The UN’s ICAO agreed on Thursday to investigate the forced grounding of a Ryanair passenger plane in Minsk, an incident that prompted international outrage. ICAO’s 36-nation governing council acted after the United States and several allies demanded an investigation into the incident, which British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called “a grave violation of international law.” ICAO would produce an interim report by June 25, said Irish Transport Minister Eamon Ryan. ICAO said after the meeting that its council had expressed its “strong concern” about the incident. The probe will be a fact-finding investigation designed mainly to determine whether international aviation rules were breached. ICAO has little scope to punish member states other than by suspending voting rights.<br/>
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EU foreign ministers pointed a finger at Russia’s ties to Belarus as they moved toward implementing harsher sanctions against Minsk after it forced down a commercial airliner and arrested a journalist. Diplomacy chiefs discussed in Lisbon how to implement measures against the government of President Alexander Lukashenko after the diversion of a Ryanair Holdings Plc flight crossing Belarusian airspace en route from Greece to Lithuania. The EU is working on new sanctions that could target potash, a soil nutrient that’s one of Belarus’s biggest exports, after the Ryanair incident. Leaders earlier this week asked ministers to come up with broader measures to target businesses and entire sectors of the country’s economy, including the financial industry. Shifting the focus from the immediate aftermath of the incident, diplomats also increasingly focused on Russia’s relationship with its fellow former Soviet neighbor. “Everyone knows that without Russia and without Russian support Lukashenko wouldn’t have any future in Belarus,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters on arrival at the Thursday gathering. “That’s why it’s important to remain in talks with Russia but also with the clear expectation we have of Belarus and that we are making clear with the sanctions.”<br/>
Mexican officials met with bosses of the country’s airlines on Wednesday and called for a meeting with the US FAA to address the agency’s downgrading of Mexico’s air safety rating, the government said. “We have sent the FAA administrator a new statement by email requesting an urgent meeting with its auditors to jointly review, with our specialists, the evidence submitted,” Deputy Transport Minister Carlos Alfonso Moran said in a statement issued late on Wednesday. On Tuesday the FAA downgraded the country’s aviation safety rating, an action that bars Mexican carriers from adding new U.S. flights and limits the ability of airlines to carry out marketing agreements with one another. On Thursday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the downgrading of the rating was “not that serious.” During their meeting, the airline chiefs and the ministry agreed on a plan to quickly recover the rating, the government said. The FAA downgraded Mexico from a level called Category 1, which signifies compliance with international standards, to Category 2, the lowest level.<br/>
The days of bargain basement airfares are ending as the U.S. vaccine supply unleashes a wave of pent-up travel demand. A rebound in trips to visit friends and family coupled with flight schedules that remain below 2019 levels means more flyers chasing fewer seats. That’s pushing up trip costs for the peak summer season as carriers reboot revenue management tools -- which raise fares in line with stronger seat demand -- after a year in which planes often flew with rows of empty seats. “I haven’t been super pleased with the prices,” said Jackson Ralston, 29 years old, of Lake Dallas, Texas, who is monitoring daily Google Flight fare alerts to attend a friend’s bachelor party this summer. Current ticket prices from Dallas to Manchester, New Hampshire, for the planned weekend at a lake are close to $600. “I’m debating whether or not I’ll need to fly into more of a major hub over there and just rent a car and drive up,” he said. The hit to consumer wallets is buoying airlines that have had to rely on billions of dollars in federal aid to weather a collapse in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Coupled with deep cost cuts last year, the fare recovery is making carriers including Delta and United more confident that their run of red ink will end in Q3. Airfares jumped a record 10.2% in April from the previous month, reflecting a surge of demand as cooped-up consumers returned to the skies.<br/>
Airbus has told suppliers it is planning for record production of its bestselling planes within two years in a sign of the manufacturer’s hopes for a belated but strong recovery for aviation from the coronavirus pandemic. The European manufacturer said on Thursday it would increase production of A320 single-aisle aircraft to 45 per month by October, up from 40. However, it said suppliers should be ready for a rate of 64 per month by the spring of 2023 for the A320, which is well suited to short-haul travel that is expected to bounce back the quickest. That would beat its previous highest rate target of 63, and would be followed by 70 per month at the start of 2024 and as high as 75 by 2025. The aerospace industry has endured months of weak demand for planes during the pandemic as airline customers cut back on orders as their revenues dried up. Airbus and its US rival, Boeing, together cut tens of thousands of jobs worldwide as demand plummeted. Demand for Boeing planes was hit further by the crisis over its previously top-selling 737 Max, which was grounded for over a year after two fatal crashes caused by malfunctions. “The aviation sector is beginning to recover from the Covid-19 crisis,” said Guillaume Faury, Airbus’s chief executive. “The message to our supplier community provides visibility to the entire industrial ecosystem to secure the necessary capabilities and be ready when market conditions call for it.”<br/>
Boeing, struggling in China with sales of passenger planes due to trade tensions and the grounding of its 737 MAX, is upbeat about the outlook for freighter plane sales there as e-commerce demand booms. A three-year deadlock on Boeing plane orders was broken last May when China Cargo Airlines, owned by China Eastern, placed an order for two 777 widebody freighters. Boeing’s website shows 24 of the type have been delivered to China. “We’ve seen this really explosive demand for dedicated freighter airplanes in the last year,” said Richard Wynne, managing director of China marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Though political friction between China and the United States has meant no Chinese orders for new Boeing passenger planes since 2017, Boeing’s dominance of the freighter market makes it harder to bypass. Around 90% of the world’s freighters are Boeing planes. Sources have said, however, that rival Airbus SE is canvassing interest in a freighter version of its A350 passenger jet.<br/>
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she is optimistic that the United States and Europe can settle a longstanding dispute over aircraft subsidies, leaving them free to focus on larger issues, including China’s nascent aircraft industry. Tai, who is working to reset trade ties with allies across the world after former President Donald Trump’s tariff wars, declined to give any details about her talks with the European Union and Britain on the dispute, but struck an upbeat tone. “It’s impossible to predict the organic development of any negotiation. But I want to underscore how optimistic I am,” Tai told Reuters in an interview late Wednesday. “We are giving it everything we’ve got. I also feel confident that that is being reciprocated across the table.” The European Union’s trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis last week said Brussels and Washington were working to resolve the dispute over subsidies to aircraft makers by July 10. Both sides agreed in March to suspend tariffs on billions of dollars of imports in a 16-year-old dispute at the World Trade Organization over subsidies for planemakers Airbus and Boeing. The suspension runs until July 10, with tariffs re-applying on July 11 if there is no solution Asked how close the two sides were, Tai said simply, “fingers crossed.”<br/>
Airport Authority Hong Kong announced on Wednesday that it would give away 60,000 air tickets by lucky draw to local residents and airport staff who receive Covid-19 vaccination to promote inoculation. Of the 60,000 air tickets, 50,000 will be given to Hong Kong residents who have received Covid-19 vaccination before the end of September, while the remaining 10,000 tickets are for staff of Hong Kong International Airport who have been vaccinated before the same deadline, said the authority. It will purchase another 1,000 air tickets for giving away via lucky draw to Airport Authority staff vaccinated before the end of September. Those eligible should submit their applications before the deadline. Details are being discussed with airlines, with the draw planned to be completed by the end of September.<br/>