Airlines have cancelled flights to Taipei and rerouted others to avoid airspace nearby that has been closed to civilian traffic during Chinese military exercises sparked by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. China deployed scores of planes and fired live missiles near Taiwan on Thursday in its biggest-ever drills in the Taiwan Strait, set to run until noon local time (0400 GMT) on Sunday in six zones encircling much of the island. The airspace involved is comparatively small, but the disruption from the largest military exercises by China in the area since it fired missiles off the coast in 1996 is hampering travel between Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. Temporary airspace closures and route changes during major military exercises occur regularly around the world. This situation is unusual in that China’s exercises bisect Taiwan’s claimed 12 nautical miles of territorial waters - something Taiwanese officials say challenges the international order and amount to a blockade of its sea and airspace. Korean Air Lines and Singapore Airlines said they had cancelled flights to and from Taipei on Friday due to the exercises, with the Korean carrier also cancelling its Saturday flights and delaying Sunday flights. Japan’s ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines are still operating flights to Taipei as normal, spokespeople for the airlines said, but are avoiding the affected airspace on those flights, as well as on routes to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd and Philippines Airlines said their flights were avoiding designated airspace zones around Taiwan, in a move that could lead to more flying time for some flights, while Vietnam’s aviation regulator warned its airlines to avoid the area. Flight tracking service FlightRadar24 showed Taiwanese carriers China Airlines and EVA Airways were still flying to and from the island as of Friday morning, as were cargo carriers FedEx Corp and United Parcel Service, though avoiding the areas affected by the military drills.<br/>
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Amid an infuriating summer for air travel, the Department of Transportation is proposing changes to federal policy that guide flight refunds, providing more recourse for passengers when airlines cancel flights or significantly alter a flight’s schedule, route or seat categories. The rule, which the agency will decide on after a 90-day public comment period closes, would also require US carriers that received pandemic aid to issue a full refund if a passenger chooses not to travel because of certain coronavirus-related factors, such as a country shutting down to nonessential travel. “This new proposed rule would protect the rights of travelers and help ensure they get the timely refunds they deserve from the airlines,” said Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, in a statement on Wednesday announcing the proposal. Under the current Department of Transportation policy, airlines are already supposed to reimburse passengers for flights that have been canceled or “significantly changed.” But carriers have been accused of exploiting both the ambiguity around the term “significantly changed” and the fact that many air travelers do not know that they are entitled to refunds, instead of credits, for canceled flights. The proposed policy defines “significantly changed” as a three-hour delay for a domestic flight and a six-hour delay for an international flight. The new rule would also entitle passengers to full refunds for any switch in the departure or destination airport, the addition of a layover or a change in aircraft that causes a significant downgrade in seat class. This week, several Democratic senators, including Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, both of Massachusetts, introduced a bill with similar protections. <br/>
The chief US aviation safety regulator is making an unusual public show of concern about Boeing Co.’s manufacturing processes with a visit Thursday to a plant that builds the company’s troubled 787 Dreamliner jets. The FAA’s acting administrator, Billy Nolen, plans to meet with agency safety inspectors in South Carolina, the agency said in an emailed statement. He will also meet with Boeing officials at a plant in North Charleston to discuss the company’s new internal safety program that it began in the wake of the two fatal crashes on the 737 Max jets. Boeing and the FAA last week reached an agreement on how to fix the 787’s manufacturing flaws that had halted most deliveries since late 2020. The agency hasn’t formally approved the release of any individual jets yet, but Bloomberg has reported that deliveries could resume as soon as next week. “The purpose of the visit is to ensure that the FAA is satisfied that Boeing has taken the appropriate steps to improve manufacturing quality and to guarantee the autonomy of workers who ensure regulatory compliance on the company’s assembly lines,” the FAA said in an emailed release. <br/>
Air-freight company Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc said on Thursday it had agreed to be bought by an investor group led by private equity giant Apollo Global Management Inc in a deal valued at $3.2b. The offer of $102.50 per share represents a 35% premium to Atlas Air’s closing price on Friday, before media reports on the deal. Atlas Air offers air leasing services that customers can use to ship perishables, heavy construction equipment or passengers. The Purchase, New York-based company counts Boeing Co, FedEx Corp and MotoGP among its customers, according to its website. Airlines’ fortunes have improved as pent-up demand for travel prompts customers to step out of the pandemic bubble, but the industry has been battling inflation pressures and staff shortages in a tight labor market. This year’s rout in equities and a drop in stock valuations has offered private equity firms an opportunity to buy companies on the cheap. Such firms were the chief driver of global deal-making in the first half of the year, even as mergers and acquisitions slowed due to hostile market conditions.<br/>
Travellers at Canada’s busiest airports continue to see frequent delays, but there are signs the situation is improving as summer travel season kicks into high gear. On Tuesday, Toronto Pearson International Airport and Montreal-Trudeau International Airport ranked fourth and fifth worldwide for delays, with 38% of flights experiencing holdups, according to data from tracking service FlightAware. Earlier in the summer, data from the service indicated Pearson and Trudeau were the two worst airports globally for flight delays. Pearson’s Terminal 1 was quiet on Wednesday, with most flights arriving and departing as scheduled. The crowds were small, with no long line ups at check-in or security. Tuesday’s data came after a long weekend when Canadian airlines flying out of Pearson continued to see heavy delays. On Saturday, FlightAware data showed 59% of the flights originating from Pearson on Air Canada’s regional carrier Jazz Aviation were delayed, with Air Canada Rouge at 58%, and Air Canada at 54%.<br/>
One of the clearest signs that tourism in BC is on the rebound is that more than 2m travellers passed through Vancouver International Airport in July – the most in a calendar month since December 2019. The 2,060,126 passengers who either departed flights or boarded them at Vancouver’s main airport last month is nearly triple the 693,774 passengers who did that in July 2021. That surge in traffic prompted some long line-ups and lost bags, although not at the scale seen at other Canadian airports, such as Toronto Pearson International Airport. Airlines, government departments and private companies that oversee airport screening have been rapidly hiring workers in Vancouver and across the globe in efforts to reduce congestion. Canadian Air Transport Security Authority data holds that approximately 81.5% of YVR passengers were screened within 15 minutes during July. While the rapid rise in air travellers shows that the tourism sector is rebounding, YVR’s traffic volume in July was 78.9% of the 2,612,363 passengers who either boarded planes or arrived at YVR in the same month in 2019.<br/>
Safety analysts are looking to assess fatigue risks for European air traffic controllers, particularly in light of advances in technology and future evolution of the operational environment. Some 18,000 controllers operate in Europe and a comprehensive view of the way fatigue risk is managed – five years since the introduction of mandatory provisions – will serve to evaluate the need for further guidance or regulation. Controllers must remain alert and effective during duty periods and be prepared to handle unexpected situations, says the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. “Their work is usually organised in rosters which, in many cases, include night shifts and rotating shifts, exposing the [controller] to various levels of stress and boredom, and to the risk of fatigue,” it states. EASA is inviting interested parties to conduct a research study on controller fatigue which will explore three aspects. It will assess the implementation of European Union regulations, looking at how provisions – such as rostering strategies – have been put in place across a representative group of air navigation services providers, and compare the current regulatory framework with the previous one. This evaluation will include at least 10 air navigation providers serving at least half of en route EU traffic, including three of the seven largest, as well as 15 airport air traffic control services handling at least 25% of EU traffic.<br/>
Cathay Pacific and Air Seychelles have overflown Saudi Arabia for Israel flights for the first time, aviation data showed on Thursday, after Riyadh announced last month it would open its airspace to all airlines, paving the way for more overflights to and from Israel. Opening Saudi airspace to flights to and from Israel was a focus of US President Joe Biden's tour of the countries, which do not have formal ties, last month. Riyadh agreed in principle. Israel said implementation could take weeks or more. Air Seychelles said it "became the first airline to receive permission from the Saudi Arabian authorities to overfly their territory", with Wednesday evening's Tel Aviv to Mahe flight. The new route "means a reduction in fuel burn between 500kg-1000kg per flight (and that) the aircraft can now carry an additional 20 passengers per flight," it said. "The Saudi air traffic controllers were extremely helpful and allowed us to navigate with optimal conditions for passenger comfort," the airline quoted the flight's captain as saying.<br/>
Major airplane lessor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise said on Thursday it didn't know if it would ever get back 19 jets leased in Russia after Moscow passed a law allowing for hundreds of jets to be seized in response to Western sanctions. The Dubai state-owned lessor reiterated that it had written off $576.5m for the planes and filed insurance claims to recover amounts due. It had previously said it had filed insurance claims of $1b, while noting the amount could increase. Sanctions imposed by Western countries after Russia's invasion of Ukraine forced lessors to terminate contracts with Russian airlines. Moscow retaliated by barring leased jets from being repossessed, though some airlines have since returned some aircraft. Dubai Aerospace said it had terminated contracts on 22 aircraft leased to Russian airlines in compliance with sanctions and that it had no control over 19 jets that were currently in Russia. "The Group is unable to determine whether these aircraft will be returned at any point in the future," it said in its half-year report. It was not immediately clear what type of aircraft were in Russia. In March Dubai Aerospace said that aircraft leased in Russia accounted for 7% of its leased aircraft fleet by net book value.<br/>
Air Lease Corp Thursday reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as a shortage of jets due to delays in deliveries from Boeing and Airbus boosted demand for the lessor's planes. A stretched supply chain and an acute labor shortage has stymied Boeing and Airbus' ability to stick to their delivery schedule, leaving carriers to turn to Air Lease for its new and young-used aircraft. While delays are also a headache for the Los Angeles-based leasing giant, which has a $28b order backlog with the planemakers, it has boosted lease rates of its existing fleet. Air Lease said it would examine progress payments that the company makes to Boeing and Airbus as deliveries of aircraft get delayed. Boeing declined to comment when asked about Air Lease's move. "We continue to experience delays of several months on our Airbus narrow-body deliveries and 737 MAXs also continued to be delayed as well," said Air Lease CE John Plueger. He warned the supply challenges will likely extend to the next couple of years, which would likely further exacerbate the current shortage of jets. Both Airbus and Boeing typically sell planes to leasing companies to stay afloat when economic concerns deter airlines from purchasing. Meanwhile, the leasing giant said it has submitted insurance claims for its jets stranded in Russia, for which it booked charges of about $800m in April. <br/>
Aero-engineer Rolls-Royce (RR.L) disappointed investors by reporting a bigger-than-expected fall in first-half profit on Thursday, underscoring the challenge facing its new CE of restoring the health of its civil aviation business. Shares in Rolls-Royce fell 7.5% after the British company, whose engines power the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787, reported its underlying operating profit fell to GBP125m ($152m) from 307m a year earlier, missing consensus by 24%. Its civil aviation business reported an underlying operating loss of GBP79m ($96m) despite a 43% increase in flying hours, a key driver of revenue. CE Warren East, who will be succeeded by ex-BP executive Tufan Erginbilgic at the end of the year, pointed to an improvement in free cash flow of GBP1.1b and strong order intake in its power systems business. He said cash flow was still expected to be "modestly" positive for the whole year, after a cash burn of GBP68m in the first half.<br/>
Kuwait’s Agility, one of the largest Gulf logistics companies, said on Thursday it has finalised its GBP763m ($924.37m) acquisition of British aviation services company John Menzies. Agility said it will combine the acquisition with its National Aviations Services (NAS) and the deal values Menzies at approximately GBP571m on a fully diluted basis and about GBP763m on an enterprise value basis. “Once integrated, the combined company will operate as Menzies Aviation and will be the world’s largest aviation services company by number of countries and second largest by number of airports served,” Agility said. The combined revenue of NAS and Menzies topped $1.5b last year. The new combined entity will provide air cargo services, fuel services and ground services at 254 airports in 58 countries. Hassan El-Houry, previously CE at NAS, becomes Menzies Aviation’s chairman and Menzies Aviation CEO Philipp Joeinig will be CEO of the combined entity.<br/>