The TSA will introduce regulations that compel the most important US railroad and airport operators to improve their cybersecurity procedures, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Wednesday. The upcoming changes will make it mandatory for “higher-risk” rail transit companies and “critical” US airport and aircraft operators to do three things: name a chief cyber official, disclose hacks to the government and draft recovery plans for if an attack were to occur. The planned regulations come after cybercriminals attacked a major U.S. pipeline operator here, causing localized gas shortages along the US East Coast in May. The incident led to new cybersecurity rules for pipeline owners in July. “Whether by air, land, or sea, our transportation systems are of utmost strategic importance to our national and economic security,” Mayorkas said. “The last year and a half has powerfully demonstrated what’s at stake.” A key concern motivating the new policies comes from a growth in ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure companies. “It’s the first of its kind with respect to the cyber focus,” said a senior homeland security official, who declined to be named, about the railway security directive and an update to aviation security programs.<br/>
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US President Joe Biden's administration should exceed global standards designed to curb emissions from flights, as pressure mounts to limit the sector's greenhouse gases, five states told the White House in a letter seen by Reuters. Major plane and engine makers joined airlines this week in committing to a non-binding net zero emissions target by 2050, but environmentalists say governments must step up regulatory efforts for such goals to be effective. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should apply global aircraft emissions standards to planes at domestic U.S. airports, said a letter from the states seen by Reuters to White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, the EPA and the FAA. The Biden administration did not immediately comment. The EPA should move ahead of the UN's aviation agency in approving standards to curb greenhouse gases and air pollution from new aircraft engines entering into service after 2030, said the letter from Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, California and Minnesota and International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). The latest US policy "favors aspirational goals and (sustainable aviation fuel) tax credits over legally binding GHG targets," the letter said. Last month, the White House announced it was aiming for 20% lower aviation emissions by 2030. But by seeking to go it alone on aviation standards, the U.S. would diverge from the system of global standards developed through the ICAO.<br/>
Justin Trudeau unveiled a vaccine mandate for federally regulated industries in Canada, following through on an election pledge he made during his successful bid for a third term. The prime minister and his deputy, Chrystia Freeland, announced new rules Wednesday requiring passengers age 12 or older on planes, trains and cruise ships within the country to be fully vaccinated as of Oct. 30. Individuals who are in the process of being inoculated will be able to provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test to travel during a transition period, which will end of Nov. 30.“To travel, you have got to be vaccinated,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. “When it comes to avoiding lockdowns for everyone, this is no time for half measures.” Trudeau said in August his government would make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for travelers, transportation workers and federal employees. The incumbent Liberals attempted to use the issue against the rival Conservatives during the recent election, though were held to another minority in the Sept. 20 vote. The prime minister said implementing the pledge would be a top priority. More than 71% of Canada’s total population has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, compared to 56% in the US.<br/>
Airline passengers reported delays of up to four hours as airports across the UK were hit by a second e-gate technical fault within two weeks. Travellers arriving at Heathrow were forced to either wait in long queues in terminals or remain on aircraft. Gatwick and Edinburgh airports were also affected. E-gates, managed by UK Border Force, allow travellers with biometric passports to pass through border control without a manual inspection. A systems failure caused e-gates to stop working for several hours on 24 September, so passengers had to wait to have their travel documents inspected by staff. The Home Office said it first received a report about the latest “technical issue” at about 7.30am on Wednesday, and the problem was resolved 90 minutes later. Passengers arriving at Heathrow on Wednesday morning described the queues as a “total disgrace”. Christian Jones, who had returned from a trip to Finland, said he had to queue for an hour. “The queues were snaking out of the arrivals hall all the way down the corridor and into the connecting flights corridor … I queued for one hour but others, I believe, queued for about four hours,” said the 41-year-old from Cambridge.<br/>
Indonesia will allow international flights to begin landing at the airport on Bali island next week as it weighs reopening the country to foreign tourists for the first time in more than 18 months. International carriers from countries including China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates could resume flights to Bali on Oct. 14, Luhut Pandjaitan, a top minister in the cabinet of President Joko Widodo, said on Monday. Under the current rules, eligible passengers would include Indonesian citizens as well as foreigners with a work permit or business visa. They would be subject to eight days quarantine at a hotel at their own expense. Bali is Indonesia’s most important tourist destination, and closing the island to foreign tourists has devastated the tourism industry, leading to tens of thousands of people losing their jobs. Indonesia has been the Southeast Asian nation hit hardest by Covid, with nearly 143,000 deaths. It reached a peak of nearly 57,000 cases a day in July, though the number of infections has dropped sharply since then. Foreign tourists have been barred from entering Indonesia since April of last year, and international flights have been allowed to land only in Jakarta, the capital, and the city of Manado on Sulawesi island. Indonesia’s tourism minister, Sandiaga Uno, told reporters that reopening Bali’s airport to overseas flights would serve as a “trial opening of Bali for foreign tourists,” though he did not provide a timetable for their return. Domestic tourists are already allowed to visit.<br/>
Boeing is poised to introduce an air-freight version of its 777X jetliner within the next few weeks and is in advanced talks with Qatar Airways and other potential buyers, people briefed on the matter said. The unveiling of Boeing’s first new jet in four years will intensify a fight with Airbus SE for supremacy in an aviation segment that’s flourishing as sales of passenger jets limp through the Covid-19 pandemic. The European planemaker is marketing a freighter based on its A350-1000 jet, attempting to break Boeing’s decades of dominance in a lucrative business. In addition to Qatar, Boeing is also courting FedEx, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Deutsche Post AG’s DHL unit, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the talks are confidential. While Boeing’s discussions over the new freighter have been known, the details of the official launch, likely at the Dubai Airshow next month, haven’t been reported before. For Boeing, introducing the 777X freighter will provide a chance to take the offensive after spending the better part of the past three years focusing on quality lapses, management failures and financial strains brought on by two fatal crashes of the 737 Max jetliner. Wrangling with regulators meanwhile has delayed the commercial debut of the first passenger 777X by at least three years to late 2023. It’s unusual for a planemaker to sell a freighter variant of a jet before the passenger version has hit the market. <br/>
Searching for flights on Google just got “greener.” A new search feature rolled out Wednesday tells users which flights have lower carbon emissions, giving them the ability to choose flights based on carbon emissions just as they would price or the number of layovers. A basic search for flights will give an estimate of how many kilograms of carbon dioxide the flight will spew from start to finish. Users can prioritize their search by emissions, much like they can by price, if desired. Flights with emissions below the median get highlighted in green. Google said the estimates are a combination of data from the European Environmental Agency and flight-specific information it gets from airlines and other providers. That data could include an aircraft’s age, model and configuration, the speed and altitude it flies at and the distance between the flight’s origin and destination. Some flights may not have estimates because of a lack of data on certain aircraft or other missing information, Google said. The company added that the estimates don’t yet take into account what direction the plane is heading — a potentially significant factor if flying into or with the jet stream, or whether or not the flight is using biofuels or other alternatives. Story has more details.<br/>
Airbus is sticking to its quest for record jet output after airlines reported glimmers of a post-pandemic recovery this week, and believes engine makers who have questioned its most ambitious proposals will be "unable to resist" demand. Airbus has said it hopes to almost double jet production in a few years as borders reopen. Engine makers fear doing so too quickly could upset their own recovery, by forcing existing jets into retirement rather than their repair shops. read more Interviewed at the airline industry's main annual event, Airbus CCO Christian Scherer held out the prospect that Airbus would play on fierce competition between engine makers as it aims to secure future output of its A320neo. "There will be engines. That is the beauty of having engine competition in the programme," he said. "There is a lot of rhetoric ... (but) at the end of the day if customers ... demand more modern airplanes ... no engine maker in the world is going to be able to resist the call of nature. So I’m not concerned about it.”<br/>
Pegasus Airlines CE Mehmet Nane will become the chair of the IATA board of governors after the association’s 2022 AGM, succeeding JetBlue Airways CE Robin Hayes. That transition will continue a period during which the role has been taken by the CE of an airline outside the group of network carriers that are traditionally the high-profile core of IATA’s membership. “I am very proud to be taking on such an important role,” said Nane on 6 October in response to the announcement at this year’s AGM. “This is also a great indicator as to how far Turkish aviation has come.” When Nane takes over, Hayes will have completed a much longer term in the chair role than is historically expected. Nane will become board chair after the Shanghai AGM. IATA says that Hayes’ extension was deemed appropriate “due to interruptions in the cycle of governance meetings as a result of the pandemic”.<br/>