The US FAA Wednesday urged the chief executives of major US airlines to move quickly to address risks from a 5G wireless rollout, in a bid to avoid potential disruptions at key airports from next month. Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said in a letter reviewed by Reuters that AT&T and Verizon want to boost C-Band 5G services around some airports starting in July after previously delaying their rollout. Concerns that the 5G service could interfere with airplane altimeters, which give data on a plane's height above the ground and are crucial for bad-weather landing, led to disruptions at some US airports earlier this year. Nolen urged airlines to urgently press ahead with retrofitting radio altimeters, saying "there are no guarantees that all large markets will retain the current (safeguards)." He warned that as wireless carriers boost signals some "less capable aircraft" may be unable to access certain airports without altimeter retrofits. Airlines CEOs on Jan. 17 had warned of an impending "catastrophic" aviation crisis that could have grounded almost all traffic because of the 5G deployment.<br/>
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The Biden administration proposed Wednesday that future planes produce lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions before they can be certified by federal regulators. The FAA proposal would increase fuel-efficiency standards for jets and large turboprop and propeller-driven planes that it has not yet certified and planes built after Jan. 1, 2028. FAA said the rule, if made final, would cover new large airliners from both Boeing and Airbus, plus various business jets and other planes. The FAA said the rule would bring the United States in line with carbon dioxide emission standards set by the United Nation’s aviation organization. The rule would not cover planes that are already flying. Planes are a small but growing contributor to greenhouse gas emissions that are tied to climate change. The FAA said civilian planes caused 3% of US emissions before the pandemic. Boeing and Airbus said they support efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Boeing praised the FAA’s approach of considering a variety of measures — aerodynamics, engine technology, and lighter weight — to improve efficiency. Environmentalists have spent years pushing the government to regulate limits on heat-trapping emissions from planes. In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency determined that aircraft emissions posed a health threat, a step that required EPA to draft rules. In response, in 2020 the Trump administration announced a proposal that critics said would do little more than approve steps the aviation industry already supported to reduce fuel burn by new planes starting in 2028.<br/>
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has vetoed a Congress-passed measure that would block airlines from charging for checked baggage on their flights, his office said on Wednesday, sending shares in local carriers higher. Bolsonaro's office said that while signing into law a bill aimed at simplifying rules for the sector as it emerges from the pandemic-related downturn, he has vetoed an amendment that would block companies from charging for bags weighing up to 23 kg in domestic flights and up to 30 kg on international routes. "Said proposal would increase the costs of airline services and regulatory risks, reducing the attractiveness of the Brazilian market to potential new competitors and contributing to an increase in air ticket prices," the president's office said. Brazil's Congress can still override Bolsonaro's veto, but a legislative session would need to be called for that purpose. Shares in Brazilian airlines rose after the move, with Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes up 4.6% at 9.99 reais and Azul SA climbing 3.3% to 14.07 reais in early morning trading. Analysts at Genial Investimentos said Bolsonaro's veto represented a relief for airlines amid a great amount of turbulence, adding that the measure was being priced into airline shares. "In the short term, as companies usually pass these costs on to customers, there would be an increase in air service costs. In the long term, the bill would increase regulatory risk," they said.<br/>
Europe’s air travel chaos spread to Switzerland on Wednesday after a technical malfunction at the country’s air traffic control system shut down flights nationwide and left thousands stranded across the continent. Swiss airspace was closed around 6:30 a.m. and remained so for roughly two hours. Zurich Airport said flights gradually returned to normal operating capacity as of 10 a.m. The closure caused widespread delays that still persisted later Wednesday morning, European airspace manager Eurocontrol said. Tension was high at the Zurich airport as hundreds of frustrated and confused travelers tried to rebook flights, obtain reimbursements or get access to lounges. Some travelers bought new tickets or rebooked to travel a day later, only to learn there were still open seats to travel on Wednesday. The Swiss shutdown is the latest example in a string of upheaval at airports and airlines that has disrupted travel across Europe in recent weeks. Staffing shortages lingering from the Covid-19 pandemic have been at the heart of delays and cancellations at hubs in the UK and the Netherlands, with strikes in France and spate of IT outages adding to the chaos. Despite its small size, Switzerland’s airspace is crucial for European flights due to the country’s location at the heart of Europe. Zurich Airport, Switzerland’s largest, handles more than 300 departures a day, while Geneva has around 220, according to data from FlightRadar24. During the shutdown, arriving long-haul flights were diverted to Lyon, Milan and Vienna.<br/>
Prague Airport was running at limited capacity on Wednesday after a software glitch temporarily knocked out its air traffic control system, leading to departure delays, the airport and the country's Air Navigation Services (ANS) agency said. The technical problem had earlier stopped all departures. ANS said on Twitter the cause of the outage to the Top Sky air traffic control system was a software fault on the side of the supplier. "Measures taken ensured operational safety," ANS said. "During the night, the relevant software will be fixed and capacity will gradually return to levels seen before the outage." Prague Airport, which services almost 50 airlines, according to its website, handled 4.4m passengers in 2021, about a quarter of the amount seen in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.<br/>
Brussels airport advised travellers on Wednesday not to arrive for flights on June 20 as airport security staff have announced they plan to join a national strike that day. “To avoid excessive waiting times on that day, a significant number of flights are being cancelled or rescheduled. The operational teams of Brussels Airport are currently coordinating this with all partners and airlines are adapting their schedules,” the Belgian airport said. “Airlines will inform passengers of the impacted flights.” <br/>
Air travel in Asia is set to make a 'V-shaped comeback', budget carrier AirAsia's parent company saidon Wednesday, as countries ease tough coronavirus curbs that have hammered the industry. The region's aviation sector has been slow to recover, as governments kept restrictions such as quarantines and testing in place far longer than in Europe and the United States. But countries in the Asia-Pacific have been gradually scrapping curbs in recent months, and travel is picking up again. "We will see a V-shaped comeback," said Colin Currie, a senior executive from Capital A, the parent company of AirAsia, one the region's biggest low-cost airlines. "We really do see that demand of our customers wanting to travel, and we're very, very optimistic." He was speaking at an event by AirAsia X, a subsidiary of Capital A that flies long-haul, as the airline announced it will add seven new routes by the end of the year. These include Kuala Lumpur to London, Dubai and Istanbul. AirAsia X currently has six Airbus jets in operation and hopes to have 15 planes in service by year end. The airline grounded its planes in 2020 when the pandemic hit, and was forced to undergo a debt restructuring.<br/>
Boeing Wednesday said it was making progress with regulators on its 737 MAX 10 aircraft but declined to offer a clear timeline on when it expects to win approval, in a tougher regulatory climate. Boeing has a December deadline to win approval for the 737 MAX 10 - the largest member of its best-selling single-aisle airplane family. Otherwise, it must meet new cockpit alerting requirements under a 2020 law, unless Congress waives it. The deadline for changes was introduced as part of broader regulatory reforms at the FAA after fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. "We really need to complete a good proportion of the development assurance work," Mike Fleming, a senior VP at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told reporters on a second day of briefings ahead of Britain's Farnborough Airshow next month. "It's taking longer to get approval of our documents than it has in the past." Both the FAA and Boeing are working through a process that is different from what Boeing has done in the past, making it a challenge, said Fleming. The regulators control the timeframe and it is incumbent on Boeing to deliver on the certification plan, he said. As an example, Fleming said the FAA has taken ownership of certifying Boeing safety assessments that deal with how pilots interact with systems known as "human factors." Previously, that work was delegated to Boeing's engineers.<br/>
Boeing Co. hinted that it’s considering a cargo-hauling version of its 787 Dreamliner to eventually replace 767 freighters, whose engines won’t comply with tougher emissions standards that take effect in 2028. “That’s a natural place for us to look,” Brian Hermesmeyer, freighter customer leader for Boeing’s commercial airplane division, told reporters Wednesday in a briefing near its plant in Everett, Washington. He added that the Arlington, Virginia-based planemaker typically studies the market demand for potential freighter versions of all of its commercial jetliner families as it plots product strategy. The Dreamliner is the company’s first jet whose airframe is made of barrels spun from carbon-fiber. That creates a technical hurdle for engineers, who would need to figure out how to reinforce the structure to cut out larger doors needed to load and unload cargo. The company has planned for 767 freighter deliveries through the end of 2027, when the new pollution rules will potentially clip both the 767 and the current 777 freighter model. The mid-size 767 jetliner also serves as the basis for an aerial refueler for the military, the KC-46A.<br/>
Airbus on Wednesday launched the maiden flight of its newest and largest narrowbody airliner, the A321XLR, as the European planemaker seeks to capitalize on lucrative demand for long-range single-aisle jets. The twin-engined passenger jet took off at 11:05 a.m. local time (0905 GMT) from a factory in Hamburg, Germany, ahead of more than a year of trials before the latest addition to its best-selling A320 medium-haul family enters service in 2024. Airbus is pitching the A321XLR as a game-changing addition to its narrowbody fleet, making it possible for airlines to serve thinly flown long-distance routes profitably, rather than forcing passengers to fly indirectly via wide-body hubs. It says the A321XLR can fly 4,700 nautical miles (8,700 km), 15% further than its most capable current narrowbody, allowing airlines to fly routes like Houston–Santiago, New York–Rome or Tokyo–Sydney without the cost of a big twin-aisle jet. The extra range is made possible by the addition of a new rear-center fuel tank molded into the lower fuselage. But Airbus faces questions from regulators over the risk of fire in the event of a belly landing and has been forced to delay the entry to service by at least three months to early 2024 to allow the lower structure to be modified. Some experts say the delay could extend up to a year.<br/>