After being thrust into crisis by the coronavirus, the aviation industry faces yet more trouble as the world emerges from the worst of the pandemic to find there’s now likely to be a shortage of pilots after thousands were laid off or decided to retire. Government policies such as mandatory vaccinations for trainee pilots and travel curbs have also kept a new batch of potential aviators away, according to Bhanu Choudhrie, chief executive officer of Alpha Aviation Group, which runs flying schools in the United Arab Emirates and the biggest one in Southeast Asia’s training hub, the Philippines. They’ve trained more than 2,500 pilots for carriers including Philippine Airlines, AirAsia Group, Cebu Pacific and Air Arabia. Modern, longer-distance narrow-body aircraft like Airbus SE’s A321 XLR jets -- due to be delivered from 2023 -- will require more pilots than earlier models, compounding the shortage, Choudhrie said in an interview from London. “Airlines are going to continue to buy, modernize their fleets, and as they do that, they are going to require pilots,” he said. “The market is getting interesting again and we’re starting to see that upward trend, we’re starting to see airlines come to us and say -- look this is my delivery schedule, can you have pilots ready for me in two years time?” Many airlines are aggressively trying to rehire pilots as well as cabin crew and ground staff, but that’s not been a simple process and some jobs are left unfilled. Careers in the industry no longer look as secure as before. It takes 18-24 months to train a pilot, according to Choudhrie, which means carriers must work on getting them ready way ahead of the delivery of new aircraft, including narrow-body jets, like the A321 XLR, that can fly longer. Story has more.<br/>
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America's reopening to international air travelers can't come soon enough for US and European airlines which have sorely missed the lucrative transatlantic market. The Biden administration's decision on Monday to reopen the country to fully-vaccinated air travelers from around the world will allow tens of thousands of passengers to fly to the United States from early November. For the large traditional European airline players, like British Airways-owner IAG, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, it represents a chance to recover the transatlantic routes that are key to their profits. US carriers American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta, will also benefit, although their finances had already been helped by a recovery in the large US domestic market to near pre-pandemic levels. "The transatlantic market is a key profit generator for the main European legacy airline groups," said Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska. Pre-pandemic, in 2019, those routes accounted for more than 26% of IAG's revenues, Roeska estimates, over 24% of Lufthansa's and over 16% of Air France-KLM's. Transatlantic flights accounted for between 11% and 17% of U.S. airlines passenger revenues that year. Shares in IAG rose 4% on Tuesday, having jumped 11% on Monday when the White House announced the reopening. Air France was up 3% on Tuesday. The news will also benefit British-based airline Virgin Atlantic, a transatlantic specialist, which has turned to cargo to help it survive the pandemic.<br/>
The FAA Tuesday urged US passenger airlines “to commit to take more action” to address reports of violent or unruly passengers. The agency said it had asked airline trade groups at a meeting on Tuesday to disclose within a week what steps they will take to curb such incidents. The FAA said the industry is facing a record number of airline passenger disturbances, and it plans to soon hold similar meetings with representatives from airports and labor. The meeting with groups, including Airlines for America, a group representing American Airlines, Delta, United and others, discussed “ways the industry can work together to reduce the number of unruly passenger incidents,” the FAA said, adding it “believes additional action by the airlines and all aviation stakeholders is necessary to stop the unsafe behavior.” On Monday, two senior US Senate Democrats urged Attorney General Merrick Garland here on Monday to prosecute unruly air passengers. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell said “civil penalties alone are failing to deter criminal activity by airline passengers.” <br/>
Singapore is “actively working” with a number of countries on establishing quarantine-free travel lanes, and expects to further open up its borders “in the coming weeks and months”. This follows a “very promising” start to border reopening in early September for all fully-vaccinated travellers from Germany and Brunei, says transport minister S Iswaran, who was speaking at his ministry’s conference on 20 September. Iswaran did not state which countries Singapore was working with, nor did he indicate a timeline on Singapore’s border reopening. The minister was quoted by local media present at the conference as saying that border reopening was a “dynamic situation”, which had to take into account the Covid-19 situation in Singapore, as well as in the partner country. Singapore welcomed its first group of 100 travellers from Germany on 8 September under the Vaccinated Travel Lane arrangement, which allows fully-vaccinated travellers to enter the city-state. In lieu of serving quarantine, travellers must be tested before and after arriving into Singapore, as well as during their stay in the country. Since the rollout, more than 900 travellers have entered the country under the scheme, an outcome that the minister says was “very promising”. Singapore has so far received more than 2,500 applications under the travel lane scheme, he adds. <br/>
Europe’s aviation safety regulator is seeking to amend rules on managing continuing airworthiness of fleets, with the aim of removing barriers to management for all aircraft operating within a carrier group. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has set out proposals to change the regulations in a formal opinion which will be submitted to the EC. Carriers licensed under EU regulations need to have their own continuing airworthiness management organisation approved as part of the air operator’s certificate for the aircraft they operate. But EASA says this obstructs implementation of a common airworthiness system for all aircraft within a carrier group, resulting in duplication of tasks and prevention of short-term interoperability of aircraft between different AOC holders. “These barriers are more significant nowadays due to the evolution of the business model of the EU air carriers into air carrier business groupings,” it says. The result is “complex” operational arrangements between different airworthiness management organisations that report to a single executive board, adds EASA, and potential regulatory differences in interpretation of processes within the same group. Story has more.<br/>
Boeing said that European low-cost carriers would help drive demand for new aircraft in the region over the next 20 years, as airlines replace their ageing fleets with more fuel-efficient jets. Boeing said on Tuesday that it expects airlines in Europe to order 7,100 new single-aisle planes, usually used for short haul trips, between now and 2040, with low-cost specialists like Ryanair behind that demand. In fact, Europe's demand for planes will be even more strongly driven by low-cost carriers than elsewhere in the world, said Boeing vice president, commercial marketing Darren Hulst. "Globally our forecast in general is about 40% of single aisle demand is low-cost carrier, and I would say you could argue in this European space that number would be slightly higher," he told a press briefing. In the widebody or long-haul sector, Boeing is expecting demand for 1,545 new jets in Europe over the 20-year period. Of the 7,100 new single aisle jets, where Boeing's 737 jets compete against Airbus's A320 and A321s, Hulst is expecting demand for close to 3,000 to come in the next ten years.<br/>
Airbus is in talks with a number of potential customers for a new freighter version of its A350 jetliner, its sales chief said on Tuesday. With e-commerce booming, Airbus formally began marketing the proposed freight variant in July, taking aim at Boeing’s grip on the global cargo market. “We are in a number of very encouraging discussions,” CCO Christian Scherer told reporters in Toulouse. “It is available for sale and is selling,” he added.<br/>