US consumers lodged more than quadruple the number of complaints against US airlines in April compared with pre-pandemic levels as on-time arrivals fell, according to a report Thursday. The US DoT announced on Thursday that it received 5,079 complaints about airline service in April, up more than 320% over the 1,205 complaints received in April 2019. Reuters first reported the findings earlier Thursday. Travelers are facing an already difficult summer as airlines expect record demand and as they rebuild staff levels after thousands of workers left the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Air passengers are facing long lines, crowded airports and few open seats. USDOT said Thursday it "remains committed to ensuring airline passengers are protected fairly and is concerned about recent cancellations and flight disruptions." The department said 32% of complaints concerned refunds and 31% involved flights delays and other problems. In April 2022, major carriers posted an on-time arrival rate of 76%, down from 77.2% in March and below the 79.8% rate in April 2019, the report said. Airlines operated 566,893 flights in April, about 87% of the number flown in the same month in 2019. The 10 largest carriers canceled 2.3% of domestic flights in April, down slightly from the 2.4% canceled in April 2019, USDOT said.<br/>
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On 16 June, Senator Ed Markey, Senator Richard Blumenthal and Representative Chuy Garcia – all Democrats – introduced the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act, which would raise the minimum wage for US airport workers, including those who work for contractors, to $15 an hour, provide paid time off and at least $4.60 an hour toward health insurance. The bill is backed by large US transportation unions, including the SEIU, CWA, Unite Here, the Transport Workers Union (TWU), the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) and the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers (NCFO). It comes at a time when the travel industry in the US – especially the airlines and airports – is in a deep crisis, as staff shortages in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in thousands of delayed and canceled flights that have promised a summer of chaos for millions of American travelers. Rob Hill, executive vice-president of 32BJ SEIU and director of the national airports organizing campaign, said airlines and airports have relied on contractors that have driven down standards and wages for workers in a race to the bottom for the cheapest bid, which has made organizing workers by a single employer difficult. This legislation focuses on entire airports to raise standards across the board to facilitate union organizing and stabilize the workforce at airports with livable wages and benefits amid high employee turnovers and worker shortages, especially as significant federal funds go to airports and the airline industry. “With this bill, the federal government will be raising the standard for potentially hundreds and thousands of airport workers, mostly workers of color,” said Hill. “If the federal government’s going to fund money into this, it should be a benefit for workers, it should be a benefit for taxpayers.”<br/>
Senator Marco Rubio on Thursday asked the US FAA to conduct a safety review of Russian airlines and alert Americans to the risks of Russian-administered aircraft still operating in international airspace. Sanctions imposed by Europe, the United States and others over the invasion of Ukraine have denied Russia access to new planes, spare parts and maintenance services and forced its aviation industry to cut back on flights. “So long as Russian airlines maintain such operations, they pose a potential threat to international travelers, as well as to Russians flying domestically,” Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote. “Many Russian airlines have attempted to evade stringent U.S. export controls, continuing to operate flights to Beijing, Delhi, Dubai, and elsewhere even after being blacklisted.” The FAA did not immediately comment but in April downgraded its air safety rating for Russia, saying the country’s Federal Agency for Air Transport was not complying with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards.<br/>
C.B. "Sully" Sullenberger, the commercial pilot who safely landed an Airbus A320 on New York's Hudson River in 2009 after hitting a flock of geese, said on Thursday he would step down as US envoy to an international aviation group on July 1. Sullenberger was confirmed in December as USambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization based in Montreal. He said in a statement that "relinquishing my role" was not an easy decision but did not offer a reason for his departure after just over six months.<br/>The announcement comes a month after Sullenberger raised concerns about attempts by regional airlines to reduce pilot requirements that he warned would weaken safety. A State Department spokesperson said Sullenberger's "indisputable credibility on aviation safety and security matters reinforced American leadership on those issues and strengthened our nation’s partnerships across the globe." The United States is expected to play an important role at ICAO's triennial assembly later this year, where countries are trying to broker a long-term agreement on aviation emissions including mandating more efficient future aircraft.<br/>
The airport lines are long, and lost luggage is piling up. It’s going to be a chaotic summer for travelers in Europe. After two years of pandemic restrictions, travel demand has roared back, but airlines and airports that slashed jobs during the depths of the COVID-19 crisis are struggling to keep up. With the busy summer tourism season underway in Europe, passengers are encountering chaotic scenes at airports, including lengthy delays, canceled flights and headaches over lost luggage.Schiphol, the Netherlands’ busiest airport, is trimming flights, saying there are thousands of airline seats per day above the capacity that security staff can handle. Dutch carrier KLM apologized for stranding passengers there this month. It could be months before Schiphol has enough staff to ease the pressure, Ben Smith, CEO of airline alliance Air France-KLM, said Thursday. London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports are asking airlines to cap their flight numbers. Discount carrier easyJet is scrapping thousands of summer flights to avoid last-minute cancellations and in response to caps at Gatwick and Schiphol. North American airlines wrote to Ireland’s transport chief demanding urgent action to tackle “significant delays” at Dublin’s airport. Story has more.<br/>
Staff at Zurich airport may stage protests against tough working conditions as passenger traffic surges in the wake of the pandemic, but will only strike as a last resort, a union official said. Speaking after unions decided to step away from a collective agreement with aviation services firm Swissport by the end of the year, the official said protests could take the form of gatherings at the airport, but there were no plans to halt work. “We negotiated crisis measures during the pandemic. Employees accepted fewer holidays, lower salaries and longer working hours, based on the promise that working conditions would return to normal after the crisis,” Stefan Bruelisauer of aviation union VPOD told Reuters. “Now Swissport refuses to do that.” The potential protest reflects ongoing challenges facing airports in Europe and beyond as companies try to rebuild operations that were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting layoffs in may places. Now many airports and airlines are struggling to recruit.<br/>
The travel chaos hitting passengers in the UK is set to widen this summer, after British Airways staff voted to strike during the school holidays and talks to avoid more industrial action on the railway broke up without a deal. Around 700 BA check-in crew at London’s Heathrow airport have agreed to strike in a dispute over pay, with unions promising “severe disruption” timed to coincide with the summer rush to fly abroad. The results of the ballots were announced as Britain’s railways were hit by strikes for the second time in three days, with further industrial action planned for Saturday. The prospect of disruption at the UK’s busiest airport will reignite fears that the country is set for a summer of discontent, evoking memories of the delays and cancellations that hit airports this month. BA expects the strikes to impact roughly half its check-in staff at Heathrow, after both the GMB and Unite unions said 95 per cent of their members had voted to back industrial action. GMB said strike dates would be confirmed in the coming days and were “likely to be during the peak summer holiday period”. Unite, which represents around 500 check-in staff at Heathrow, said it had given BA a “short window” to come back with an improved offer before it set strike dates. It would need to give two weeks’ notice before any action took place. The union is demanding that pay be reinstated to its pre-pandemic level, following a 10 per cent cut imposed by BA when the industry was all but shut down by Covid-19 travel restrictions. Management had already had its pay restored in full, Unite said.<br/>
London’s Heathrow airport has upgraded its passenger forecast for the year as summer demand surged more than expected, but warned of further risks to its recovery. The UK’s biggest airport forecast that 54.4mn passengers, or 67 per cent of 2019 levels, would go through its terminals this year, up from the 52.8mn it predicted in April. However, the airport warned that “significant downside risks remain”, as the cost of living crisis hits travellers’ finances and desire to go abroad. Meanwhile Covid-19 had the potential to return, while the war in Ukraine would also affect travel plans, the airport said in an investor report published Thursday. The latest figure allows for a resurgence in visitors from the US, Heathrow said. Since the airport’s previous passenger estimate, US travellers, which account historically for about 20 per cent of Heathrow’s total, no longer face taking a Covid test on their return, a ruling that was announced on June 10. Heathrow pointed to a “steady traffic increase” for this year, saying 20.1mn passengers had travelled through the airport in the first five months. That surpassed the 2.9mn of 2021 when travel restrictions were in place for much of the year. May’s figures were the highest since the start of the pandemic. Outbound leisure at weekends, school and public holidays has driven demand as a lack of Covid-induced restrictions allow people to travel more freely. Inbound leisure and business travel remains weak since many other countries maintain Covid rules.<br/>
China's aviation regulator looks to increase international flight routes as the nation gradually eases COVID-19 cross-border travel curbs. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) hopes to increase flights to and from Vietnam and Thailand, according to local sources. Vietnam's aviation regulator said on Friday it had received a letter from its Chinese counterpart allowing the airlines of both countries to each run two passenger flights per week, up from one currently. Meanwhile, Thailand media reported that China has agreed to increase weekly flights between the countries to two from one for eight airlines. At a briefing on Friday, CAAC official Liang Nan said only that the regulator is negotiating with more nations to gradually increase the number of international flights to the mainland. The moves show how policymakers are throwing another bone to an airline industry that has been crippled by restrictions designed to prevent the spread of COVID. Under the so-called "five-one policy," for the past two years every domestic and overseas airline has only been allowed to operate one return flight from China to another country per week. The restrictions have pushed the nation's aviation industry to the brink. Some Chinese airlines are facing a risk of insolvency, with mainland-based carriers reporting a collective 67b yuan ($10b) loss for last year, official data shows. At the end of 2021, Chinese airlines were operating 279 international routes, 70.7% less than in 2019 before the pandemic, and they completed 1.48 million passenger trips, equivalent to 2% of the total in 2019, according to CAAC.<br/>
After more than two years of lockdowns and border controls, Southeast Asia is finally experiencing some semblance of the old days of travel. Flights are steadily returning to 2019 levels in the region’s major economies, with Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia being the most popular destinations this year, according to the flight data analytics firm Cirium. In Singapore, which had the most inbound flight bookings in the region this year, bookings rose from around 30% of 2019 levels in January to 48% by mid-June. The Philippines also saw a sharp uptick in bookings, from about 20% at the start of January, to almost 40% by mid-June, according to Cirium. The pandemic “was probably more devastating in Southeast Asia than the rest of the world [because] governments kept the borders closed for almost two years,” said Gary Bowerman, director of the travel research firm Check-in Asia. “There were even restrictions on domestic travel.” “If you compare that to North America or Europe, for example, in both years 2020 and 2021 … they had some tourism and travel flows,” he said. Most countries in Southeast Asia — including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines — have stopped requiring fully vaccinated travelers to take Covid-19 tests before traveling. After Singapore dropped its pre-travel testing requirement in April, business has been “picking up fast and furious,” said Stanley Foo, founder of the local tour operator Oriental Travel & Tours. He said travelers are booking longer trips and spending more than before too. Story has more.<br/>
In the sprawling assembly plant of Brazilian jet maker Embraer, a little Japanese sign is pinned on a whiteboard. "Kaizen," it says, a Japanese word for continuous improvement. "We do hundreds of kaizen projects every year to increase productivity in our production sites," said a factory manager, looking out to where a 146-seater E195-E2 is awaiting its wings, engines and a paint job. "Last year, we were able to achieve a 17% reduction [in production lead time] despite all the difficulty we had in the supply chain," he said. The company aims to achieve a 40% reduction by the end of 2023. Kaizen was made famous in Japan by Toyota and others and the scrap of paper pinned up in the factory is emblematic of a Brazilian national champion increasingly open to ideas from outside. Francisco Gomes Neto, Embraer's newish CEO, has come from the auto industry. Embraer now has two U.S. citizens sitting on its board. The broadening of perspective is crucial: The battle for market share rages globally and, according to interviews with executives here, will increasingly be fought in Asia. Embraer predicts its passenger jet production will increase to 60-70 aircraft this year, and eventually back to its prior level of 100-110, after two years dented by the pandemic. But achieving the goal may not be so simple. The company now faces competition from Airbus for larger jets and state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (COMAC) for smaller ones -- while Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which acquired the regional jet business of Canada's Bombardier in 2020, is pushing its customers to use their existing fleets for as long as possible instead of buying from Embraer.<br/>