general

Standardised guidance to prevent hazards involving straying passengers, following an aircraft evacuation, is being sought by delegates to the upcoming ICAO Assembly. Several incidents involving aircraft evacuation – such as that involving a Gulf Air Airbus A321 at Kuwait in July last year – have resulted in passengers wandering into active aircraft movement areas. The A321 event prompted at least one go-around after tower controllers were told that passengers were walking towards the runway. “Most risks to passengers on the movement area arise from the fact that the passengers are usually unfamiliar with the airport environment,” says a United Arab Emirates working paper submitted ahead of the Assembly in September. “Internationally-acceptable guidance procedures are required for airport operators…to ensure these evacuating passengers are properly guided and assembled at a safe area as quickly as possible.” The paper emerged from recommendations raised during a UAE airports and emergency planning technical committee, and also follows the chaotic evacuation of an Emirates Boeing 777-300 at Dubai following a landing accident in August 2016. “Failure to supervise passengers properly may lead to accidents with serious consequences for all involved,” it states. “The risks of injury are increased as passengers are in the state of panic and generally unaware of the obvious dangers around them.” These include potentially being struck by aircraft, vehicles or construction equipment, being exposed to jet blast, falling into drainage channels, or becoming lost.<br/>

The FAA said Monday that it was reducing flights in the area around New York City because of lack of staffing. Departing and arriving flights could be delayed up to two hours at John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia and Newark (New Jersey) Liberty International airports, the FAA said. The agency said passengers should check with their airline for information about particular flights. “Due to the availability of staff tonight, the FAA must reduce the flow of aircraft in certain airspace serving New York City to maintain safety,” the FAA said Monday afternoon. The statement implied that the shortage was expected in air-traffic controllers, but the FAA did not specify which employees were out, and a spokeswoman did not immediately reply when asked for more details. Flights at LaGuardia were being stopped for more than an hour, and planes at Newark were facing average delays of 44 minutes by late afternoon, according to an FAA website. Airlines and the FAA have traded blame for flight delays and cancellations this summer. Much of the airlines’ charges have focused on a flight-control center in Jacksonville, Florida. The FAA has promised to increase staffing there. Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines have said that FAA staffing issues have prevented them from operating all the flights to Florida that they would like to schedule. <br/>

The Inflation Reduction Act headed to U.S. President Joseph Biden’s desk gives the nascent sustainable aviation fuel industry a long-sought after boost with new tax incentives. A definite win for those pushing to green aviation, the legislation is only half of what many say is a needed two-pronged approach to meeting the airline industry’s ambitious net-zero emissions goals. The legislation provides several incentives for sustainable aviation fuel, also known as SAF. The first is an at least $1.25 per gallon tax credit for fuels that reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent that rises by one cent per percentage point of emissions reduction to as much as $1.75 per gallon. These credits go to the companies that blend sustainable fuels with traditional jet fuel, known as Jet A, and are only applicable in 2023 and 2024. The second, which kicks in in 2025, provides sustainable fuel producers tax credits that range from, for example, $0.35 per gallon for fuel that reduces emissions by 57%, to up to $1.75 per gallon for a 100% reduction for domestically-produced fuels. The bill also includes roughly $250m for competitive grants to develop sustainable aviation fuels. “Creating a new tax credit for sustainable aviation fuel and enhancing other crucial incentives for clean energy and carbon capture will slash greenhouse gas emissions,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement following the US House of Representatives approval of the Inflation Reduction Act on August 12. “That’s an important step in the right direction.” Kirby has been one of the biggest proponents of federal support for sustainable aviation fuels. In December, he flew legislators and industry leaders on a sustainable fuel demonstration flight aboard one of United’s Boeing 737s from Chicago to Washington, DC, in a very public push for Congressional action.<br/>

A metal object believed to have fallen from a trans-Atlantic jet came crashing down outside the Maine state house, landing with a loud bang just feet from a capitol police worker, officials said on Monday. The FAA was alerted on Friday and returned to the State House on Monday as it investigated the object, according to the capitol police chief Matthew Clancy. The metal hit with a loud bang on a slab of granite lining a cobblestone walkaway about 6 to 8ft (1.8 to 2.4 meters) from a security screener, and came close to hitting the building itself, he said. “It definitely shocked him,” the chief said. “He was walking back to the building and got quite a wakeup call.” No one was hurt. The FAA says it believes the metal sleeve weighing 6 to 7lb came from a wing flap of a large passenger jet, he said. Airlines were notified, and all planes landed safely that day, Clancy said. The area where the airplane part crashed to the ground is usually busy when the Maine legislature is in session, and it’s routinely used for rallies, protests and press conferences, he said.<br/>

Business travel spending might not recover to pre-pandemic levels until sometime in 2026 — two years later than previously expected — as inflation, labor shortages and geopolitical issues slow the sector’s rebound, according to a new industry forecast. Spending by business travelers, a key source of revenue for airlines and hotels, some of the hardest-hit industries in the pandemic, has been on the upswing this year. Spending worldwide is set to rise nearly 34% in 2022 to $933b, according to the Global Business Travel Association’s annual report and forecast, published Monday. That’s still far short of the more than $1.4 trillion in business travel generated in 2019, before the Covid pandemic. One reason is that high inflation is driving up travel costs, which the industry group last week said would continue to climb through 2023. For example, this year through July, revenue per available room in U.S. hotels was $92.36, up from $88.05 over the same period of 2019, according to preliminary data from hotel data firm STR. Occupancy was 63%, down from nearly 67% in 2019. The report forecast a 42% increase in business travel spending in the US this year from 2021, to nearly $213.4b. US airline and hotel executives have touted a return of business travelers this year after many companies put trips on hold during the pandemic.<br/>

Heathrow Airport said on Monday that it would continue to limit the airport’s capacity to 100,000 departing passengers a day through Oct. 29, extending an effort to ease chaos at airports that has marred summer travel in Europe. The airport imposed a cap in July, citing staff shortages that led to canceled flights, long lines and lost luggage. The limit was originally set to last through Sept. 11. If operations improve before October, the restrictions could be lifted earlier, the company said in a statement. Heathrow said in its statement that the cap had led to fewer cancellations, shorter wait times and better punctuality. “By better balancing passenger demand with available resources, we are able to operate a safe airport ecosystem that prioritizes passenger needs,” the statement read. An average of 40% of flights were delayed and 2.7% were canceled in the four weeks leading up to the cap, according to data from FlightAware, a flight tracking company. In the four weeks after the cap was imposed, the average rate of delay dropped to about 32 percent, and the average rate of cancellations to 1.3%, although the rate has not declined consistently every week. The extension of the capacity limit is unsurprising because Heathrow simply does not have enough workers to maintain its operations, said Kathleen Bangs, a spokeswoman for FlightAware. “It’s the hourly workers that can bring an operation like Heathrow to its knees,” she said. Travel was chaotic earlier this summer, as high demand from passengers collided with staffing shortages. That led to lost luggage, canceled flights and long lines. Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, which introduced a cap in June, has also extended its capacity limit for departing passengers through October. The capacity limits have been a “mixed bag” for summer travelers, said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst for Atmosphere Research. “Maybe some lines have gone down,” he said, “but travelers don’t have the selection of flights that they otherwise would.”<br/>

Dubai International Airport is returning to normal after sandstorms led to two days of disruption, the cancellation of 44 flights and 12 diversions. Passengers planning to fly from the UAE this week are being urged to monitor schedules for any more potential disruption caused by poor weather and visibility. Operations were largely unaffected at Dubai International on Monday morning, despite blowing sand and dust blanketing much of the city and visibility falling to only 500 metres in some areas. Several flights from Dubai were delayed by about 50 minutes on Monday morning but disruption caused by the weather was kept to a minimum. “Dubai Airports can confirm that operations at Dubai International (DXB) are currently recovering to normal following the extensive weather delays in the region over the past two days,” an airport representative said. “Between Sunday afternoon and the early hours of Monday, a total of 44 flights were cancelled while 12 flights that were diverted to Dubai World Central (DWC) and other neighbouring airports have since returned back to DXB or their respective base. There have been no weather-related flight cancellations or diversions since. We are working closely with airlines and other service partners to restore normal operations at the earliest and to ensure that inconvenience to our customers is minimised. We urge all customers to check directly with their airlines to obtain the latest information on the status of their flights.”<br/>

After a hiatus of more than two years, more international flights to and from China restarted this month after the country’s aviation regulator decided to relax rules. This bodes well for the recovery of a sector hurt by Covid-19 and subsequent losses, industry experts said. Direct flights between China and the UK resumed on Thursday after a gap of more than 18 months, following negotiations between the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the UK’s Department for Transport, the British Embassy in Beijing said. Air China took the lead by restarting direct flights between Beijing and London on Thursday, followed by China Eastern Airlines that relaunched services from Shanghai to London on Friday, while China Southern Airlines announced flights from Guangzhou to London from Aug 17. Flights to other European destinations also resumed. Hainan Airlines announced restoration of direct flights between Beijing and Berlin on Friday. This is the Hainan-based carrier’s fourth regular intercontinental flight to resume service from Beijing or surrounding areas since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, according to Securities Daily. “The resumption of these international flights resulted from China’s constantly optimised measures for containing Covid-19, which has boosted confidence of carriers to restore more outbound flights,” said Zheng Hongfeng, founder and CEO of aviation data and solutions provider Vari-Flight.<br/>

Iran's aviation world has shrunk just a little smaller, with flights from Iran to Malaysia no longer possible. The route will close because Malaysian airports will no longer provide fuel to Iranian airlines. According to Iran International, the existing United States sanctions prohibit US companies from supplying fuel to Iranian aircraft. The refueling companies at Malaysian airports source fuel from US companies, and the report says, "these companies have been informed that they will be subject to punitive measures if they keep refueling the Islamic Republic's planes." Iranian airline Mahan Air was sanctioned in 2008 by the US for its links to the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. On Friday, the secretary of Iran's Aviation Companies Association, Maghsoud Asadi-Samani, said Mahan Airlines would operate the last Iranian flight to Kuala Lumpur. Samani described it as yet another blow to hit the country's aviation industry due to the US sanction. He also said domestic airlines will lose the revenues of passenger transportation on this route, and "we will lose one of the bases in Southeast Asia." In Iran, only Mahan Airlines (Mahan) and Iran Air have aircraft capable of the 3,935 miles (6,334 km), eight-hour flight from Tehran to Kuala Lumpur. Prior to the pandemic, the Tehran - Kuala Lumpur route operated three times a week before being suspended and returning as a once-weekly flight.<br/>