general

The FAA began publishing notices early on Thursday that detailed the extent of the potential impact of new 5G wireless service on sensitive aircraft electronics. The FAA has been in talks with airplane makers, airlines and wireless carriers to reduce the impact of new wireless service set to begin on Jan. 19. The FAA has warned that potential interference could affect sensitive airplane instruments like altimeters but on Wednesday reported progress. AT&T and Verizon Communications, which won nearly all of the C-Band spectrum in an $80-billion auction last year, on Jan. 3 agreed to buffer zones around 50 airports to reduce the risk of interference. They also agreed to delay deployment for two weeks, averting an aviation safety standoff. The FAA began publishing what are known as ‘Notices to Air Missions’ at midnight Thursday local time offering details on “aircraft with untested altimeters or that need retrofitting or replacement will be unable to perform low-visibility landings where 5G is deployed.” More than 300 notices had been posted by 01:00 ET, including many around major airports and hospitals where medical helicopters are used. The FAA did not respond to a question about how many in total were to be published. Many of the notices say certain procedures are unavailable unless the FAA approves alternative methods of compliance “due to 5G C-Band interference.” The wireless industry provided additional transmitter location data and the FAA said it was able to determine that in the initial 5G deployment, aircraft will be able to safely land in low-visibility conditions on some runways without restrictions. Some notices include details of how instrument approaches at major airports are impacted. The FAA has determined that some GPS-guided approaches will continue to be possible at certain airports like Miami and Phoenix. The FAA said Wednesday that it “expects to provide updates soon about the estimated percentage of commercial aircraft equipped with altimeters that can operate reliably and accurately in the 5G C-Band environment.”<br/>

Last year was the worst on record for unruly airplane passenger behavior in the United States, according to FAA data. A whopping 5,981 reports of unruly passengers were logged by the FAA as of December 31. Of those, 4,290 -- nearly 72% -- were mask-related incidents. Thursday marks one year since the FAA announced a "zero tolerance" policy for unruly passenger behavior that skips warnings or counseling and goes directly to penalties, which can include heavy fines and jail time. The policy, spurred by incidents tied to masks and violence at the US Capitol, was originally set to expire at the end of March 2021. It was extended at least until the federal mask mandate is lifted.<br/>The unruly passenger incident rate has dropped approximately 50% since record highs in early 2021, the FAA notes on the page where it tracks incidents, "but there remains more work to do." A lot more work, according to flight attendant and union leader Sara Nelson. Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, is painfully aware of what airline crewmembers continue to face. In addition to the "extremely violent" and most "outrageous and egregious" cases that have made headlines during the pandemic, there has been a steady stream of aggression.<br/>

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a vaccine-or-testing mandate for large employers, dealing a blow to a key element of the White House’s plan to address the pandemic as coronavirus cases resulting from the Omicron variant are on the rise. But in a modest victory for President Biden, the court allowed a more limited mandate requiring health care workers at facilities receiving federal money to be vaccinated. The vote in the employer mandate case was 6 to 3, with the liberal justices in dissent. The vote in the health care case was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh joining the liberal justices to form a majority. The employer decision undercut one of President Biden’s most significant attempts to tame the virus and left the country with a patchwork of state laws and policies, largely leaving companies and businesses on their own. The president welcomed the ruling in his favor, saying in a statement that it would save the lives of health care workers and patients. But he said he was disappointed that the court had overturned the employer mandate, which he said was “grounded squarely in both science and the law.” In both the employer and health worker cases, the justices explored whether Congress had authorized the executive branch to take sweeping actions to address the health care crisis. The unsigned majority opinion in the employer case said a statute on workplace hazards did not justify a mandate that would have required more than 80 million workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or to wear masks and be tested weekly. It also stressed the novelty and sweep of the mandate issued by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, saying Congress had not authorized the agency to act and describing its response as “a blunt instrument.” The mandate “draws no distinctions based on industry or risk of exposure to Covid-19,” the majority opinion said, adding that it was “a significant encroachment into the lives — and health — of a vast number of employees.”<br/>

Entering the third year of the pandemic, China’s unbending approach to Covid-19 has left the world’s second-largest economy all but shut off from international travel, with fewer than 500 inbound flights scheduled this week, compared with about 10,000 this time two years ago. Capacity cuts are intensifying as China tries to snuff out virus flareups with aggressive lockdowns. Since mid-December, airlines have eliminated almost 1,000 flights that would have arrived in the country between now and Feb. 1, the start of the Lunar New Year -- typically the busiest time for travel anywhere on the planet. Despite the difficulty every country faces in containing the omicron strain, China is persisting with attempts to keep the virus out. Authorities have blocked dozens of air services to and from the US because passengers on previous flights tested positive for Covid after arrival, adding to tensions between the two nations. And there won’t be a bump in incoming traffic for the Feb. 4-20 Beijing Winter Olympics either. China has banned non-resident spectators from attending what would normally be a sure-fire draw for tourism as thousands of fans, athletes and journalists fly in. The host of the last Winter Olympics, South Korea, saw a 15% jump in arrivals in 2018, the year of the event. China will probably issue special landing permits and special flight clearances for the Olympics, and then reinstate the restrictions on regular flights, said Mark Martin, founder of Dubai-based Martin Consulting. Reductions from mid-December represent the elimination of about one-third of an international flight schedule that was already cut by more than 90% from the year before the pandemic. “We don’t expect international travel to and from China to recover to 2019 levels for the next three quarters at least,” said John Grant, OAG’s chief analyst. The stance has cost airlines revenue, “especially as China had been among the fastest-growing markets, with a large number of affluent travelers eager to see the world.”<br/>

Boeing’s 737 Max is poised to resume commercial flights in China as soon as this month, according to people familiar with the matter, a significant milestone for the narrow-body workhorse after it was grounded worldwide in 2019. A so-called operational readiness flight conducted by Hainan Airlines on Jan. 9 is a sign the model could return to China’s skies within weeks, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information. The country’s Max operators haven’t given a specific date for the resumption and the move could still be delayed, particularly with Lunar New Year holidays approaching. Boeing’s shares climbed 1.8% at 9:40 a.m. in New York after the Bloomberg report, the biggest gain on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Through Wednesday, the planemaker’s stock had increased 8% year-to-date. A nearly empty Max 8 belonging to Hainan Air took off from Taiyuan -- a popular storage site in China for the aircraft because of its dry northern climate -- and touched down two hours and 52 minutes later, according to tracking service Flightradar24. Its destination was Haikou in the south, where the carrier is headquartered. The three-year-old jet was the first Max to fly in China since the country’s aviation regulator re-certified the jetliner in early December, Morgan Stanley analyst Kristine Liwag said in a note Wednesday, recapping a news report out of China. Before regulators allow the updated 737s to return to regular airline service in the country, carriers must re-train pilots and perform maintenance on aircraft that have been idle for almost three years, aside from repositioning flights. Restarting flights and deliveries in China -- Boeing’s largest overseas market -- is critical to supporting the Chicago-based planemaker’s plans to speed production of its cash-cow jet this year. <br/>

Microsoft is investing $50m in a LanzaJet facility in Georgia that will produce jet fuel from ethanol next year, LanzaJet said. The airline industry is considered one of the hardest to decarbonize. Renewable aviation fuel accounted for less than 0.1% of current global jet fuel demand of about 330m tonnes in 2019, investment bank Jefferies said last year. Governments and investors are trying to boost incentives to produce lower-carbon emitting jet fuel.LanzaJet, based in Chicago, said it has nearly completed on-site engineering at its Freedom Pines Fuels Biorefinery, with plans to start producing 10m gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel per year from sustainable ethanol, including from waste-based feedstocks, in 2023. Oil majors, airlines and other petroleum trading companies including BA are also funding the company. The White House said last year that it wants to lower aviation emissions by 20% by 2030, as airlines face pressure from environmental groups to lower their carbon footprint.<br/>