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Airlines are exposing their personnel to increasing amounts of radiation as planes fly longer distances, with pilots receiving the highest annual doses, France’s nuclear safety institute warned in a new report. The five-year study by the Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire found that while the number of crew receiving annual exposure above a specific safety limit remains relatively tiny, the proportion doubled between 2016 and 2019. The government agency recommended rotating staff more frequently away from the most-affected routes. Airline crews are more exposed than people on the ground to radiation from cosmic rays, which are blocked by the atmosphere. As carriers connect farther-flung cities and use polar routes to save time and fuel, pilot unions and health experts have begun raising safety concerns about higher radiation exposure. Levels affecting pilots and cabin crew should be closely monitored, and they “should be considered exposed workers,” the report concluded. According to the IRSN, exposure to these cosmic rays is about 150 times more potent at 10km above ground than at sea level, and is two or three times higher at the poles than the equator. Commercial airline flight personnel are the second most vulnerable worker category to radiation exposure after people making nuclear fuel, it said. <br/>

The chairman of the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is calling for airport bars to stop selling “to-go” alcoholic drinks, citing an uptick in the number of unruly passengers getting into altercations with airline staff. “There is no reason that a passenger should be able to leave a restaurant with a “to-go” cup of alcohol and board a plane with it,” Representative Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, said in remarks prepared for a Thursday hearing on the issue. So far this year, 4,385 incidents of disruptive passengers have been reported, including 3,199 that were related to pandemic requirements that flyers wear masks. Nearly 800 of the episodes were deemed serious enough to warrant investigations, according to the FAA. Even with four months remaining in 2021, such inquiries already number more than twice as many as any previous year. “While alcohol may not always be the primary instigator in some of these confrontations, adding gratuitous alcohol to a violent situation certainly exacerbates the problem and subsequent danger to flight crews and the traveling public,” DeFazio said in his remarks. Among the witnesses scheduled to appear before his committee are Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, and Christopher Bidwell, the senior vice president for safety at Airports Council International, North America.<br/>

The reopening of transatlantic flights to the US is “great news” for Paris, but it won’t bring air traffic back to where it was before the pandemic, according to the operator of the city’s airports. Paris serves as a hub to connect various continents, and “as long as Asia is closed, notably China,” all incoming traffic to Paris that normally goes to China from Africa, Latin America or North America is being slowed down, Aeroports de Paris CEO Augustin de Romanet said during a media event at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Wednesday. “As long as this stickiness exists, we fear we may not return to 2019 levels of traffic,” he said. Romanet said he still expects pre-pandemic traffic to return between 2025 and 2027. For this year, he predicts between 30% and 40% of 2019 levels. ADP will most likely deploy more staff for the expected increase in passengers once flights to the U.S. resume to minimize waiting times, he said. Story has more.<br/>

The UK will accept travelers vaccinated in the United Arab Emirates beginning Oct. 4, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Wednesday, reopening a popular travel route after months of deterring people coming from the UAE with costly and strict hotel quarantine requirements. “We will be accepting UAE vaccination certificates from 4th Oct following updates to their vaccination app,” Shapps said. “As a major transport hub which is home to many British expats, this is great news for reopening international travel, boosting business & reuniting families.” The news comes as a relief to many in the expatriate-majority desert sheikhdom of 10m, of which at least 150,000 are British citizens who were unable to visit their families since the UK put the UAE on a red list for travel last January. The red list designation meant that travelers from the UAE — including British citizens and those who had been vaccinated in the UAE — had to quarantine for 10 days in a UK-government-designated hotel at a personal cost of nearly GBP2,000 if they wanted to enter the country. By spring, tens of thousands of people living in the UAE had signed a petition demanding the UK government change the travel designation, citing high Covid vaccination rates in the country. But the UK government resisted making changes, citing the UAE’s status as a popular travel hub as a risk, despite cases of the delta variant sweeping the UK at the time.<br/>

Algeria’s supreme security council decided on Wednesday to close the country’s airspace to all Moroccan civil and military aircraft, the Algerian presidency said, less than a month after it cut diplomatic relations with the Kingdom. The decision came “in view of the continued provocations and hostile practices on the Moroccan side”, it said. The closure also includes any aircraft carrying a Moroccan registration number, the presidency said after a meeting of the council. There was no immediate Moroccan official response. A source at Royal Air Maroc said the closure would only affect 15 flights weekly linking Morocco with Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt. The source described the closure as insignificant and said the relevant flights could reroute over the Mediterranean. The airline gave no official comment on the Algerian decision. Algeria late last month decided to cut diplomatic ties with Morocco, citing “hostile actions” from the Kingdom, referring mainly to comments made by Morocco’s envoy in New York in favor of the self-determination of the Kabylie region in Algeria. Algiers also accused Rabat of backing MAK, a separatist group that the government has declared a terrorist organisation. Authorities blame the group for devastating wildfires, mainly in Kabylie, that killed at least 65 people. MAK has denied the accusations. Morocco said in response that Algeria was unjustified in cutting ties and its arguments were “fallacious and even absurd.” The border between Morocco and Algeria has been closed since 1994 and Algeria has indicated it will divert gas exports from a pipeline running through Morocco, which was due to be renewed later this year.<br/>

Personal data of 106m international travellers to Thailand was found to have been exposed online in August before it was quickly secured by Thai authorities, according to Comparitech, a cybersecurity research firm. The National Cybersecurity Agency (NCSA) confirmed the incident happened last month, and said it had not detected any attempts to sell the data on underground websites. Comparitech indicated the database included full names, sex, passport numbers, arrival dates, visa types and residency status. According to the research firm, the database was indexed by search engine Censys on Aug 20 and it was discovered two days later by Bob Diachenko, who leads Comparitech’s cybersecurity research, who immediately alerted Thai authorities. Thai authorities secured the database on Aug 23. As the dates on the database records run from 2011 to the present, Diachenko said all those who travelled to Thailand over the last decade might have had their information exposed. According to Comparitech, Thai authorities responded quickly to the disclosure, however “we do not know how long the data was exposed prior to being indexed".<br/>

More than 50 airlines, oil companies and other companies, including Delta, BP and Boeing, pledged on Wednesday to replace 10% of global jet fuel supply with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by 2030. It is one of the boldest commitments yet to tackle the environmental impact of air travel and will require an exponential increase in the production of SAF, which currently accounts for only 0.1% of jet fuel used in commercial aviation. Produced mainly from recycled food and agricultural waste, such as used cooking oil, SAF is a type of biofuel that cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 80% compared to conventional jet fuel, and is viewed as critical to reducing aviation's fast-rising carbon emissions. Given that electric and hydrogen-powered planes won't be available for at least another decade, even for short-haul flights, SAF "holds one of the most important keys to decarbonizing aviation," said Matteo Mirolo, aviation policy officer at Transport & Environment, a green campaign group in Europe. But SAF's green credentials come at a hefty price, and it's in very short supply. That's what makes Wednesday's announcement from the "Clean Skies for Tomorrow" coalition so ambitious. Other signatories include Airbus, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Shell. SAF currently costs between two and eight times more than its fossil fuel-based alternative.<br/>In 2019, fewer than 200,000 metric tons were produced globally — less than 0.1% of the roughly 300 million metric tons of jet fuel used by commercial airlines, according to a November 2020 report by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey, which has also signed up to the pledge as a business that relies on air travel.<br/>

Boeing expects Chinese airlines will need 8,700 new aircraft for a total of $1.47t by 2040, doubling the country’s commercial fleet size as air travel booms. China’s demand for wide-body aircraft is likely to account for 20% of global deliveries, according to the US manufacturer’s Commercial Market Outlook. China’s civil aviation industry will also need more than 400,000 new personnel including pilots, cabin crew and technicians by 2040, Boeing said. “The rapid recovery of Chinese domestic traffic during the pandemic speaks to the market’s underlying strength and resilience,” Boeing’s China marketing managing director for commercial airplanes, Richard Wynne, said Thursday. “There are promising opportunities to significantly expand international long-haul routes and air freight capacity,” he said. “Longer term, there is the potential for low-cost carrier growth to further build on single-aisle demand.” Single-aisle jets will account for nearly 6,500 deliveries, while wide-bodies, including for cargo, will total 1,850 and account for 44% of demand by value, according to Boeing, which is still waiting for its 737 Max model to be cleared by Chinese regulators after most major markets approved it to fly again. Boeing also predicts that China’s domestic passenger market will exceed intra-European traffic by 2030 and North America by 2040. <br/>

Airbus led a chorus of pledges by aviation leaders to cut emissions under an eco-friendly new slogan on Wednesday, but was forced to defend its jet-selling business under criticism from campaigners urging the industry to tame its growth. The European company, which last year announced plans to develop a hydrogen-powered airplane from 2035, said aviation could only hit net-zero carbon emissions in 2050 if airports, airlines and air traffic systems also embraced radical change. "Reaching net zero will be the result of a truly unparalleled act of cooperation," Executive VP Julie Kitcher told the "Airbus Summit". Alternative fuels, lightweight materials and a long-awaited overhaul of air traffic systems are needed, Airbus said. But delegates were warned the transition could also force up fares. Days before German elections that could reshape European green politics, Airbus road-tested a new slogan designed to link its own brand and an under-pressure aviation industry with sustainability: "The world is a beautiful place". Replacing the earlier catchphrase "We make it fly", the rebranding could be contentious with green groups. It nonetheless reflects a shift in industry boardroom priorities - from winning the race to develop iconic machines, to overcoming the climate concerns of politicians and investors. Speakers at the event at the planemaker's Toulouse headquarters were supplied with "key messages," though Airbus did for the first time provide a platform for industry critics. Transport & Environment, which advocates tighter controls on aviation, accused the industry of chipping away at regulation while appearing to be supportive over environmental goals. It challenged Airbus to stop selling new short-haul jets in Europe from 2035, the date at which it says it will have the hydrogen-powered model available for about 100 passengers.<br/>

FLYR Labs, maker of software that uses artificial intelligence to help airlines price and plan flights, said on Wednesday it raised $150m in equity financing. FLYR CEO Alex Mans said the software uses available commercial and event information among other data points to make pricing and scheduling suggestions. Most airlines still rely heavily on human analysts for this work, he said. According to FLYR, for example, scheduled flights from the northeastern United States to Florida and Latin America will not meet demand in the upcoming holiday season, especially morning and afternoon flights during the week of Dec. 13. Airlines can use that information to add more flights or make other changes. The San Francisco startup said it has over half a dozen airline customers including Air New Zealand and by the end of the year will have more than 10. “By the end of this year, we’re on track to manage approximately $14b worth of airlines’ revenues,” Mans said, adding that the global revenue for the airline industry in 2019 was about $800b. “Our target is $100b dollars of revenue under management by the end of 2023.” Mans said eventually FLYR will extend its service to rental cars, entertainment events, cargo and railways.<br/>