICAO adopted a carbon offsetting and reduction scheme in 2016 to cap industry emissions at 2020 levels. The new exchange is meant to serve as a centralised market for airlines to meet what will become mandatory targets starting in 2027. Airlines can cap their emissions by changing the shape of wing tips, burning renewable fuel or buying offsets. <br/>
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The fast-spreading coronavirus could spell the end for the weakest airlines as travel demand dries up in and out of China. The outbreak has claimed 170 lives. Total infections have soared past 7,700 in China, surpassing the country’s official number from the 2003 SARS epidemic. SARS cost the global economy an estimated US$40b in just 6 months and led to a 45% plunge in traffic for Asia-Pacific carriers in April that year. The novel coronavirus hasn’t killed anyone outside China, but infections are spreading faster than SARS and that’s triggering a raft of flight cancellations to and from one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for air travel. For Asia-Pacific carriers, already buffeted by US-China trade tensions and protests in Hong Kong, the new virus is potentially an existential threat. <br/>
Boeing’s newly installed CE, Dave Calhoun, had a simple response when asked to describe the market the planemaker intends to target with its next all-new jetliner: “I don’t know.” That’s the point of a strategic review Calhoun commissioned soon after becoming CE, when he ordered a rethink of a project known as the NMA, or new midmarket airplane. A team is now canvassing customers and conducting a fresh evaluation of a segment overlapping the largest single-aisle jets and smallest wide-body planes, where Boeing’s 757 and 767 jets once thrived. “I want an airplane spec that I believe in,” Calhoun said Wednesday after the company reported Q4 earnings. Once a design is set, Calhoun indicated that Boeing is prepared to move quickly on a development program even as it seeks an exit from the 737 Max crisis. <br/>
Safety regulators have withdrawn a recommendation to avoid all overflights of Iran, 3 weeks after a Boeing 737-800 was apparently shot down inadvertently over Tehran. But recommendations to avoid much of Iraqi airspace, and lower Iranian airspace, nevertheless remain in place. EASA says the review of Iranian operations follows a meeting of an integrated aviation security risk group Jan 28. Temporary measures to avoid both countries’ airspace had been advised after a Ukraine International Airlines flight was destroyed Jan 8. But EASA warns there is still a high risk to civil air traffic over Iran, at altitudes below 25,000ft, owing to “misidentification” of civil aircraft and “poor co-ordination” between civil and military authorities. <br/>