Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has warned airlines that his department could draft new rules around passenger rights if the carriers don’t give more help to travelers trapped by flight cancellations and delays. Buttigieg is asking airline CEOs to, at a minimum, provide lodging for passengers stranded overnight at an airport and give out meal vouchers for delays of three hours or longer when the disruption is caused by something in the airline’s control. The Transportation Department Friday released a copy of the letters, which it said were sent to CEOs of 10 US airlines including the major ones, their regional affiliates, and budget carriers. A spokeswoman for Airlines for America said airlines “strive to provide the highest level of customer service.” She said the airlines are committed to overcoming challenges including a tight labor market. Buttigieg’s agency recently proposed rules around refunds for passengers whose flights are canceled or rescheduled. He told the CEOs the department is considering additional rules “that would further expand the rights of airline passengers who experience disruptions.” Buttigieg has been sparring with the airlines since late spring over high numbers of canceled and delayed flights. In his latest salvo, he told airline CEOs he appreciates that airlines have stepped up hiring and trimmed schedules to better match the number of flights they can handle. “Still, the level of disruption Americans have experienced this summer is unacceptable,” he wrote. The head of another airline trade group took issue with Buttigieg’s praise of schedule cuts. Faye Malarkey Black, president of the Regional Airline Association, said those cutbacks are being driven by a pilot shortage and are especially harmful to people who use smaller airports. “There is a lot of responsibility to go around in this crisis and solving (the pilot shortage) means solving it for the long term, not just trimming back capacity until the only people with air service are those traveling between the large urban centers,” Black said.<br/>
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A traveler who put a tracking device in her bag helped sheriff’s deputies in Florida identify an airport worker who was accused of stealing more than $16,000 in goods from passengers’ luggage, the authorities said. Giovanni De Luca, 19, a baggage handler at Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport, was arrested on Aug. 10 and charged with two felony counts of grand theft, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said. The sheriff’s office said De Luca, who worked for a subcontractor at the airport, had stolen from two passengers. On July 14, the first passenger flew on a Delta/Air France flight into Destin-Fort Walton Beach, but her luggage never arrived, according to an arrest report. Her bag contained clothes, makeup and other items worth $1,648, according to the arrest report. The bag also included an Apple AirTag, a Bluetooth-enabled tracking device that sends its location to its user to help them locate lost items. Placing such tracking devices in luggage has become an attractive option for many travelers this summer as airport chaos has led to more lost or delayed baggage. The passenger told investigators that she received a notification on July 31, two weeks after she landed, that the device had been active on a street in Mary Esther, a town near the airport in the Florida Panhandle. Deputies looked through the addresses of airport employees and found that De Luca lived on the street, according to the arrest report. Days later, on Aug. 4, an employee for a Delta subcontractor filed a report with the sheriff’s office that he saw De Luca go through another passenger’s checked bag at the outgoing baggage carousel, according to the arrest report. De Luca was again working on Aug. 9 when a man flying from Destin-Fort Walton Beach reported to the sheriff’s office that $15,000 in jewelry and sunglasses had been stolen from his luggage, according to the arrest report. Story has more.<br/>
The White House is ramping up efforts to tout the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the effort to refurbish roads, bridges and airports and reduce emissions. US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will go on a four-day, six-state tour starting Tuesday, visiting Florida, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Ohio, Nevada and New Hampshire to talk up the infrastructure law. Buttigieg will tout grants approved in the November 2021 infrastructure law including $12m for the Port of Tampa, $20m to help complete the Nevada Pacific Parkway connection and expand capacity for dual access to Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail lines and $24.5 million reconstruct roadways and pathways connecting to a major amusement park in Ohio. The White House is ramping up efforts to tout the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the effort to refurbish roads, bridges and airports and reduce emissions. US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will go on a four-day, six-state tour starting Tuesday, visiting Florida, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Ohio, Nevada and New Hampshire to talk up the infrastructure law. Buttigieg will tout grants approved in the November 2021 infrastructure law including $12m for the Port of Tampa, $20m to help complete the Nevada Pacific Parkway connection and expand capacity for dual access to Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail lines and $24.5m reconstruct roadways and pathways connecting to a major amusement park in Ohio. "Over the next year or so you will be able to see these things coming out of the ground," Landrieu said. He said US agencies are working closely with states and cities on many funding programs. <br/>
Cancellations at major Canadian airports are dropping and passengers are being screened more quickly, the country's transport minister told a parliamentary hearing on Friday after complaints over disruption amid a surge in demand. Omar Alghabra said 2% of planned flights at the country's top four airports were canceled in the second week of August, compared to 5% at the start of July, while departure screenings within 15 minutes increased to 87% from 63% at the start of May. "We are seeing encouraging results, but there is still more work to be done," he told lawmakers, following complaints by passengers of lost luggage and long lines. Carriers in the United States and Canada are cutting thousands of flights to reduce disruptions during peak travel periods as demand surged following the easing of rules to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Canada's busiest airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport, had among the most flight delays in the world earlier this summer, according to FlightAware data. The increase in passenger numbers this year was far higher in Canada than the United States, Alghabra said. Governments in both countries are facing calls to improve protections for travelers. The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal that provides consumer protection for air passengers, said it had received a record 18,200 complaints by the end of July 2022, mostly for air travel.<br/>
As the pandemic entered its third summer, airline bookings roared back as consumers planned long-awaited trips after years of staying put — but the industry was not ready. Air travel on both sides of the Atlantic has been in disarray this summer. From the start of May to mid-August, a quarter of flights into, out of, or within the US, UK and Europe were disrupted — delayed or cancelled — as airlines struggled to scale up operations to meet soaring demand, while labour shortages ranged from pilots to cabin crew, ground staff and air traffic controllers. The situation has finally begun to improve in the UK and Europe, after busy airports imposed unprecedented caps on passenger numbers and airlines slashed their summer schedules. An industry-wide hiring drive also brought in more staff. In the first half of August, 29 per cent of flights into, out of, or within the UK were delayed or cancelled, down from about 35 per cent in June and July, according to a Financial Times analysis of data from flight tracker FlightAware. A quarter of the 480,000 flights into, out of, or within Europe scheduled for the first 17 days of August were disrupted, down from 29% for July. “We obviously have different challenges in different markets, but overall the UK is by far the worst,” said Warwick Brady, chief executive of Swissport, one of the world’s largest ground handling companies. Brady pointed to factors including travel restrictions and difficulties hiring workers following Brexit. Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, this week extended an unprecedented cap on passenger numbers until the end of October to make sure its operations can cope, blaming staff shortages at ground handling companies employed by airlines. In the US, a blame game has played out between airlines and the federal government.<br/>
The new Changi Airport Terminal 5 will be designed so that it can be split and operated as smaller sub-terminals when needed, with spaces that can be converted into quarantine or testing facilities during pandemic times. Passenger touchpoints will also be contactless, and there will be ventilation systems that can be activated to increase fresh air or minimise the mixing of air when there is a threat of airborne disease, said the Ministry of Transport (MOT) on Sunday (Aug 21). Drawing from the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic, the features will make the airport more resilient and able to handle future pandemics more nimbly, MOT said. The construction of T5, which was halted because of the pandemic, will start in about two years. Details of the design were unveiled in tandem with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally on Sunday. In his speech, which gave updates on T5, PM Lee said the new terminal will be able to scale operations up and down more easily, and isolate passengers from different flights to limit cross-infection when future pandemics hit. It will also be greener and more energy efficient. With borders reopening and people travelling again, the future of aviation remains bright, PM Lee added. "When completed in the mid-2030s, T5 will show the world what sort of place Singapore is," he said. "Our decisions to press on with Changi T5 and Tuas Port send a strong and clear signal to the world that Singapore is emerging stronger from the pandemic and charging full steam ahead."<br/>