Airlines canceled more than 600 flights in the United States on Thursday morning, as thunderstorms in Texas disrupted operations at one of the busiest airports in the country for a second straight day. A total of 1,213 flights were canceled across the country on Wednesday, according to flight-tracking website Flightaware.com. The FAA said Thursday that a mix of thunderstorms and clouds could delay flights at several hubs. More than 2,000 flights were delayed within, into, or out of the United States. American Airlines Group said "unexpected and heavy" thunderstorms had hit operations at its largest hub at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, leading to the cancellation of many flights on Wednesday and Thursday, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. The airline canceled 368 flights on Wednesday and called off more than 300 as of Thursday morning, Flightaware.com data showed. "This was the worst storm we've seen at DFW this summer," American Airlines COO David Seymour said. Southwest also canceled nearly 250 flights on Wednesday, blaming weather and air traffic control programs. "We are working through some residual effects this morning," Southwest spokesperson Chris Perry said.<br/>
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Estonia issued tough new restrictions on visas for Russian nationals, reinforcing a call to ban entry for many into the European Union even as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz all but ruled out such a bloc-wide measure. Calls are mounting among eastern member states that a new round of EU sanctions should include restrictions on Russian nationals entering the 27-member bloc. Ukraine’s top diplomat added his voice to those saying President Vladimir Putin’s invasion should have consequences for Russians wanting to travel west. “Banning visas is the most efficient personal sanction,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters Thursday in Kyiv. The sanctions shouldn’t affect those who don’t support Putin, he said. “There is always a mechanism for seeking political asylum.” Estonia’s government said it will block entry to some 50,000 Russians who had been granted visas before the invasion began on Feb. 24. That’s on top of restrictions -- also introduced in the Baltic states and the Czech Republic-- on issuing new visas for travel, work or study. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, joined by Finnish counterpart Sanna Marin, this week called on member states to halt tourist visas. Kallas’s foreign minister said in an interview last week that a broad ban should be imposed. <br/>
Volga-Dnepr Group will cut more than 200 pilots flying Boeing aircraft for its AirBridgeCargo and Atran airlines, the Russian news agency RBK reported citing two anonymous sources at the company. Il-76s and Il-96s are being considered as alternatives to keep the carriers in business. The losses represent almost all of the remaining pilots at the two airlines which specialise in Boeing operations. One source said the pilots received notices about the job cuts at the end of July. Several crews have been saved in case the group receives permission from the Ministry of Transport to return the aircraft to foreign lessors, the second source added. One month ago, it became known that AirBridge Cargo had asked the ministry to return fourteen of its B747 freighters currently parked at Moscow Sheremetyevo to their lessors. It operates a fleet of sixteen aircraft, all of them Boeing, and all are currently inactive, according to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module. Likewise, Atran operates only B737s, nine of them, all currently inactive. Another affiliate, Volga-Dnepr Airlines by contrast operates only Antonov Design Bureau and Ilyushin Design Bureau equipment namely five Il-76TD-90VDs, ten An-124-100s and one An-124-100-150. Only seven of these sixteen aircraft are currently active. “The company’s resources are not unlimited. Optimising the staff numbers is a necessary measure and is being carried out in stages in order to be able to mothball the fleet,” a Volga-Dnepr representative told RBK confirming the job cuts.<br/>
Argentina on Thursday ordered the seizure of a Venezuelan plane held in Buenos Aires since June at the request of the United States, amid suspicions the aircraft of Iranian origin could have ties to terrorism, local media reported. The case has caused tension between Venezuela and Argentina, which on Thursday morning tried to lower the tone of the dispute by stating there was no diplomatic incident caused by the plane. Nonetheless, Argentine federal judge Federico Villena ordered the seizure of the plane at the request of the United States and despite complaints from the leftist government of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, outlets such as Argentina’s state news agency Telam reported. Agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigations inspected the plane on Thursday afternoon, according to Argentine media. The plane, sold by Iranian company Mahan Air to Venezuelan airline Emtrasur, was immobilized in June by Argentine officials. Both Mahan Air and Emtrasur are sanctioned by the United States. The Boeing 747 had a crew of 14 Venezuelans and five Iranians at the time of its arrival in Buenos Aires. Ramon Velasquez Araguayan, Venezuela’s transport minister, and a group of lawmakers met with Argentine ambassador Oscar Laborde to deliver a statement in which the airline’s workers expressed their desire for the crew and aircraft to return to their country. The spokesperson for Argentina’s center-left government, Gabriela Cerruti, sought Thursday to minimize apparent conflict between the two countries, saying that critical statements by Venezuelan politicians were “expressions of different actors of Venezuelan life” that do not imply “a diplomatic incident.”<br/>
Air transport workers employed within the European Union hit a record low in the first quarter of 2022 amid the continuing impact of the global pandemic on air travel demand, figures published by Eurostat show. The figures show 325,000 people employed in air transport across the EU in the three months of 2022, the lowest number in the 14 years the data has been recorded. It compares to more than 400,000 employed in the same quarter two years ago just as the pandemic hit. Notably younger workers, those under 40, have been more heavily impacted during the crisis. There were 121,000 in this group employed in the first quarter of 2022, down around a third on the same period two years ago and the lowest level on record. By contrast employment within the EU of those working in air transport aged between 40 and 64 stood at 200,000. While this is down on the levels seen in the the two years before the pandemic, it is similar to the number employed across much of the last decade. It means the number of workers under 40 account for just 37% of those employed within the EU’s air transport system. This is not only the lowest share on record but in marked contrast to 2008 when younger staff comprised of Europe’s air transport labour force. Following the low-point in demand in early 2022 airlines rapidly brought back passenger capacity in the second quarter but encountered major operational challenges – in part because of labour shortages as players across the system struggled to recruit staff to keep pace with the ramped-up demand. Splitting the same Eurostat data by gender shows male and female transport workers similarly impacted over the course of the pandemic. <br/>
The travel disruption that gripped UK airports this summer has eased in recent weeks after unprecedented passenger caps were imposed and airlines cancelled thousands of flights to cope with widespread staff shortages. Just 0.34% of flights from UK airports were cancelled in the first week of August, compared with more than 5% in the last week of June, according to figures from aviation data company OAG. The proportion of cancelled flights has steadily trended lower since mid-July, indicating that the industry has managed to restore some resilience to its operations in time for the peak summer holiday rush. Heathrow airport said on Thursday its decision to impose a passenger cap “has delivered improvements to passenger experience”, including fewer last-minute cancellations, better punctuality and improvements to previously chaotic baggage delivery. “Passengers are seeing better, more reliable journeys since the introduction of the demand cap,” said Heathrow’s CE John Holland-Kaye. But greater stability has come at a significant reputational and financial cost to the industry. Heathrow last month limited the number of passengers able to use the airport to 100,000 a day, down from 104,000 originally scheduled for the summer. The cap will remain in place until at least September 11. Gatwick, the UK’s second busiest airport, has imposed similar restrictions. Heathrow’s move was criticised by airlines including Emirates, while British Airways responded by suspending short-haul ticket sales from the airport. BA and other airlines including easyJet were also forced to cancel thousands of flights earlier this summer, after concluding industry-wide staffing problems meant they would be unable to fulfil their planned schedules.<br/>
Bosses at Stansted Airport have urged passengers not to turn up too early for flights amid reports of delays at other airports. Some travellers have arrived up to five hours before their flights causing crowding issues at the airport. However bosses said that arriving three hours before a flight was sufficient. Operations director Nick Millar said passengers should be "prepared" when arriving at the terminal to ensure they went through checks "seamlessly". The airport said it was expecting 2.6m passengers this August, 90% of pre-pandemic levels. Millar said he understood why people were keen to arrive extra early but insisted it was not necessary. "Three hours before the flight is our advice and that's what we're encouraging people to do," he said. "What we can do is reassure the travelling public that when they arrive at that time, they will go through our processes and get to their gate and get on the plane without concerns. "We ask people to look at the websites and listen to their airlines so they are prepared when they come to the terminal building."<br/>
The global backlog in airline baggage loading has had a silver lining for Israeli police, who discovered a drug haul hidden in a suitcase that was X-rayed after it arrived a day late and went unclaimed. The tinfoil-wrapped 7 kg (15 lb) of amphetamines worth some $600,000 were in a false bottom of the bag, which police allowed to be sent from Ben Gurion Airport to the Jerusalem address its owner had listed in his lost-and-found complaint, Kan TV said. The suspect turned up to retrieve it and was arrested. "We are in a period where many people having been losing their suitcase - and he was one of them," police investigator Eran Asraf told Kan.<br/>
Asia is home to the largest concentration of airport development projects by number and value, yet lags behind the rest of the world in reviving travel in the wake of COVID-19, recent reports highlight. These conflicting crosswinds could mean a bumpy ride for the Asian sector in the coming years, with inflation, supply disruptions and skilled labor lost to the pandemic adding further complications. A look around the region reveals a flurry of airport construction plans. Singapore is moving ahead with a fifth passenger terminal at its main Changi Airport to the tune of $10b, after the pandemic delayed plans for expanding capacity. In terms of value, South Korea has the biggest airport infrastructure push lined up, worth as much as $46b, according to estimates compiled by Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research earlier this year. One major project on the horizon is the Gadeok Island Airport in Busan, expected to be built offshore on a floating structure in about a decade. In Vietnam, the state Airports Corporation of Vietnam, which manages civilian terminals, has plans through 2025 to upgrade and expand 23 facilities, designed to accommodate a total of 173m passengers per year. In the same time frame, India plans to increase its airports from more than 130 at present to around 220, while the Philippines is counting on its upcoming Sangley Point International Airport project, located south of Manila, to handle over 100 million passengers annually once completed. Fitch said in May that Asia has over 200 airport projects overall, involving a combined $231b in investment -- both the most of any region. At the same time, however, Fitch noted that the future is foggy due to the "residual impacts" of COVID-19, including reduced revenues in previous years as well as uncertain future airport demand. It said this is likely to weigh "on project activity in the airport segment particularly over the short term."<br/>
The world’s largest aircraft lessor predicted on Thursday that planemakers will be hampered by supply chain issues for years, further slowing new jet deliveries and boosting leasing demand already benefiting from a rebound in air travel.<br/>AerCap Chief Executive Aengus Kelly, whose company has a portfolio of 3,599 aircraft, engines and helicopters, said he expected further delays in deliveries, in particular due to the need for manufacturers to divert scarce engines to their existing fleet to be used as spares. He said recently revised production plans by Airbus appeared “somewhat optimistic” after the planemaker cut its annual jet delivery forecast and put the brakes on short-term production increases due to supply pressure. AerCap said supply chain issues would continue to constrain aircraft production over the next few years. “So what do airlines do in the meantime? They turn to the leasing companies where delivery certainty is higher,” Kelly said on a call with analysts. Airbus last month delayed phase one of a planned output increase by six months to early 2024 but voiced confidence in its ultimate goal of raising A320 output to 75 a month in 2025. Lessors, who buy new jets both directly from manufacturers and indirectly by taking over airline commitments in sale-and-leaseback deals, will likely increase their share of deliveries to around 65% from just over half currently, Kelly added.<br/>