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Boeing has been cranking out order announcements at this week's Farnborough Airshow, restoring momentum to its troubled 737 MAX, while rival Airbus on Wednesday added to its A320neo order book. Boeing has secured over 100 firm orders for the MAX as it still faces big challenges to certify a crucial new variant before a year-end deadline. Qatar Airways also might be open to reviving a tentative deal for 25 MAX which had lapsed, sources told Reuters. "It's a quiet show, but within that I think Boeing's mojo is back," said Agency Partners analyst Sash Tusa. Airbus on Wednesday confirmed a deal for 56 A320neo family jets to easyJet after budget airline's shareholders backed it. read more The European planemaker scooped a huge order for almost 300 aircraft from China weeks before the biennial show, which is making its return after a four-year pandemic-induced hiatus. Aerospace leaders are anxious to simply turn the page after the pandemic and the safety grounding of the 737 MAX, events which rocked the industry. Supply chain problems, soaring inflation, fuel prices, and ever-growing pressure to decarbonise highlighted by a record heatwave in the UK this week have dominated discussions instead. Story has more.<br/>

The acting head of the FAA said on Wednesday that US airlines' travel performance was improving after delays and cancellations snarled traffic and prompted anger from lawmakers and passengers. "We are keeping our eye on things. We’ve seen good improvements,” Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen told Reuters and another news outlet on the sidelines of the Farnborough Airshow. “We can see overall delays are down… The airlines are working to right size their network." Airlines have pointed the finger at the FAA for air traffic control staffing issues causing delays and cancellations, but Nolen, who has been running the FAA since April, said the "majority" of the problems "are not in any way shape or form related to air traffic (staffing) shortages." Nolen said he has spoken to all of the airline CEs about air traffic issues. Nolen said the FAA was working to hire air traffic controllers. "We are on track to hire 1,000 controllers this year," Nolen said. For 1,500 positions, the FAA accepted 57,956 applications for review. The FAA has said it plans to boost air traffic control staffing in some places that have had issues like Jacksonville, Florida. Nolen declined to comment on whether there was enough time left this year to complete certification of the 737 MAX 10. "I will just direct you to back to Boeing in terms of what they think their ability to deliver, according to what time," Nolen said. Boeing faces 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.<br/>

Travelers were marginally happier about airline service in May this year, according to the Department of Transportation. In its latest release of data, the DOT said there was a 15% decline in the number of complaints between April and May, but travelers still reported 200% more issues than they did before the pandemic. According to the DOT, airline service was the biggest issue for passengers, who complained by the thousands about delayed and canceled flights. Mishandled bags, treatment of disabled passengers and discrimination were also issues in May. "The Department’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (OACP) is monitoring airlines' operations to ensure that airlines are not engaging in unrealistic scheduling of flights and are complying with aviation consumer protection requirements," the DOT said. "This includes ensuring consumers receive prompt refunds if they are no longer interested in continuing their travel when their flights are cancelled or significantly changed." In May, the DOT received 4,344 complaints about airline service, down from May but still well above pre-pandemic levels. According to the department, 77.2% of flights arrived on time that month, and 2% of flights were canceled. Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Air Lines were the most on-time carriers in May. Hawaiian also had the fewest cancelations, while Delta had the most. Ultra-low-cost carriers Frontier, Allegiant and Spirit had the most delays in May.<br/>

Last week’s collapse of US climate legislation could severely hamper the development of clean-burning transportation fuels, investors, lobbyists and analysts said. The US biofuel industry was banking on legislation that would boost investment in fuels like sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), made from animal fats, greases and oils, and produces fewer carbon emissions than traditional jet fuel. US fuel makers have been increasing output of cleaner-burning fuels for industries that are harder to electrify. Renewable diesel production is profitable due to state and federal financial incentives, but SAF is two to five times more expensive than jet fuel. Last week, US Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia, indicated he would not vote for a slimmed-down climate spending bill, effectively dooming legislation that has been through multiple iterations and would have included incentives to increase investment in SAF and other low-carbon transportation fuels. “Companies that are already today producing SAF along with those producing road transportation fuels rely on this policy. ... If it lapses, we’ll lose the momentum that our industry has built to support the emergence of SAF,” said Paul Winters, a spokesman for the Clean Fuels Alliance, an industry group composed of biofuel producers. The White House wants to lower aviation emissions by 20% by 2030, with a goal of boosting SAF production to 3b gallons per year by 2030, and to meet 100% of aviation fuel demand of about 35b gallons a year by 2050. Only around 33m gallons of SAF were produced last year globally, or 0.5% of the jet fuel pool. The original $1.7t Build Back Better proposal contained tax credits for SAF of between $1.25 to $1.75 a gallon, depending on the feedstock used, which would lower production costs for biofuels producers.<br/>

From verbal abuse to physical threats and police calls, front-line workers in the airline industry are finding themselves on the receiving end of passenger frustrations over flight delays and lost baggage. “I've had customers poke me in the chest and say, 'You're not going to get me off of this flight,”' said Cheryl Robinson, an Air Canada customer service agent at the Halifax airport. “I've seen my colleagues in tears, walking away because they just can't deal with another person yelling at them today.” The frayed nerves and exploding tempers are the outcome of an ongoing struggle by airports and carriers to cope with the massive travel rebound this summer. It also comes as the union representing more than 700 WestJet employees at airports in Calgary and Vancouver says they have voted to support a strike if they cannot reach a new contract with the airline. Toronto Pearson International Airport and Air Canada have topped global lists for share of flights delayed over the past month, frequently surpassing 50% and fanning travellers' ire. “We can all understand why they're angry and frustrated. Your flight gets canceled and they tell you to call and you wait on hold for six hours - and I'm not exaggerating,” said Leslie Dias, director of airlines at Unifor, which represents 16,000 air transport workers, including 5,600 customer service and sales agents at Air Canada. “To some extent, our people are broken,” she said from Calgary, where she is part of the negotiations with WestJet over a deal for the hundreds of baggage and customer service agents. “They're upset, they're often close to tears, they're exhausted. At all airlines they're being asked to work as many hours as they can possibly manage to work. And they feel helpless.”<br/>

Demand for flying has fallen significantly among some of Europe’s largest airlines, as disruption in the aviation industry shows signs of hitting people’s appetite for travel. Bookings made in the first week of July for flights within Europe in July and August were 44 per cent below 2019 levels, according to travel industry data company ForwardKeys. The decline is a marked shift from the last week in May, when bookings for July and August were close to tracking 2019 levels as airlines faced a surge in demand after the removal of all travel restrictions in Europe. The data is drawn from an industry-wide ticketing database and includes all major national carriers such as Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France. But it does not have sales from low-cost carriers such as Ryanair or easyJet, which have reported some of the strongest demand this summer. The slowdown in sales has combined with tens of thousands of flight cancellations to muddy the outlook for the industry that is already buckling under a resurgence in passenger numbers. “The increased level of disruption is substantially dampening demand, as we are seeing a dramatic slowdown in last-minute flight bookings, plus an increase in cancellations,” said Olivier Ponti, an executive at ForwardKeys. As of May 30, total bookings for flights within Europe in July and August made at any point this year were 17% behind 2019 levels. But seven weeks later, that gap had widened another 5 percentage points to 22%.<br/>

Flight traffic in Germany is expected to grow further towards the end of 2022 as the sector rebounds from the COVID-19 crisis, the country’s DFS air traffic controller said on Wednesday. During the first six months of 2022, DFS counted over 1.2m flight movements, amounting to about 76% of the level seen in 2019, before the virus began wreaking havoc with world travel. “In total, we are expecting for 2022 around 85% of the traffic volume that we registered in the pre-crisis year of 2019,” DFS CE Arndt Schoenemann said. “It is on the way up - and much more strongly than we expected.” DFS noted that while far fewer aeroplanes were travelling in lower airspace compared to 2019, the skies at higher altitude were even busier than before. One reason given for this was the war in Ukraine and the resulting airspace closures. With direct eastward flights no longer possible, airlines in the European Union were having to take diversions of up to five hours, DFS said.<br/>

Refueling workers at London Heathrow airport called off a strike that was set to begin Thursday and had threatened further disruptions at the UK travel hub. The walkout was suspended after Aviation Fuel Services Ltd. made a “sustainably improved offer,” the Unite union said in a statement Wednesday. The roughly 50 employees involved will now be given time to consider the proposal, which came about in talks facilitated by a conciliation service, the group said. AFS is a joint venture among fuel companies BP Plc, TotalEnergies SE, Q8 Aviation and Valero Energy, and supplies fuel to more than 70 airlines including American Airlines, Delta, United Airlines and Emirates, according to the union. The threatened action by refueling workers was one of a number of labor disputes that have contributed to travel chaos across Europe this summer. British Airways earlier this month reached an agreement with check-in employees to head off a strike, after the carrier scrapped thousands of flights amid a staffing crunch.<br/>

London Heathrow has urged airlines to “step up” their investment in ground handling staff to help solve the disruption affecting aviation this summer. The UK hub airport has capped departing passenger capacity at 100,000 per day until 11 September in a bid to cope with rising passenger numbers during the peak summer travel period. Nigel Milton, the airport’s chief of staff and carbon, insisted Heathrow was “well run” and had prepared for the summer peak season, despite “clickbait headlines focused on travel chaos”. He highlighted a shortage of ground handlers as a major cause of disruption to aviation, with 50% of these workers leaving the industry across Europe during the pandemic. “For months ground handling companies have been trying to recruit and train skilled workers, but if their airline customers aren’t willing to pay market rates, then they aren’t able to fill the posts,” added Milton. “Airlines have not secured any net increase in their ground handling resource at Heathrow since January – and this has become the constraint as demand has grown.” Milton called for airlines to improve their current operations by “stepping up investment in their ground handlers”. “If they do that, we can then all start focusing on rebuilding Britain’s world-beating aviation sector and getting back to giving our passengers the service they deserve,” he argued.<br/>

Gatwick Airport said it has hired 400 new security staff in recent weeks to help ease queues. Bosses said more staff are being recruited in a move aimed at reducing pressure on the airport as it goes into the busy school summer holiday period. Gatwick is also trying to increase awareness about placing liquids in a clear bag, separate from hand luggage, to reduce delays at security. COO Adrian Witherow said: “With passenger numbers rapidly returning to 2019 levels, we expect to be busy, particularly at peak times such as weekends and the forthcoming school summer holidays. We are doing everything possible to make the airport process as smooth as possible, including recruiting and training hundreds of new security staff, many of whom have already started or will be in coming weeks. It’s also important, however, that we do what we can to help passengers prepare for security before reaching the trays. We understand many already do this, but, by publishing the list of top items that are currently being forgotten, we hope to get even more people through airport security quickly, so they can go on and relax ahead of their flight, enjoy a drink or sit down for a meal.”<br/>

Australia on Wednesday said it has stepped up protection against foot and mouth disease at its international airports following an outbreak of the disease in Indonesia. Travellers arriving in Australia from Indonesia will now be asked to walk across sanitation foot mats at airports, the latest measure to ramp up Australia’s biosecurity measures, the government said. The mats will contain a citric acid solution designed to dislodge any dirt from the sole of the shoe and cover it in the acid. The move comes after foot and mouth viral fragments were detected in meat goods that came into Australia recently from Indonesia and China, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said at a news conference. “We have detected foot and mouth disease and African swine fever viral fragments in a small number of pork products for sale in the Melbourne CBD that were imported from China,” Watt said, adding that these were detected during routine checks. “In addition to this a passenger travelling from Indonesia has in recent days been intercepted with a beef product that they didn’t declare which tested positive for foot and mouth disease viral fragments," he added.<br/>

When China’s ruling Communist Party released its 14th five-year plan in 2021, chief among its aims was “self-reliance in science and technology as a strategic underpinning for national development”. But a year later, experts say the continued wait for delivery of the single-aisle C919, China’s first passenger jet, is a reminder that the country’s civil aviation industry is “decades” behind the west and remains heavily dependent on western suppliers. “The jury is still out on whether China can develop an internationally recognised and successful aerospace industry,” says Sash Tusa, aerospace and defence analyst at research firm Agency Partners. The C919 was due at the end of last year. No date for delivery has been set though in May the first test flight of an aircraft that is set to be delivered was completed. The jet is being developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), a state-backed group spun out from China’s military. China is set to become the world’s largest market for air travel and has 248 operational airports, according to the Centre for Aviation. It is now one of the two most important markets for the two global aviation giants Boeing and Airbus. Boeing forecasts that one in every five commercial aeroplanes ordered between 2021 and 2040 will be for customers in China. At the start of this month, Airbus announced a deal with four Chinese airlines for 292 single-aisle A320 aircraft, which carry a ticket value of $37bn. But according to Jim Harris, who leads the aerospace and defence practice at Bain & Company, Comac will end the Boeing-Airbus duopoly in China for large commercial aircraft before 2040. “The Chinese government is willing to invest tens of billions of dollars to achieve this strategic outcome, and China provides a large captive domestic market in which Beijing can mandate orders for Comac even if the C919 is less competitive than western alternatives,” he says.<br/>

A combination of coronavirus pandemic-enforced lay-offs, staff career changes, and pent-up demand for travel is posing a huge resourcing challenge to the commercial aviation industry — at a time when its finances remain under strain. An analysis by Oxford Economics, in conjunction with aviation trade bodies, shows that 2.3mn jobs have been lost across airlines, airports and civil aerospace groups since the outbreak of Covid-19 — a 21 per cent reduction compared with pre-pandemic levels. But with millions of people suddenly eager to travel again as lockdown restrictions ease globally, companies are having to rush to recruit new staff. After laying off 10,000 employees, IAG-owned British Airways is recruiting 3,000 cabin crew. Meanwhile, global airport operator Swissport wants to hire 30,000 workers, having lost 20,000 staff in an effort to slash costs when the pandemic hit. While these shortfalls remain, however, many companies are struggling to cope. In May, the UK union Unite warned of “chronic staff shortages” across the aviation industry and said employers would pay “the price of mass sackings during the pandemic”. Aerospace headhunter Emma Robinson explains that it is not simply a case of rehiring. “The biggest issue facing the aviation industry at the moment is a lack of staff: they’ve lost the workforce during Covid, and they have not returned.” Robinson points out that many aviation workers were on low or minimum wage levels before the pandemic and have since found themselves “better off” in alternative jobs requiring a similar level of skills. “They might still have a lack of job satisfaction in their new role, but they work more social hours and have a better work-life balance,” she notes. Aviation job locations can also deter candidates, post-Covid. “People don’t want to commute like they used to,” says Robinson, “meaning that, if a job can’t be done remotely, there is now a limited pool of people who live in the area that may be suitable.”<br/>

The head of Embraer's planemaking unit said on Wednesday it expects to select an engine in the fourth quarter for a potential new turboprop plane that the Brazilian company expects to launch in early to mid-2023. Embraer Commercial Aviation CE Arjan Meijer said the company is talking to Raytheon Technologies unit Pratt & Whitney Canada and to Britain's Rolls-Royce about engines for the project. The third major engine maker in the market, General Electric, is not offering an engine, he added in an interview. Meijer said Embraer has letters of intent for "250-plus" aircraft from a broad slate of regions and types of operator, adding: "I underline 'plus'." Embraer has been discussing returning to the turboprop sector since 2017 as it looks to expand its portfolio. It said in 2020 it could opt for a combination of industrial and financial backing, though some analysts expect a more traditional approach based on risk-sharing deals with suppliers. Turboprops are said to be more efficient on shorter trips and are particularly attractive at a time of higher oil prices. The market is currently dominated by Franco-Italian ATR, which has announced plans to switch to upgraded engines provided by Pratt & Whitney Canada.<br/>

Saudi Arabia plans to stage a number of roadshows in the next 12 to 18 months as it seeks to persuade the likes of Amazon.com, Alibaba Group Holding and Deutsche Post AG’s DHL to help scale up air-cargo and distribution operations. The Mideast country will invite private companies to establish partnerships and set up freight-forwarding and warehousing activities, Mohammed Fahad Alkhuraisi, vice president for strategy at the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation, said Wednesday. The push into air cargo and logistics aims to lift the amount of freight handled to 4.5m tons annually by the end of the decade as part of a $100b plan to expand aviation in line with the Vision 2030 strategy of overhauling the Saudi economy and reducing its reliance on oil. The country is expanding its airport infrastructure and setting up a new passenger airline in the Saudi capital Riyadh, preparations for which are “progressing very well,” Alkhuraisi said at the Farnborough International Airshow southwest of London. As part of the plan, the GACA is looking to coordinate with carriers to make sure “the overall picture makes sense,” he said, with discounters Flynas and Flyadeal operating short-haul services and flag-carrier Saudia serving long-haul, pilgrimage and Red Sea tourism markets from its hub in Jeddah.<br/>