general

Greece has protested to Serbia and Ukraine for not being timely informed about the munitions cargo on board a Ukrainian aircraft which crashed near the northern city of Kavala on Saturday night, Greek diplomatic sources said on Monday. The Antonov An-12 carrying 11.5 tonnes of defence products made in Serbia, including mortar and training shells, came down in a ball of flames, exploding on impact in corn fields at about 2000 GMT on Saturday. Its eight Ukrainian crew members were killed. Earlier, the pilot had reported engine trouble and was given permission for an emergency landing at Kavala but the aircraft's signal was lost soon after the call at 1942 GMT. Images from the scene showed smouldering debris from the aircraft, operated by Ukraine's Meridian cargo airline, strewn in fields. The Greek foreign ministry has lodged a demarche with Ukraine's ambassador in Athens over the need for Greece's prior notice by Ukraine regarding the nature of the aircraft's cargo, a Greek diplomatic source said. Greek diplomatic sources said earlier on Monday that Greece would also protest to Serbia for the same reason. Serbia’s foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment. Serbia's defence minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said on Sunday morning the plane's cargo was made by Serbia's defence industry. It had taken off at 1840 GMT on Saturday from Nis in Serbia and the buyer of the cargo was the defence ministry of Bangladesh.<br/>

UK-Japanese collaboration on fighter jets and a multibillion-dollar Boeing passenger plane order gave a lift to the aviation industry on Monday as the Farnborough Airshow returned in a heatwave tipped to break UK records. A national emergency has been declared in Britain for Monday and Tuesday, with temperatures set to rise above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) for the first time. Despite warnings to limit travel, delegates battled crowded trains and shuttle buses to reach the show in southern England. Problems were exacerbated by climate protesters holding a mock funeral for the Earth outside the show. The industry has been reeling from its own travel disruptions and the head of Emirates airline, which has clashed with London's Heathrow over enforced capacity cuts, said a badly disrupted air travel industry would return to equilibrium in 2023 and must "tough it out" until then. The air show, which alternates with Paris, is the first at Farnborough since 2019, and rising defence spending is in focus amid the war in Ukraine. Britain announced it was collaborating with Japan and existing partner Italy on its next-generation fighter jet programme, potentially leading to decisions on deeper partnerships by the end of the year. Three sources told Reuters last week that Britain and Japan were close to agreement to merge their next-generation Tempest and F-X fighter jet programmes to help save costs.<br/>

Extreme heat in the UK on Monday caused runway damage and disrupted military and civilian flying, airport officials said. A heat wave has engulfed much of Western Europe, with temperatures in London forecast to rise to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday and possibly higher on Tuesday before breaking midweek. The aviation industry is wrestling with the effects on infrastructure of extreme weather including storms, floods and high temperatures. London Luton Airport briefly suspended flights on Monday but said operations were back up Monday evening. “Following today’s high temperatures, a surface defect was identified on the runway,” the airport tweeted, apologizing for the inconvenience. The airport is used by budget carriers including easyJet, Ryanair and Wizzair. At Brize Norton Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire, flying was halted after a similar report of runway damage. “During this period of extreme temperature flight safety remains our top priority, so aircraft are using alternative airfields in line with a long established plan,” an RAF spokesperson said. “This means there is no impact on RAF operations.” The RAF didn’t specify why it suspended flights, but a spokesperson said “the runway has not melted” as early media reports indicated.<br/>

Low-emission air travel and a potential deal for Japan to help build the UK’s next-generation Tempest fighter jet are set to take centre stage at the annual Farnborough airshow this week. Executives from global aerospace manufacturers and airlines will gather at the airport in Hampshire after a four-year gap. The show, which begins on Monday, normally happens every two years but was cancelled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, as the aviation industry faced potential collapse. Analysts expect hundreds of orders for new Airbus and Boeing planes during the show as airline passenger numbers bounce back, but manufacturers have emphasised efforts to reduce planes’ environmental impact, even as they expect a resurgence in sales of commercial jets using fossil fuels. Rolls-Royce, the FTSE 100 maker of jet engines, said it planned to test engines fuelled by hydrogen “to prove the fuel can safely and efficiently deliver power for small- to mid-size aircraft from the mid-2030s onwards”. GKN Aerospace, owned by the FTSE 100 buyout investor Melrose, said its Fokker business in the Netherlands would be part of a €112m investment plan to work on high-voltage, high-power wiring needed to run fully electric engines. Brazil’s Embraer, a manufacturer of smaller passenger jets for regional travel, on Sunday announced a deal with Raizen, a Brazilian energy company, to scale up production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) – kerosene made from non-fossil sources. The aviation industry is betting heavily on SAF to deliver net-zero flight for larger jets, although supply is still meagre.<br/>

Airbus and more than a half dozen airlines said on Monday they had signed letters of intent to discuss buying carbon removal credits to offset the emissions from air travel. Airbus joined by Air Canada, Air France-KLM, EasyJet, International Airlines Group, LATAM Airlines Group, Lufthansa Group and Virgin Atlantic have committed to engage in “negotiations on the possible pre-purchase of verified and durable carbon removal credits starting in 2025." The carbon removal credits will be issued by Airbus’ partner 1PointFive – a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp Low Carbon Ventures business, which plans to build a direct air carbon capture and storage facility in Texas for carbon removal that will be able to remove up to 1m tons of C02. Construction is expected to begin toward the end of this year and be running by 2024, said Steve Kelly, who heads 1PointFive. Airbus’ partnership with 1PointFive includes prepurchasing 400,000 tons of carbon removal credits over a four-year period, the companies said. "These first letters of intent mark a concrete step towards the use of this promising technology for both Airbus’ own decarbonization plan and the aviation sector’s ambition to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050," Airbus' Julie Kitcher said. The airline industry, responsible for nearly 3% of global carbon dioxide emissions, faces significant challenges in meeting ambitious goals to cut emissions. Airline officials argue that carbon capture can be one part of a multi-pronged strategy to cut emissions.<br/>

As global aviation recovers from the devastation caused by COVID-19, Asian airlines are testing the use of lower-carbon fuels to limit the environmental impact of the industry. Singapore Airlines announced in early July that it has begun testing what has become known as sustainable aviation fuel. A biofuel made from waste cooking oil and plants, it will be supplied by Finland's Neste. The airline will burn 1,000 tons of SAF over the next year, which is equivalent to about eight of the company's Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner jets in terms of onboard fuel, targeting a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2,500 tons. It has a goal of achieving zero emissions by 2050. Flights departing from the country, including those by its low-cost carrier Scoot, will use the greener fuel. Lee Wen Fen, the airline's senior vice president, said, "SAF is a key decarbonization lever, and this [test] demonstrates our commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050." Singapore is trying to promote SAF across the city-state. In February, the government established the International Advisory Panel on Sustainable Air Hubs, which is expected to come up with a plan to establish a SAF market by early 2023. Malaysia Airlines operated its first passenger flight using SAF in early June in conjunction with World Environment Day. The IATA announced in late June that global air travel in 2022 is expected to reach 3.8b passengers, up approximately 70% from the previous year, with the number of passengers hitting 80% of pre-pandemic levels. Asian countries are easing entry restrictions, including for tourists, and recovery in airline demand will provide a much-needed tailwind for earnings in the aviation sector. With recovery in sight, airlines are starting to focus on decarbonization as a key to future competitiveness. Passengers may gravitate toward airlines with green credentials and governments may start to push the industry to adapt. It is estimated that replacing all aircraft fuel with SAF would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 70% to 90%. Story has more.<br/>

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun on Monday said the manufacturer won’t ramp up production of its bestselling 737 Max yet because of supply chain constraints. The company is producing 31 of the Max planes each month on average, and Boeing will focus on stabilizing that rate before increasing output, according to Calhoun. “Averages don’t work very well for customers; predictability does. We have to be at 31 every month, consistently and predictability,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” speaking from the Farnborough Airshow outside of London. “We’ll get into rate increases when we get into rate increases, but the supply chain isn’t ready for it yet.” Calhoun spoke shortly after Boeing announced a Delta Air Lines order for at least 100 737 Max 10 planes, the airline’s first major purchase from the company in more than a decade. Deliveries are slated to begin in 2025. Calhoun said longer-term constraints on aircraft production are from engine makers, like General Electric and Raytheon Technologies unit Pratt & Whitney. He said that will likely persist over the next 18 months. Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes echoed those concerns. “It is really difficult,” he said Monday. Skilled labor is the hardest thing to come by, he added: “There are a lot of things we can’t get done because we don’t have the people.” Hayes said he also expects the supply chain and labor shortage challenges to last into late 2023 or early 2024. Boeing is scheduled to report Q2 results on July 27.<br/>

IATA director general Willie Walsh has expressed his agreement with Emirates’ view that the Airbus A350-1000 is too small to top the airframer’s range. He was speaking on an 18 July panel at the Farnborough air show, where he was joined on stage by Emirates president Tim Clark. “I share Tim’s view in terms of the need for larger aircraft,” Walsh says, adding that the widebody would likely need at least 350 seats in a four-class layout. “I can see a need for that,” he states. “Certainly in a lot of parts of the world, that’s the sort of aircraft that will be in demand going forward.” Walsh was responding to Clark’s reiteration that he often “frets” about what will happen when Emirates’ A380s are retired, particularly amid significant delays to the Boing 777X programme. His concern is that operating smaller widebodies is not in line with Emirates’ business model and is likely to lead to higher ticket prices into airports that are already slot-constrained today. “What are you going to do in the future when you’ve only got A350-900s and A350-1000s as your top end?” he asks. “I’m hoping that Airbus will be a little bit braver than the A350-1000,” Clark continues. “We need something a little bit bigger. You need a 350-seater in four classes. It’s almost the same as the 777-9.” Of the troubled Boeing programme, Clark laments that having worked with Boeing on development of the twin-jet, “we ran into all these quality issues” that have so far caused a five-year delay to first delivery.<br/>