The temporary disruption at London's Luton Airport on Monday when soaring temperatures caused a small section of the asphalt to lift is an example of the challenges airports face in making their infrastructure resilient to climate change, experts say. Below is an explanation of how global airports are coping with extreme heat and what may be needed to prevent future interruption from further heatwaves. The Luton runway was closed for nearly two hours on Monday, prompting airlines to delay or divert flights as temperatures rose above 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit), adding to industry headaches in what has been a chaotic summer travel season in Europe. A long-standing patch repair to a small section of the runway - the equivalent of 0.2% of the entire surface area - became so hot that it de-bonded and began to lift, a spokesperson for the airport said on Friday, adding it was repaired within two hours. It is built to the same specification as others in Britain, meeting industry safety standards and regulations, the spokesperson said. "We continue to evaluate all options regarding the ongoing maintenance and long-term resilience of all of our infrastructure." The spokesperson did not comment on questions about the timing of the runway's resurfacing, the type of asphalt used or any possible changes to the material. Runways are typically resurfaced every 10 to 15 years. Experts say the airport, one of Britain's busiest and used by budget airlines including Ryanair and EasyJetc, may be more vulnerable to heat because it is at a higher elevation than the others surrounding the capital: Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. Explainer has more.<br/>
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Marivi Wright’s “vacation from hell” began when Air France’s computer systems went down and staff had to check in passengers on her flight from New York to Europe by hand. She missed two connecting flights as she flew through Paris to Spain to visit her 83-year-old mother, landing in Malaga 12 hours late. Her luggage was nowhere to be seen. “My mum has dementia and this was my time to sit with her to go through pictures,” said Wright, explaining that those were in the missing bag. “I spent time buying clothes at the airport or filling claims . . . That’s time with my mum that I’ll never get back. I’m emotionally drained,” she added. Wright is one of millions of passengers who have endured a chaotic summer getaway as flight cancellations and disruptions have swept across Europe. The problems stem from chronic staff shortages across many parts of the aviation industry, including airlines, airports and ground-handling companies, which are subcontracted to provide services including check-in and baggage handling. As coronavirus travel restrictions were lifted and many planned their first trips in two years, demand has rebounded faster than the industry has been able to hire new staff. Outbreaks of industrial action have added to the problems, including a pilot strike at the Scandinavian airline SAS that contributed to it filing for bankruptcy this month. “There are problems right across airports in Europe,” said Akbar Al Baker, CE of Qatar Airways. “We face the same problems in France . . . Belgium, Holland, Germany. Actually it’s an epidemic.” Passengers have also endured unquantified delays, queues and lost luggage as the industry has been unable to handle the sheer number of passengers.<br/>
Boeing remains confident it can compete in China despite Airbus' recent bumper deal and US-China geopolitical tensions, according to a senior figure at the American aircraft maker. But Ihssane Mounir, senior vice president for commercial sales and marketing at Boeing, also warned that recovery for the industry as a whole depends on China --one of the world's largest aviation markets -- relaxing its COVID-19 restrictions. "I would say our business and our relationships with the Chinese market transcend the geopolitics. They transcend any of these temporary issues," Mounir said Wednesday. Travel within China will constitute the largest passenger flow in 2041, and the country will account for 21% of new airplane deliveries by the same year, according to the Boeing Commercial Market Outlook 2022. This makes the country a key battleground for manufacturing rivals Boeing and Airbus. China has traditionally represented 20% to 25% of Boeing's business, according to Mounir. Asia represents more than 60% of demand for its widebody craft. Observers have pointed to continuing U.S.-China tensions as well as the two fatal crashes of the Boeing 737 Max and their fallout as possible reasons why the U.S. company lost out on the recent deal. Mounir, however, downplayed European rival Airbus' deal with Chinese airlines earlier this month, which is said to be worth more than $37b. "You can't just look at one transaction," he cautioned, adding that market share in China with their competitor is currently "pretty much 50/50." Pointing to Boeing's 50-year history of working in China, he said, "I suspect we will get back to normal business in China fairly soon."<br/>
China's homegrown C919 narrow-body jet, designed to challenge the Airbus-Boeing duopoly, is nearing certification as its test planes completed all of the test flight tasks, the company said on Saturday. The state-owned manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC) said on its official social media account that the six test planes have finished the testing tasks as the programme enters the final stage of receiving a certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China which is required for commercial operations. That would mark a milestone in China's ambitions to climb up the manufacturing supply chain. Designed to compete directly with the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus 320neo families, the C919 aircraft programme has faced a range of technical issues and tougher US export controls, after being launched in 2008, Reuters has reported. The launch customer is the state-owned China Eastern Airlines, which has placed an order for five C919 jets in March last year. Changjiang Daily, a newspaper owned by the local government of Wuhan, said in a report on July 8 the airline is scheduled to take the first delivery in August.<br/>
Changi Airport’s Terminal 4 will reopen on Sept 13, with 16 airlines to relocate to the terminal progressively. This is as demand for travel rebounds, with airport gates at the currently operating Terminals 1, 2 and 3 becoming increasingly congested. Airlines have been demanding an increase in the number of flights in time for October, the start of the traditionally busier period for flights to and from Europe and America. Changi Airport Group on Friday announced the specific date for T4’s reopening, having previously said it would reopen in September. It is set to come before the opening of another quarter of Terminal 2 in October, which means half of T2 will be operational by then. This will return Changi Airport’s handling capacity to its pre-Covid-19 level of 70m passengers per year. “Over the next two months, CAG will conduct various operational readiness trials with the airlines and airport partners to ensure the smooth restart of operations in T4,” said CAG. “With a capacity of 16 million passengers per annum, the reopening of T4 will add to Changi Airport’s capacity, ensuring that the air hub can meet the increasing demand for air travel, and support airlines’ plans to launch more flights.”<br/>
Hong Kong will require travellers to the city to fill out an electronic health declaration form before boarding a flight, no longer allowing them to do the paperwork after landing, in an effort to make the process more efficient. The new system will begin on July 28 on a trial basis, the government said in a statement. In addition to standard health and arrival details, passengers must provide proof of vaccination and a reference number for a quarantine hotel stay in order to get the QR code needed to board a flight into the Asian financial hub, the government said. While most passengers already fill out the forms in advance, the few who do not can slow the arrival process and lengthen the time that travellers must spend at the Hong Kong International Airport. Passengers must still present documents and those without a QR code will be allowed to board during the trial period. Hong Kong's extensive and specific rules around vaccinations, testing and quarantine hotel bookings have caused confusion and controversy for travellers, as mistakes can derail plans and sorting them out can cause airport backlogs. The city plans to fully implement the electronic declaration form in August, making the pre-boarding documentation verification system digital and reducing the manpower it currently takes to carry out.<br/>
Aerospace has turned the page on an unprecedented pandemic demand shock with dozens new orders at its largest air show in three years - only to face mounting worries over supply chains and reminders that its future hinges on decarbonisation. From rural Farnborough to nearby Heathrow, this week brought stark evidence of the supply crunch now entangling manufacturers and airlines alike, with shortages of both labour and parts. It comes as airlines - whose expansion had propelled the industry to record profits in the past decade, only to collapse during the pandemic - are desperate to cash in on a nascent recovery in international travel. Even the Farnborough Airshow struggled to find enough hospitality staff despite downsizing from a seven-day aviation festival to a five-day trade show with no weekend aerobatics. "We have to accept that a lot of people left the aviation industry and the aerospace industry during 2020 and it is difficult to bring them back," Emirates president Tim Clark told delegates after clashing with Heathrow over capacity curbs. Departing Farnborough attendees got a personal taste of the resulting travel chaos after discussing their own shortages of labour, parts and materials at the July 18-22 aerospace event. Long lines formed at Britain's airports, Eurostar train terminal and the port of Dover on Friday - the start of the busiest travel weekend since 2019. For years, the alternating Farnborough and Paris air shows fed a fast-growing ecosystem as airlines lavished new orders on manufacturers, who served that demand in part by encouraging their supply chains to set up facilities in purchasing nations.<br/>
FedEx Corp. plans to scale back Sunday delivery service in far-flung areas of the US, the latest evidence that the e-commerce surge spurred by Covid-19 is ending. The courier’s Ground unit will pare service in rural and lightly populated areas, reducing its coverage to about 80% of the population from 95% now, according to a statement Thursday. “As economic conditions have shifted, we are making operational adjustments to suspend Sunday delivery operations in certain low-density, rural markets,” FedEx said. The 6,000 small companies that deliver packages for the Ground unit have been complaining that they’re losing money because of rising costs. On Wednesday, one large contractor called for Sunday service to be scrapped and for an extra payment to cover rising expenses for fuel, wages and vehicles. FedEx accelerated the rollout of Sunday service in 2020 to handle an historic increase of residential deliveries after Covid-19 spurred lockdowns to stem the spread of the virus. Volume at the Ground unit jumped 33% for the quarter ending in August 2020, during the height of the pandemic. In the latest quarter, the company reported the unit’s package volume fell 6.2%. It’s unclear what role the contractors’ complaints played in the decision to scale back Sunday service, which CEO Raj Subramaniam touted as a competitive advantage during an investor meeting in Memphis last month. <br/>
Rebecca Lutte regularly takes to the skies behind the controls of her RV-10 kit plane. Lutte, who is often joined in the air by her husband in the passenger seat, says that on several occasions air traffic controllers asked if her spouse was there in case of problems. "It's not often. But it just shows that there's still more work to be done," says Lutte. While some women have overcome such prejudice and made inroads into the sector in recent years, aeronautical careers remain largely the preserve of men -- especially at the top. According to a 2021 study by Lutte, an associate professor at the Aviation Institute, University of Nebraska at Omaha, fewer than 6% of pilots at the world's leading airlines are women. Just eight of the largest 100 carriers in the world in terms of passengers carried have female bosses. Those that do include Air France, under the baton of Anne Rigail, Aer Lingus' Lynne Embleton and since July 1 KLM's Marjan Rintel. "Aviation is a system that was originally designed by men and for men," says Lutte. "Over the years, women have gained in numbers, but they've really had to fit into a system that wasn't designed for them." Barriers faced by aspiring female aviators include uniforms designed for men and scant representation of women in training manuals. As in other sectors, sexism and aggressive sexual behaviour are pervasive. In a 2018 study by Women in Aviation International, 71% of women surveyed said they had suffered some form of workplace harassment. Several women have nonetheless made their mark on aviation. Story has more. <br/>