The US CDC Tuesday recommended travelers continue to wear masks in airplanes, trains and airports despite a judge's April 18 order declaring the 14-month-old transportation mask mandate unlawful. The CDC said it based its recommendation on current COVID-19 conditions and spread as well as the protective value of masks. The Justice Department last month filed notice it will appeal the ruling and it has until May 31 to do so. But the government has made no effort to seek immediate court action to reinstate the mandate. The mask mandate had been due to expire on Tuesday just before midnight unless the CDC sought an extension of a TSA directive. A CDC spokeswoman said, "As a result of a court order, the mask order is no longer in effect and is not being enforced." At a Senate hearing Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg cast doubt on the idea that the administration wanted to reimpose the mask mandate. "The appeal concerns whether the CDC has the authority to (require masks) in this pandemic or in any pandemic, which is completely distinct from whether a mask mandate ought to be applied any given day," Buttigieg said. Buttigieg said he agreed that based on conditions on April 13 when the mandate was extended for 15 days that it should have been allowed to expire but said it was a CDC decision. Hours after the April 18 ruling, the Biden administration said it would no longer enforce the mask mandate, which prompted airlines to let passengers end wearin<br/>
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US airlines are still experiencing staffing shortages as air travel rebounded after initial Covid-19 shutdowns in 2020 when many airline workers were encouraged to go on furlough, resign, or retire early. The phenomenon promises to disrupt travel for flyers even as Americans largely seek to return to many pre-pandemic habits, including air travel for work and tourism. At JetBlue, flight delays and cancellations have been attributed to staff shortages. Transport Workers United, which represents about 5,000 flight attendants at JetBlue, criticized the airline’s blaming of flight attendants for not accepting enough assignments, causing delays and cancellations. The union argued JetBlue had responded to staff shortages and operational problems by increasing disciplinary actions toward workers, including increasing the amount of critical coverage days workers must be available to work or else accrue disciplinary attendance points that could lead to termination. “Historically, JetBlue has always run a skeleton staff of crew members in all their departments,” said a longtime flight attendant at JetBlue who requested to remain anonymous as they are not authorized to speak with the media. The flight attendant said problems related to Covid-19 such as canceled, rescheduled or delayed flights that prolong time on duty or away from home and difficulties with transportation and hotel lodging for flight attendants have made many workers reluctant to accept extra assignments.<br/>
The Biden administration is moving forward with grant funding aimed at boosting the supply of pilots in the U.S. The move, highlighted by U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, is the first recognition by a Cabinet member that more needs to be done to bolster the aviation workforce. The FAA is seeking proposals for $5 million in Aviation Workforce Development Grants, Buttigieg told the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee during a hearing on Tuesday. These funds aim to boost the supply of pilots, and complement initiatives by airlines and other industry players. "There won’t be a quick fix but we’ve got to work on shoring up that domestic aviation workforce,” Buttigieg said in response to a question from Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.). In response to a question from Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Buttigieg acknowledged that the situation is not new and was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. “We think it’s related to a number of issues from the pipeline in to the thinning out of workforces that happened during the worst periods of Covid-related flight cancellations, to some questions about pay and conditions,” he said.<br/>
Pilots are back in demand in the United States. But carriers cannot find enough of them, so foreign pilots are rushing to fill the empty cockpits. US immigration lawyers report a surge in inquiries and visa applications from pilots based in countries where traffic is still recovering from pandemic lows. That could bring some relief to an industry struggling to rebuild capacity after a two-year slump, but the trend is stirring a backlash from domestic unions. It also reflects an uneven global recovery from COVID-19. Coronavirus infections are still rising in many countries although pandemic curbs have been easing in some places. While booming travel demand is projected to help major US carriers surpass their pre-pandemic revenue this quarter, airline traffic in some parts of the world remains depressed. "While the US has a major shortage, in the rest of the world pilots are out of jobs," said Ana Barbara Schaffert, an attorney at California-based AG Immigration Group. She has received more than 8,000 requests for consultation in recent months, and is screening over 2,000 resumes from pilots seeking to immigrate to the United States – up more than 90% from before COVID-19. According to United Airlines, pilots are expected to remain in short supply for years. Whereas the United States can produce a maximum of only 7,000 pilots a year, carriers need 13,000 pilots this year and even more next year, United Airlines said.<br/>
The FAA will meet Wednesday with telecom and airline industry officials on a push to retrofit and ultimately replace some airplane radio altimeters that could face interference from C-Band 5G wireless service. The altimeters give data on a plane’s height above the ground and are crucial for bad-weather landings, but airline concerns about wireless interference from a planned 5G rollout led to disruptions at some US airports earlier this year. The FAA wants to use the meeting to establish “an achievable timeframe to retrofit/replace radar altimeters in the US fleet,” according to a previously unreported letter from the FAA’s top aviation safety official Chris Rocheleau reviewed by Reuters. It also asked aviation representatives “to offer options and commit to actions necessary to meet these objectives.” Major airlines group, Airlines for America, declined to comment ahead of the meeting. AT&T and Verizon Communications voluntarily agreed in January to delay through July 5 switching on some wireless towers and depowering others near airports just hours before the planned Jan. 19 deployment, averting what airlines had warned would cause a potentially “catastrophic” aviation safety crisis. The delay did not prevent dozens of countries from canceling flights to the United States, casting the US regulatory system in an ugly light. The planned three-and-a-half hour roundtable meeting will also include a discussion on prioritizing retrofits with antenna filters, which mitigate potential interference from 5G. Antenna filters are currently in production, officials said. A key question is how to determine which planes are most at risk of interference and should therefore get retrofitted first.<br/>
Asian jet leasing companies have had little luck recovering planes they had provided to Russian airlines before the Ukraine war, forcing them to begin writing off the value of stranded aircraft. China's Bohai Leasing has taken a $298m asset impairment in relation to 10 planes belonging to subsidiary Avolon Holdings that are stuck in Russia, the Shenzhen-listed company disclosed late Friday. During March, Avolon managed to recover four planes. Bohai said there is a "relatively large level of uncertainty" hanging over when and how it might get back the remainder. Under the weight of the Russian write-off, the company recorded a 737.80m yuan ($111.62m) net loss for the January-March quarter. According to a ranking published by KMPG earlier this year, Avolon is the world's second-largest jet lessor by fleet size, behind only AerCap. Aircastle, controlled by Japan's Marubeni and Mizuho Leasing, similarly last week took a $251.9m write-off after recovering just two of 12 planes leased to Russian operators along with one from Ukraine. It then recorded a $215.9m net loss for the quarter ended Feb. 28 in relation to the stranded planes. The Russian portfolio had generated about $3.5m in revenue in February. "Decades of peaceful economic coexistence have enabled global aviation -- especially aircraft leasing -- to grow and thrive," Mike Inglese, chief executive of Aircastle, said during an earnings call on Thursday. "Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the international sanctions that followed make it difficult to predict what the future may hold." The lessors have been squeezed by EU sanctions which required the termination of all leases with Russian companies by March 28 as Avolon and the European units of many Asian lessors like Aircastle have long been based in Ireland for tax reasons. Russia responded to the EU's move with measures authorizing its airlines to hold onto leased planes and re-register them locally.<br/>
The government's controversial plan to build a 13.7t won ($10.8b) international airport near Gadeok Island, off the coast of Busan, is facing growing criticism from many environmental activists and economists who claim the project lacks economic feasibility and will destroy the marine environment. The critics also argue building the airport in the sea is politically motivated as President Moon Jae-in and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) seek to garner more support from voters in Busan and South Gyeongsang Province ahead of the June 1 local elections. But proponents of the project say the yearslong push to build an airport in the southeastern area near the second-largest city promotes the balanced growth of the country which is largely focused on the Seoul area. On April 29, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said the government will forgo a feasibility study and push ahead with its plan to start construction in the latter half of 2025 and complete it as early as June 2035. A feasibility study is a prerequisite for state-run projects costing over 50b won. The ministry-commissioned study seeks to limit waste in government spending, help guarantee the full and stable execution of the projects and bolster overall efficient fiscal management. "The construction project of Gadeok New Airport will be exempt from the mandatory study and be carried out in accordance with a special law set up to foster balanced growth of the country through government projects," Second Vice Minister of Economy and Finance Ahn Do-geol said in a statement released Friday. Behind the unusually expedited decision to forgo the crucial procedure was the outgoing president who said on April 26 that he found it "meaningful that the feasibility study will be waived," a comment essentially dictating the ministry's decision.<br/>
The families of victims of the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 asked a Texas judge Tuesday to overturn a $2.5-billion settlement between the aircraft manufacturer and the US government. Under that agreement, Boeing admitted to having committed fraud in exchange for the Department of Justice dropping some of the proceedings against it over the deadly crashes of Lion Air in Indonesia and Ethiopian Airlines, which killed 346 people total and caused the MAX to be grounded globally for 20 months. This January 7, 2021 arrangement was the focus of a court hearing Tuesday in Fort Worth, Texas. "They messed up by making the crime fraud rather than manslaughter," said Catherine Berthet, a French woman who lost her 28-year-old daughter when the Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed near Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019. "We believe that the rights of the victims' families have not been respected," she said. "We have not been consulted. We ask to be heard." The January 2021 agreement included a $500m compensation fund for victims' relatives, $1.77b in compensation to the airlines and a $243m criminal fine. Boeing has admitted that two of its employees had misled a group within the FAA that was to prepare training for pilots in using Boeing's new MCAS flight software, which was implicated in both crashes. "The judge listened carefully and I think had a lot of concerns about how was it that the Justice Department can seal this agreement from the families," said Paul Cassell, lawyer for the families in the audience. Relatives of the victims are now hoping for a quick decision from the Fort Worth judge.<br/>
Airbus may need to reduce the top range of its coming A321XLR jetliner, a key selling point for the new narrowbody, as European regulators seek to lessen the fire risk from an extra fuel tank in its rear fuselage, according to people familiar with the matter. Improvements to fire safety design around the rear center tank are likely to add weight to the XLR and have a minor impact on its range, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential matter. Some customers have been informed of potential changes to the model’s specifications, they said. The EASA flagged the issue last year, and Airbus rival Boeing Co. subsequently suggested the tank posed a fire threat. The regulator hasn’t yet issued specific requirements. The US FAA proposed similar “special conditions” to the A321XLR fuel tank on April 6. Airbus is discussing certification requirements with EASA, said Stefan Schaffrath, a spokesman for the Toulouse, France-based manufacturer. “Safety is our number one priority,” he said. “We let independent authorities take all the necessary time to make a decision and would listen carefully to any requirements if they come.”<br/>
Avolon Holdings has written down the full value of 10 planes stuck in Russia as aircraft lessors begin to tally losses following sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. The Dublin-based company recognized an impairment of $304m on its exposure to Russia, according to a statement Tuesday. That contributed to a net loss of $182m in the three months through March. The move enables Avolon to “put the financial impact of Russian sanctions firmly behind us,” said CEO Domhnal Slattery. Nevertheless, “we continue to make every effort to recover these assets and are pleased to have repossessed four aircraft,” he added. Aircraft lessors have been caught up in the international response to Russia’s invasion, as the Kremlin has issued a law preventing foreign-owned planes from leaving the country without state permission. That blocks the repossession of planes as required by sanctions, stranding roughly 400 jets that had been leased to Russian companies. Avolon has far less exposure to the Russian market than rivals AerCap Holdings and SMBC Aviation Capital. AerCap, the world’s largest aircraft-leasing firm, said in March that it’s seeking about $3.5b from insurers related to 113 jets and 11 engines stuck in Russia. <br/>
Demand for air cargo fell in March, according to data released by IATA on 3 May, as factors including China’s ‘zero-Covid’ policies and the Russia-Ukraine war weighed on demand and threatened to become longer-term hindrances. The drop in demand comes after air freight performed strongly in 2021, and reflects a significant shift in fortunes between industry sectors as the passenger side of airline operations finally reports widespread recovery momentum. “Peace in Ukraine and a shift in China’s Covid-19 policy would do much to ease the industry’s headwinds,” says IATA director general Willie Walsh. “As neither appears likely in the short term, we can expect growing challenges for air cargo just as passenger markets are accelerating their recovery.” Global air cargo demand measured in cargo tonne kilometres (CTKs) fell by 5.2% in March compared with the same month in 2021, IATA reports. “Peace in Ukraine and a shift in China’s Covid-19 policy would do much to ease the industry’s headwinds,” says IATA director general Willie Walsh. “As neither appears likely in the short term, we can expect growing challenges for air cargo just as passenger markets are accelerating their recovery.” Global air cargo demand measured in cargo tonne kilometres (CTKs) fell by 5.2% in March compared with the same month in 2021, IATA reports. While capacity was up 1.2% on the same basis, the airline body notes that this is a significant decline from the year-on-year increase seen in February, with Asia and Europe experiencing the largest falls. Story has more.<br/>