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Airline executives at Britain’s Farnborough International Airshow are betting on the use of so-called sustainable aviation fuels to reduce their climate impact, saying the technology is already available and can eventually be scaled up to help the industry reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Campaigners are urging them to “get real,” however, dismissing the plans as “completely unrealistic” on current growth pathways. Instead, demand management measures are seen as the most effective way for the aviation industry to reduce its near-term climate impact. That comes as leaders in the aerospace and defense industry gather in extreme heat at the Farnborough International Airshow, the UK’s first major air show since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. The five-day trade exhibition, which began on Monday, has seen thousands of attendees gather in southern England to discuss the future of aviation. Compared with other sectors, aviation is a relatively small contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is recognized as one of the fastest-growing — and the number of flights is expected to grow at an alarming rate over the coming decades. If aviation is to align itself with the landmark Paris climate accord and curb global heating, the industry will need to move away from fossil fuels completely in the long term. One of the ways that the sector is seeking to replace conventional fossil jet fuel is by exploring the use of sustainable aviation fuels, or SAF. Chris Raymond, chief sustainability officer at Boeing, believes SAF will be a “necessary component” in helping the industry get to net-zero emissions by the middle of the century. “It’s not a bridge,” Raymond said at a press briefing on Monday. “SAF is required. It’s SAF and whatever else we can do.” Reflecting on Boeing’s outlook for SAF through to 2050, Raymond said, “These pathways to make these fuels will get better and cleaner as there’s more renewable electricity [and] as the hydrogen source becomes more renewable because we’re making it more often with electrolysis and renewable energy grids.”<br/>

Anyone who's been to an airport recently can see that demand for travel is back in a big way. What's not back with a vengeance are the resources needed to handle the crush of air travelers. Add summer weather to staffing issues at airports and airlines and you have a perfect storm of delays and cancellations. At one North American airport -- Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada -- more than half of the scheduled flights between May 26 and July 19 were delayed, according to data compiled for CNN Travel by flight tracking site FlightAware. A whopping 52.5% of the airport's scheduled flights have been delayed this summer, the data shows. Toronto Pearson also ranks No. 4 for flight cancellations globally, with 6.5% of its flights canceled during that period. Air Canada on Tuesday introduced a flexible policy offering fee-free ticket changes (subject to availability) targeted specifically at Toronto Pearson "due to longer than usual delays." The policy allows travelers to change their departing or arriving flights to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport or to extend connection times at Toronto Pearson. Air Canada has already cut its summer schedule to reduce flight disruptions and federal agency Transport Canada has been working with the industry to reduce wait times. Of course, Toronto's airport is far from alone in struggling with disruptions. Seven of the world's top 10 airports for delays this summer, ranked by the percentage of scheduled flights delayed, are in Europe. Airports in Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam and London are seeing the most significant delays, according to FlightAware data. Story has more.<br/>

It’s not just a pilot shortage that’s limiting US airlines’ operations and disrupting countless flights. Sometimes, there aren’t enough pillows. American Airlines Group and some other carriers are struggling with supply-chain challenges that have left them short of everything from food to drinking cups to, yes, pillows. That’s causing additional headaches for airlines as they struggle to get supply lines disrupted by the pandemic “all back in sync,” American CEO Robert Isom said Thursday. “Not a day goes by where we don’t have issues with provisioning our airplanes with pillows, blankets, plastic cups, food,” he said on a conference call to discuss quarterly results. “At various times we have issues with fueling, concessionaires at the airport. It’s just a myriad of things that all have to come together to put an aircraft in the air.” United Airlines says it’s faced staffing shortages at some airports and “we don’t get everything we want all the time” when it comes to onboard food. But there hasn’t been an impact to flights, said CFO Gerry Laderman. American, United and Delta Air Lines Inc. are all limiting flying for the rest of this year, and some into 2023, as the industry tries to curb flight disruptions caused in part by labor shortages and higher costs. <br/>

A group of US unions has come out against raising the pilot retirement age from 65 currently – an idea that has been circulating in order to help alleviate the current pilot shortage. In a letter to US senators on 19 July, the seven unions deny a shortage even exists, calling it a “false narrative” created by airlines and an “excuse for some airlines to water down pilot training requirements and flight experience time”. The letter’s signatories are: Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), Association of Flight Attendants, CWA (AFA-CWA), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD) and the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU). They say that the proposal would have “many unintended consequences” for both passengers and junior pilots, and will not increase pilot supply as intended. “Increasing the pilot retirement age would force pilots over 65 to leave desirable international routes to fly domestic routes often operated by smaller aircraft that operate more frequently,” the seven unions write. “This requires retraining on different equipment, which increases costs to airlines and pilots who must spend additional time and resources to receive training. In addition, pilots over 65 would displace pilots on domestic-only routes, putting the future pilot pipeline at risk.” Airlines have been forced to cut their schedules and cancel flights this summer due to a dearth of qualified cockpit crew as the industry recovers more quickly than expected from Covid-19. ”The real problem is airline management’s poor planning for a pandemic recovery,” the letter says. “Airlines furloughed, displaced, and moved pilots out of their seats and off of their aircraft. As a result, airlines are now forced to needlessly retrain pilots, resulting in a training backlog of their own making.”<br/>

Officials halted flights into and out of Reagan Washington National Airport for about 13 minutes on Thursday after a drone sighting was reported, the FAA said. The FAA said it immediately notified law enforcement and said operations have resumed but there were some residual delays. The FAA did not immediately respond to a question about whether the drone or the operator was located.<br/>The area around Washington National Airport has the strictest prohibitions on drones in the United States. Flying a drone within the 15-mile radius of the airport is prohibited without specific FAA authorization, a requirement that covers all of Washington, DC. The FlightAware.com tracking service said 90 flights at National had been delayed, or 20% and seven were canceled. Washington National is the closest airport to the U.S. capital and used by many lawmakers and other government officials.<br/>

Hundreds of screeners at the Edmonton International Airport could go on strike next month. The screeners, who are employed by GardaWorld, voted 95 per cent in favour of rejecting the latest contract offer by the company and going on strike. GardaWorld is the third-party contractor hired by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority for security screening at the airport. “Right now to get any form of bonus at work, Garda employees, screeners are being asked to cancel their summer vacation plans, not take any sick days, even if they have COVID, even if they’re sick, and even miss any bereavement days that come up on their schedule,” said Catherine Cosgrove of Teamsters Canada, the union that represents the screeners. Cosgrove says delays caused by airlines dealing with stressed out passengers is also hard on workers. “Everyone is kind of at their wits end, not particularly happy, and our members are the ones who bear the brunt of it. So what they’re looking for are conditions that kind of make it worthwhile to do this type of work.” There is a cooling off period in place until Aug. 13, but if a deal is not reached between the company and its employees by that date, they could walk off the job. It’s unknown at this point what that strike would look like. “A legal strike cannot occur before an application regarding maintenance of services has been considered by the CIRB. No date has been scheduled for this hearing,” a spokesperson for CATSA said in a written statement. “CATSA is following the negotiations closely and trusts that the two parties will continue to bargain in good faith.” EIA says it can’t comment on third party negotiations.<br/>

Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre said Thursday a federal government led by him would approve a runway expansion at Toronto's Billy Bishop airport which would allow jets to fly in and out of the downtown. Poilievre said the move would increase competition in the aviation sector and provide passengers with an alternative to Toronto's Pearson International Airport. "Travel at Pearson is a mess right now," he said. "There could have been way more flights out of Billy Bishop airport in downtown Toronto, meaning more competition and more choice, but the dreadful gatekeepers wouldn't let it happen. I will reverse Trudeau's decision to side with them and allow jets to fly in and out of Billy Bishop airport to give people back control of their lives." Pearson International has struggled recently with flight delays and cancellations as airlines adjust to higher passenger levels following the pandemic slowdown. Pearson and Air Canada have led the pack internationally in the percentage of flights delayed over the past month, frequently surpassing 50%. "We can all understand why they're angry and frustrated. Your flight gets cancelled 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. The union represents 16,000 air transport workers, including 5,600 customer service and sales agents at Air Canada.<br/>

The UK’s aviation and competition regulators on Thursday warned airlines over “harmful practices” in their treatment of passengers this summer and said they could take action against the sector if “serious problems” persisted. The Civil Aviation Authority and Competition and Markets Authority expressed concern that consumers could “experience significant harm” unless carriers handled the issue of flight disruption more effectively. Staff shortages across the aviation industry have prompted airlines to cancel tens of thousands of flights this summer. Although many of the cancellations have been in advance, passengers have also suffered from a spate of last-minute cancellations and delays. In a joint letter the CAA and CMA said they were “concerned that some airlines may not be doing everything they could to avoid engaging in . . . harmful practices”. Such practices included selling more tickets than carriers could “reasonably expect to fly” and not looking after passengers properly when flights were cancelled. “We expect airlines to ensure they closely monitor their likely ability to ensure flights take off as scheduled, and do not continue marketing tickets for flights if they cannot be reasonably confident they will go ahead,” the agencies wrote. The letter said there were concerns over airlines not “always fully satisfying obligations” to offer to reroute consumers if flights were cancelled, adding that carriers had “failed to give consumers sufficiently clear and upfront information” about their rights upon cancellation.<br/>

Australia’s airlines recorded their worst-ever month for flight delays and cancellations in June, surpassing the previous record low result set just two months earlier during the Easter holidays in April. The severe disruption was seen throughout the month as the industry continued to battle post-pandemic staff shortages. June’s issues were further fuelled by a mid-year school holiday travel surge and severe weather events, including flash flooding throughout NSW. According to new data released by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE), just 63.0% of all flights arrived on time in June, while 61.9% departed on schedule. Meanwhile, a total of 5.8% of all flights were cancelled over the month, nearly three times more than the long-term cancellation average.<br/>

Cargo airline Cargolux has picked Boeing’s 777-8 freighter to replace its fleet of the US planemaker’s 747-400 aircraft, the two companies said at the Farnborough Airshow on Thursday. Boeing said it was not yet clear how many planes Cargolux would order. The all-cargo airline is the largest operator of widebody Boeing freighters in Europe, with a combined total fleet of 30 747-400 and 747-8 freighters, they said. <br/>