The FAA Tuesday proposed that airlines complete inspections on a key component that could make Boeing 737 MAX airplanes vulnerable to lightning strikes and interference from high-power radio frequency transmitters before returning to service. Boeing in December issued a service bulletin that disclosed procedures for detailed inspections and repairs or replacement if needed for panels on top of the engine housing that may not ensure adequate shielding of the underlying wiring. Boeing said in the December bulletin that owners had 6 months to complete inspections and repairs, but the FAA is now proposing that the actions be conducted before the airlines make further flights because of the "potential for a common-cause failure of both engines." <br/>
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Once the demand star among oil products, the coronavirus has pushed jet fuel to the bottom of the barrel in the near term at least. As travel plans are put on hold and flights are cut, profits from producing the fuel are plummeting. Margins for the fuel at Singapore refineries have tumbled by 39% since Jan 23 when markets first began taking notice of the virus. They lurched 6% lower Monday on signs the outbreak is going global. As flight cancellations mount, Asian traders and refiners have been sending jet fuel across the Pacific to California and also to Europe. Shipments of aviation fuel from Asia to the Americas are poised to reach a 5-month high in February, contributing to a global glut. IATA forecast last week that global passenger demand would contract by 0.6% this year. <br/>
Airports, often hemmed in by neighbourhoods, highways or water, already struggle to keep up with the rising number of air travellers. And the number is expected to keep going up — to more than 7b globally by 2035, IATA says, nearly doubling from 2016. So while airports are expanding their physical facilities where they can, govts and the travel industry are leaning more heavily on technology, especially artificial intelligence, to process more air travellers more quickly. The airports in Osaka, Japan, and Abu Dhabi have tested autonomous check-in kiosks that move themselves to help manage peaks of passenger flow. Seattle-Tacoma International and Miami International are among those using visual sensors to monitor passenger line lengths and how quickly people are moving through security checkpoints. <br/>
Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies are resisting a US push to open their airspace to Qatar and end the country's heavy reliance on Iran’s skies, according to officials familiar with the contacts. They figure they stand a better chance of extracting bigger concessions from Qatar, which they’ve been boycotting for nearly 3 years, the closer it gets to hosting the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament, according to one official familiar with the matter. Washington intensified its efforts to mend the Gulf rift after last year’s attacks on energy interests in the Persian Gulf, which briefly disrupted Saudi oil production. Opening airspace has been a key point on the agenda of regular meetings between US and Saudi officials in Washington and the Gulf, even as broader reconciliation overtures between Arab countries have stalled. <br/>
Three Democratic US senators Tuesday introduced sweeping legislation to reform how new airplanes are certified and overseen by US regulators after 2 fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes. The bill would create an independent aircraft certification commission, bar Boeing and other manufacturers from tying employee compensation to delivery of airplanes and increase oversight of manufacturers that handle delegated certification tasks on behalf of the FAA. The legislation would also set new requirements for individuals handling delegated certification tasks and require regular audits. The legislation would also give the FAA administrator power to deem airplanes not sellable in certain countries until airlines met training, operating and maintenance requirements. <br/>
The civil aviation authority of Kuwait has suspended all air travel to and from Singapore and Japan, the first country to do so after the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus several weeks ago, the Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA reports. The Kuwaiti Directorate General of Civil Aviation (GDCA) said Tuesday that all non-Kuwaiti citizens who visited the 2 countries in the past 2 weeks would not be allowed into the country, even if they have valid visas. Kuwaiti citizens would be put into quarantine. The GDCA would also be banning transit passengers from the countries, KUNA says. Kuwait is also no longer accepting packages from coronavirus-hit countries, nor is it processing ships from those countries. <br/>
As Tokyo prepares to greet overseas visitors to the Olympic Games in July, some city residents are upset about the more than 100 low-flying jetliners a day that will bring them to the city. From March 29, whenever a southerly wind blows over Japan's capital, 45 passenger planes an hour will descend low over Tokyo on 2 new airport approach routes for up to 3 hours. The approach routes are part of a renewed push to expand air access to the world's biggest metropolitan area. Aviation officials have struggled for decades to increase capacity in the face of fierce opposition to airport construction, including Tokyo's other airport 80kmaway at Narita. Giving impetus to a new aviation plan that will increase flights to Tokyo by a third to a 1m is part of PM Shinzo Abe's drive to make inbound tourism an economic priority. <br/>