general

Airline ticket prices fell sharply in July after peaking in recent months, fueled by high costs, high demand and a limited number of flights. Fares fell 7.8% in July compared to June, helping to ease overall inflation. Aviation experts said they expect prices to continue to drop into the fall as jet fuel prices and demand ease. Fares peaked in May when many travelers began confirming summer travel plans. After more than two years of exercising caution, many people took longer trips this summer, which is typically the busiest season for air travel. At the same time, many airlines cut the number of flights on their summer schedules to reduce the risk of mass delays and cancellations because of weather and staffing problems especially around holidays and other peak travel days. Fares were also driven up by high labor and fuel costs. The drop in fares last month coincided with a decline in US jet fuel prices, which were down about 25% at the end of last month, from their peak at the end of April, according to the Energy Information Administration. Flight prices typically drop from late August through mid-fall as summer travel eases, according to Hopper, a travel booking and price-tracking app. Fares are expected to average $286 this month, down as much as 25% from May, Hopper said. Fares are expected to stay below $300 through September, before rising again, to a peak of $373 in November, up 24% from the same month in 2019, Hopper said. Despite broader economic concerns, airline executives have said in recent weeks that they haven’t seen a substantial decline in bookings beyond usual seasonal trends.<br/>

Air traffic disruptions have plagued summer travelers, and this past weekend was no exception. Friday was the worst day for cancellations since mid-June, with 1,613 US flights canceled, according to data from flight tracking site FlightAware. And cancellations kept stacking up over the weekend. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is not happy with the continued air travel chaos and is calling on travelers to share their experiences. While Buttigieg acknowledged that severe weather this weekend disrupted air travel, "it shouldn't have created the kind of ripple effects through the system that it did. "That is something that to me is an indication that we still have not seen the improvements that we need, that the system is very brittle," Buttigieg said Wednesday. He said the "human factor" is the biggest contributor to snarled air traffic. "Not having enough crew, especially pilots, to do the job. And airlines, of course, have an obligation to service the tickets that they sell," Buttigieg said. Buttigieg met with airlines before July 4, calling for more realistic schedules, more pilot training and more responsive customer service. He said the meeting also addressed how the FAA could help ease disruptions. Airlines have been preemptively trimming their schedules to ease disruptions. American Airlines announced cuts to September and October flights last week. The DOT last week proposed a rule that would expand protections for travelers seeking refunds, and the Secretary invited the public to weigh in on the rule and to file complaints when airlines aren't responsive. The proposed rule would more clearly define cases where flights are significantly changed or canceled to provide a clearer path to refunds in addition to creating more pandemic-related consumer protection.<br/>

Canada's transport regulator says its backlog of air passenger complaints is growing as a staff shortage comes up against a summer of airport chaos, which itself is due in part to labour shortages. Tom Oommen, director general of analysis and outreach at the Canadian Transportation Agency, says the quasi-judicial body is trying to hire more facilitators who can help resolve customer complaints against airlines. “We are hiring,” Oommen said. “But people are always looking for other opportunities and places to leverage their knowledge. It's kind of an employee's market these days.” The complaint backlog ballooned to more than 15,300 in May. It rose further “in the last month or so,” Oommen said, as a surge in travellers overwhelmed airline and airport resources following two years of muted demand. Oommen said it's “entirely possible” the regulator will receive more than 15,000 new complaints - distinct from the existing backlog - this fiscal year, which began April 1. That total would top the 12,158 fresh complaints from the previous 12 months, many relating to refunds withheld following flight cancellations by airlines. It takes about 19 business days on average to resolve a complaint once it reaches an agency facilitator, but that file now takes about a year before it lands on their desk, with case numbers continuing to climb, Oommen said. Complaints seeking compensation for flight delays and cancellations - and, more recently, misplaced luggage - comprise the bulk of cases, he said. Worker retention is among the staffing challenges facing the Gatineau, Que.-based regulator, which pays new facilitators between $65,500 and $70,700 per year, according to a federal government job posting.<br/>

French police on Wednesday shot dead a man armed with a knife who was behaving aggressively at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, officials said. A police source said the man, shot by one police officer, was homeless and had threatened airport security staff and police. "The police this morning ... neutralised an individual armed with an offensive weapon at the Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport," police said on Twitter. No terrorism link was suspected, police said.<br/>

The UK and China have agreed to resume direct passenger flights, a sign that Chinese authorities are slowly loosening their grip on the world’s tightest Covid-19 regime and opening up to travel again. Chinese airlines will offer the first flights and work is ongoing to resume routes for UK carriers, the British Embassy in China said in a tweet, confirming an agreement between the UK Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The agreement follows other moves by China to ease its stringent pandemic border policy. Mandatory quarantine was halved to seven days in June and direct flights to the capital Beijing are starting up again for the first time since 2020. While likely to appease students and others wanting to return, China still has the toughest border curbs globally and stands in stark contrast to other places that allow people to travel freely again. Chinese authorities are continuing an aggressive Covid Zero approach at home, locking down cities even if only a handful of virus cases are detected and testing residents regularly. <br/>

Online searches for flights out of Hong Kong surged by 290% in the 24 hours after the government announced shorter hotel quarantine requirements on Monday, according to travel company Expedia Group Inc. The top-trending destination was Thailand’s capital Bangkok, followed by Osaka in Japan, with flight searches jumping tenfold for both from the previous seven-day average, Expedia said. Travel within Asia was the most popular -- strong demand was also seen for flights to Seoul, Phuket and Singapore. “Whilst the reduction of quarantine requirements has clearly played a key role in inspiring renewed travel interest, Expedia’s flight search data has indicated that Hong Konger’s interest in the resumption of overseas travel has been gradually picking-up over the course of the last six months,” Lavinia Rajaram, Expedia’s head of public relations in Asia, said in a statement Wednesday. Interest in international flight searches on Expedia.com.hk grew 60% in April-June from the previous quarter, Rajaram said. Hong Kong has cut mandatory hotel quarantine to three nights from seven, with arrivals needing to take daily Covid-19 tests for the subsequent four days and restricted from so-called high risk places such as restaurants. Still, the easing lags most of the rest of the world, and arrivals run the risk of being sent to government isolation centers if they test positive. That’s left many calling for further loosening. Searches for shorter breaks of four to seven days in Asia doubled after Monday’s announcement, according to Expedia, which said such trips are “clearly in the minds of Hong Kong travelers in the immediate term, with end of summer escapes in the next two to three weeks proving popular.” A study in June found that the main factors holding back Hong Kong residents from overseas travel were concerns over complex quarantine requirements and the high cost of quarantine, Expedia said. <br/>

India will remove the fare caps it imposed on domestic airlines in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic from Aug. 31, the country's civil aviation ministry said on Wednesday, lifting restrictions on ticket prices. The government, in a rare move, had regulated fares by imposing a minimum and maximum band based on the flight's duration to prevent ticket prices from spiking due to pent-up demand arising from restrictions on air travel easing. The fare caps were imposed by the government when it lifted restrictions on air travel in May 2020, after two months of grounding all planes to curb the virus' spread. At the time it said that for a two-hour flight between the cities of Mumbai and Delhi, airlines would be allowed to charge a minimum fare of 3,500 rupees ($44) and a maximum of 10,000 rupees ($126), while ensuring that 40% of the tickets sold were priced below the median value.<br/>

Direct flights from India and Australia are helping to sustain Phuket's tourism industry during low season, but a full recovery might not be seen this year as the major Chinese and Russian markets are unable to resume overseas travel, says Thaneth Tantipiriyakij, president of the Phuket Tourist Association. Thaneth said the number of international direct flights to the island was currently 20-30 per day on average, mainly from India, which is accounting for more than 47 flights per week. This has turned India into Phuket's No.1 source of tourists. Phuket tourism operators held roadshows in three Indian cities -- New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore -- between Aug 1-6 with the support of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization, in an attempt to capitalise on growing demand from this market. The number of guests on the island from markets that typically visit during low season, such as Australia, had also improved, buoyed by a resumption in flights from Sydney and Melbourne operated by Thai Airways International and Jetstar Airways. Meanwhile, the island also hopes to see rising traffic from South Korea, with more direct flights from Seoul to Phuket resuming since last month.<br/>

With Samoa fully reopening its borders on August 1, another Pacific country moved tentatively forwards after two years of border closures and little or no international tourism. But opening up is not as simple as flipping a switch, given the many challenges facing Pacific aviation. Rising fuel costs, mounting debt, management issues and a shortage of pilots have all plagued the industry in the region. Climate change adds to these problems. Tourism aside, small island nations with very small economies, spread across a vast expanse of ocean, depend on high carbon-emitting air transport for health, trade and family connections. These days, most Pacific national airlines are being kept afloat by government loans and guarantees – and in Fiji’s case, workers’ pension funds. With Pacific Forum economic ministers meeting in Vanuatu from Thursday, all these issues should be high on the agenda. Unfortunately, difficult conversations about the management of national airlines were largely absent at the earlier Pacific Forum leaders meeting in Fiji in July. This was despite the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent “to protect and secure our Pacific people, place and prospects” laid out at the meeting. And it would have been disappointing to the ordinary taxpayers who have often supported their loss-making national carriers. In 2021, for example, the Samoan government clipped the wings of Samoan Airways over concerns about its ongoing viability. The role of maintaining national prestige and pride in the form of an airline is still raised in debates about the nation’s near bankruptcy in the early 1990s. Now, with international borders reopening, Samoa Airways has announced it will no longer operate long-haul flights to Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland – traditionally its primary sources of passengers and freight.<br/>

Boeing delivered its first 787 Dreamliner in more than a year on Wednesday, ending a pause on handovers of the jetliners that was sparked by a series of manufacturing flaws. American Airlines took the first new delivery from Boeing’s 787 factory in South Carolina, the carrier’s CEO, Robert Isom, said in an Instagram post. The delivery is a milestone for Boeing. The planes are a key source of cash for the manufacturer, and the bulk of an aircraft’s price is paid upon delivery — though the company has had to compensate customers for the delays. Deliveries have been on hold for much of the past two years. Boeing said earlier this year that the production defects and a drop in output during the delivery hold will cost it $5.5b. Dreamliner customers like American and United Airlines have had to go without their new planes, which are often used for long-haul international routes, during a resurgence in demand for such trips this year. Among the issues discovered was tiny, incorrect spacing in some parts of the fuselage. “Every action and decision influences our customers’ trust in Boeing — we build trust one airplane at a time,” Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit, wrote in a note to staff Wednesday. “We’ll continue to take the time needed to ensure each one meets our highest quality standards.” The FAA earlier this week said it cleared Boeing to resume deliveries, which were set to begin this week.<br/>

The cost of business travel, from hotels to airfare, is set to rise through 2023 as demand returns more than two years after the Covid pandemic began, according to an industry report published Wednesday. Business travel airfare is on track to rise nearly 50% this year over 2021, following two years of steep declines, according to a report from travel management company CWT and the Global Business Travel Association. Next year, fares are set to increase more than 8%, the organizations said. Airline and hotel executives have been upbeat about a return to business travel after Covid-19 and measures to curb its spread, like travel restrictions, forced companies to put many work trips on hold. While leisure travel has roared back from 2020 pandemic lows, business travel has lagged, depriving hotels and airlines of an important source of revenue. Business travelers or their employers are often less price sensitive than leisure travelers and are more likely to book rooms or airline tickets that fetch a high price. American Airlines last month said domestic business travel revenue, which made up nearly a third of its 2019 passenger revenue, was 110% higher than it was three years ago, before the pandemic. That’s despite concerns about a slowing economy, travel industry labor shortages and other headaches, as some large corporations seek ways to cut back on spending. “The anecdotal feedback that we’re getting as we go into the fall is people have to travel more,” Chris Nassetta, CEO of Hilton Worldwide, said on a July 27 earnings call. “While people are worried about where the macro environment is going, they’ve got to run the businesses. And in fact, the more worried they are, the more they realize they sort of got to get out there and make sure they’re hustling.” Globally, hotel rates will likely surpass 2019 levels next year, the industry report said.<br/>

Flight disruption across Europe stifled trading at Tui in early summer, costing the tour operator E75m and pushing it to a loss in Q3. Sebastian Ebel, Tui’s newly appointed CE, said the company would “fight” for compensation from airport operators for the damage to business from the travel chaos. “We are going for compensation,” said Ebel. He added that it was “very much on our agenda . . . to get something in the next coming month and it should be significant”. Europe’s largest travel group hailed its “first broadly break-even quarter post-pandemic” and said that without the extra cost of flight cancellations and travel disruption, adjusted operating profits would have been E48m in the three months to June 30. Instead, Tui booked a loss of E27m over the period. Tui said about 4% of customers faced delays of more than three hours in May and June. But it added that it cancelled fewer than 200 flights over the same period, amounting to below 1% of its summer schedule. Tui said the disruption was “mainly caused by third-party suppliers and airports due to a shortage in ground handling and airports security staff, reliability issues with lease-in partners and supplier maintenance delays”. Manchester airport in northern England was hit hardest by the flight disruption. Ebel said the greater problems facing UK airports were caused in part to labour shortage issues.<br/>