Airlines and shipping companies have failed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, and must step up with fresh commitments on the climate crisis as Cop26 approaches, the UN secretary general has said. António Guterres said current efforts were inadequate and would lead to catastrophic global heating. He told the Global Sustainable Transport conference on Thursday: “Let’s be honest. While [UN] member states have made some initial steps through the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization to address emissions from shipping and aviation, current commitments are not aligned with the 1.5C goal of the Paris agreement. In fact, they are more consistent with warming way above 3C.” World leaders and governments will meet in Glasgow from 31 October for the fortnight-long Cop26 summit on the climate crisis. Representatives from the aviation and shipping industries will attend, but international transport has largely escaped scrutiny at previous UN conferences because they were left out of the long-running talks nearly three decades ago. Aviation and shipping each account for roughly 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and that share is growing. Both face major technological difficulties in decarbonising, as planes need high-density fuel and ships run on dirty forms of heavy oil.<br/>
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A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a former top pilot for Boeing, Mark Forkner, in connection with statements he and the company made about its troubled 737 Max jet, the culmination of a long investigation. Forkner is accused of deceiving the FAA and of “scheming to defraud Boeing’s U.S.‑based airline customers to obtain tens of millions of dollars for Boeing,” the Justice Department said. Prosecutors contend that Forkner provided the aviation agency with “materially false, inaccurate and incomplete information” about flight control software implicated in two crashes in 2018 and 2019 in which 346 people were killed. That software, known as MCAS (for Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) was designed to push down the plane’s nose in certain situations. “In an attempt to save Boeing money, Forkner allegedly withheld critical information from regulators,” said Chad E. Meacham, the acting US attorney for the Northern District of Texas. “His callous choice to mislead the FAA hampered the agency’s ability to protect the flying public and left pilots in the lurch, lacking information about certain 737 Max flight controls.” Forkner would be the first individual to face criminal charges related to the 737 Max’s problems. <br/>
Sydney will open up to fully vaccinated international travellers from Nov. 1 without the need for quarantine, the country’s most populous state said on Friday, bringing forward a full return of overseas travel. Australia closed its borders in March 2020 in response to the pandemic, allowing entry almost exclusively to only citizens and permanent residents who are required to undergo a mandatory two-week hotel quarantine at their own expense. “We need to rejoin the world. We can’t live here in hermit kingdom. We’ve got to open up,” New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said earlier this month overseas travel would return once 80% of people in a particular state are fully vaccinated, but would be available initially for Australians and would require home quarantine. However, Perrottet said it was time open up the state to help drive economic growth, which has been badly damaged by the state’s near four-month COVID-19 lockdown. “Hotel quarantine, home quarantine is a thing of the past, we are opening Sydney and New South Wales to the world,” he said.<br/>
Universal Hydrogen, a Los Angeles start-up that wants to convert passenger planes to fly on hydrogen, said it will start testing its fuel cells with a 40-seat jet next year after it raised fresh funding from investors including Tencent and GE Aviation. The company has attracted $62m in new investment, on top of the $22m it raised in April, with its valuation climbing from $55m to $262m. Other investors include the venture arms of Toyota, JetBlue and Fortescue. Universal Hydrogen has already signed deals with at least five regional airlines to buy conversion kits to replace their current engines with a hydrogen fuel cell and electric motor and said the planes should be operational by 2025. It will then sell them hydrogen fuel cells on subscription. The airlines include Icelandair, Ravn Alaska, Spain’s Air Nostrum and Ireland’s ASL Aviation. “It’s the Nespresso coffee model,” said Paul Eremenko, the CE. “We sell the coffee maker for as cheaply as possible, and then we monetise the capsule supply for the life of that product.” He added that once the regional airlines had proven the technology, he would try to convince Boeing and Airbus to redesign their single-aisle aircraft, a category which accounts for 60 per cent of aviation emissions globally, to be powered by hydrogen. “We want to be flying as early as possible with the largest aeroplane possible,” Eremenko said. “You really need to solve that in the 2030s, because there’s a long tail for the fleet to be replaced,” he added. “So that (next-generation) airplane has to be hydrogen if the aviation sector has any prayer of meeting Paris Agreement targets.” Story has more. <br/>
Boeing said Thursday that some titanium 787 Dreamliner parts were improperly manufactured over the past three years, the latest in a series of problems to plague the wide-body aircraft. The quality issue does not affect the immediate safety of flights, the company said, adding it had notified the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Boeing is working to determine how many planes contain the defective part. Boeing said the parts were provided by Leonardo SpA (LDOF.MI), which bought the items from Italy-based Manufacturing Processes Specification (MPS). MPS is no longer a supplier to Leonardo, Leonardo confirmed. Shares in Italy's Leonardo extended losses and closed down 7%. Boeing shares closed down 2%. Leonardo said the issues are ascribed to MPS. Leonardo said that MPS "is under scrutiny by prosecutors therefore Leonardo is (an) injured party and will not bear any potential costs associated with this issue."<br/>
When Airbus announced plans to cease production of its A380 aircraft back in 2019, heartbroken aviation fans found solace in the fact that the superjumbo wasn't set to stop flying anytime soon.<br/>Production on this much-loved aircraft was due to continue for another couple years, and plenty of airlines had active A380s in their fleet. But fast forward a year, and the A380's hefty size and steep operational costs had no place in the pandemic's minimal, cost-efficient international flight schedules. Thanks to Covid-19, most of the world's A380 fleet were grounded. Lufthansa's decision to park its A380 turned into the German carrier permanently retiring the superjumbos. The last A380 emblazoned with Air France livery took its final flight. It was increasingly unclear whether the A380 would survive the shutdown. But while the A380s days are undoubtedly numbered, some airlines have announced plans to get the aircraft back in the air. Singapore Airlines will be reinstating the A380 on November 2021 flights to London, the same month British Airways will be flying superjumbos from the UK to Europe. Story features round-up of airline A380 routes.<br/>
Elon Musk on Thursday touted SpaceX’s plan to use Starlink for in-flight Wi-Fi, emphasizing that his company is in discussions with airlines to add the high-speed satellite internet service. “Please let them know if you want it on your airliner,” Musk wrote in a tweet, adding that Starlink could add “low latency ~half gigabit connectivity in the air!” Starlink is the company’s plan to build an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites, known in the space industry as a constellation, designed to deliver high-speed internet to consumers anywhere on the planet. SpaceX has launched 1,740 Starlink satellites to date, and the network has more than 100,000 users in 14 countries who are participating in a public beta, with service priced at $99 a month. SpaceX Vice President Jonathan Hofeller earlier this year said that the company is “in talks with several” airlines about adding Starlink in-flight Wi-Fi, noting that it has an “aviation product in development.” “We’ve already done some demonstrations to date and [are] looking to get that product finalized to be put on aircraft in the very near future,” Hofeller said in June.<br/>