A United Nations body has begun global talks to hammer out a consensus on reducing airline emissions in the face of lingering discord over climate change and the impact of war in Ukraine. The 193-nation International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) assembly, held every three years, is the first since COVID-19 put pressure on policymakers to speed up reforms. It is also the first since Russia's invasion of Ukraine soured international dialogue on a range of issues and set off a political storm over the alleged seizure of foreign jets. Russia, which faces sanctions and a ban on the use of its airspace by Western airlines, urged the assembly to "stop the destructive actions of individual states," saying the carbon cost of skirting Russia rendered climate efforts "pointless". The West says Russia has illegally confiscated hundreds of foreign jets, a charge Moscow denies. Both sides are expected to air their positions during the gathering from Tuesday in ICAO's Montreal headquarters, once used as a Cold War back-channel. A top ICAO official called for unity on long-term issues dominating the 11-day talks. "I am very confident that member states ... will come with an open mind to find a common understanding and present a way forward towards aviation and sustainability which is a central theme in this assembly," Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar told Reuters. Airlines last year adopted a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 in a de facto dress-rehearsal that drew reservations from Chinese carriers, reflecting Beijing's more cautious stance on multilateral action. Now the baton passes to governments, with airlines and their suppliers pressing for unity around the same goal to avoid destabilizing aviation. "Anything shy of that in this assembly will be viewed as a failure," Willie Walsh, director-general of the International Air Transport Association of global airlines, warned on Tuesday.<br/>
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Florida airports were reporting flight delays, cancellations and even closures ahead of the hurricane force winds expected along much of the state beginning Wednesday morning. Airports in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Orlando had announced the grounding of all their flights as precautionary measures, while others were reporting delays in parts of the state outside the hurricane’s path and its associated watches and warnings. Tampa International Airport — which was in the middle of the hurricane’s projected path as of Tuesday evening — had canceled more incoming flights than any other airport in the United States as of Tuesday afternoon, registering 146 cancellations and 15 delays for the day, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. It suspended all operations as of 5 p.m. Tuesday. At a news briefing on Tuesday morning, John Tiliacos, the airport’s executive vice president, had said the closure would affect 450 flights a day. A team of about 120 employees have volunteered to ride out the storm at the airport, he said. The airport is close to Tampa Bay, so storm surge and flooding are a top concern, he said. “We are talking potentially a lot of water that could be on our airport,” Tiliacos said. He added, “To my knowledge, we have never had a storm of this magnitude that’s impacted us.” The St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport closed even earlier, as of 1 p.m. on Tuesday, with the last flight scheduled to depart at 11:22 a.m. Michelle Routh, a spokeswoman, said the airport, located near the waters of the Old Tampa Bay by the state’s west coast, was in a mandatory evacuation zone and that it would reopen when it “is deemed safe for operations.” The Orlando International Airport, in central Florida, said it would close on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m., out of “an abundance of caution,” said Carolyn Fennell, a spokeswoman. “We’ve begun the operations of preparedness for the storm, tying down or removing any equipment on the ground that could become a projectile,” she said. “A lot of our terminals have glass doors, so we put sandbags there, and then we are communicating with the airlines.”<br/>
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called on Tuesday to allow Taiwan to participate in a UN body overseeing civil aviation, drawing criticism from the Chinese government. “We believe that all of international civil aviation’s important stakeholders -- particularly those who administer critical airspace, like Taiwan -- should have the opportunity to participate meaningfully in ICAO’s work,” Buttigieg said at the International Civil Aviation Organization assembly held every three years and the first since the COVID-19 pandemic. A Chinese government representative at the ICAO responded by saying, “The American comments attempted to create two Chinas, one China and one Taiwan. This is contrary to the United Nations charter.” Earlier this month, Taiwanese Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai in an opinion piece published in The Diplomat called on the world to back Taiwan’s ICAO participation. He noted that Taiwan’s Taipei Flight Information Region is part of ICAO’s network of regions and the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) of Taiwan is the “sole entity overseeing, and is responsible for safe air traffic management throughout” the region. China sees democratically ruled Taiwan as one of its provinces. Beijing has long vowed to bring Taiwan under its control and has not ruled out the use of force to do so. Taiwan’s government strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s 23m people can decide its future.<br/>
Canada will oppose Russia's re-election to the U.N.'s aviation agency, Omar Alghabra, Canada's transport minister, told Reuters on Tuesday on the sidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) assembly. "It's important that Russia is held accountable for its actions, and we will not be supporting Russia's nomination to the council," Alghabra said. A vote to elect countries to ICAO's 36-member governing council is to be held on Saturday. Asked if he expects other countries to follow suit, Alghabra said, "We are having discussions with other countries about our collective approach, because we need an international collective response." International rule violations cannot go "unaccounted" for, he added. Russia closed its airspace to airlines from 36 countries, including all 27 members of the European Union, in response to Ukraine-related sanctions targeting its aviation sector following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "We are talking to our allies and like-minded countries about what we can do to collectively respond," Alghabra said. The Russian federation at ICAO was not immediately available for comment. The 193-nation ICAO assembly, held every three years, is the first since the COVID-19 pandemic put pressure on policymakers to speed up reforms. A representative of the Russian Federation asked the assembly to condemn public statements and actions by a group of countries, "including the introduction of bans on the use of sovereign airspace."<br/>
A Calgary man has filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission over the federal government's decision to lift mask requirements on airplanes. The decision, announced Monday, is part of a bundle of changes that come into effect Oct. 1. At that point, travellers will also no longer be required to wear masks on trains, provide proof of vaccination or submit public health information with the ArriveCan app. "I was frankly dismayed when I heard the news," said Dr. David Keegan, a family doctor who has a cardiopulmonary condition. Keegan said that while airplanes do have filtration systems, they don't completely eliminate the risk of COVID-19 transmission, especially if people are unmasked. He noted people travel for many reasons (he flew to Toronto earlier this year for surgery) and the government has a duty to accommodate those who have disabilities. Lifting the mask mandate creates "an environment that is unwelcoming and unaccommodating to people with compromised immune systems, cardiopulmonary conditions, and so on," he said. "So I'm expecting and anticipating that the government will realize the error in this decision and keep the mask mandate in place," he said. In a release issued Monday, the government said it still strongly recommends people wear high-quality, well-fitting masks while travelling. <br/>
The head of Virgin Atlantic has called on the UK government to “consider reversing” course after its mini-Budget sent the pound tumbling to a record low and undermined investors’ confidence in the economy. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s plan to borrow more to pay for the biggest package of tax cuts since the 1970s unleashed turmoil in financial markets, with the pound plunging to as low as $1.035 on Monday. Virgin Atlantic CE Shai Weiss said Tuesday that he was concerned about the direction of PM Liz Truss’s government since it took office less than a month ago. “Truss said she would take difficult decisions upon entering into the role,” Weiss said. “Maybe they need to take more difficult decisions to reverse the decline of the pound and ensure this country is not left with . . . perceived weakness in international markets. “Sometimes all of us in this room should be humble enough to say that if I said something that is not working, maybe I should reverse course. That is not a bad thing to do,” he added. While the pound had already been dragged lower this year by the strength of the dollar, the currency’s decline accelerated after Kwarteng’s fiscal plan raised alarm over the sustainability of the UK’s public finances. With many of their most significant costs, including fuel, priced in dollars, airlines are among the most exposed to sterling’s weakness. Sixty per cent of Virgin’s costs are in dollars, while it generates only 30 to 35% of its revenue in the US currency. Willie Walsh, head of global airline lobby group Iata and former head of British Airways, said he had “a lot of sympathy” for Weiss’s intervention. “I think his criticism is well founded, particularly the additional challenge it will create for his company, given he will have a lot of sterling revenues and significant dollar costs,” he said. “It is very frustrating when you see these knee jerk government responses to some of the challenges they face. Clearly in an effort to make themselves look popular with the electorate, taking decisions that have massive economic impact on companies,” Walsh added.<br/>
Cape Town flights are arriving and departing as scheduled, despite a fuel shortage at South Africa’s second-largest airport. After asking airlines on Monday to limit their fuel intake in Cape Town, Airports Company South Africa said on Twitter Tuesday that it has a contingency plan to tackle the issue. The airport only has a few days of jet fuel left after a shipment that was due to arrive last week was delayed by more than seven days, Mark Maclean, regional general manager of the Cape Town International Airport, said in an interview with broadcaster eNCA. The cargo is now expected to arrive by Oct. 2 or Oct. 3, he said. Limiting flights into Cape Town could dent a recovery in tourism to the city and the Western Cape province from the effects of Covid-19 and associated lockdowns, just as the southern hemisphere’s summer gets underway. Prices of domestic air tickets have surged after the collapse of Comair Ltd., the South African partner of British Airways and owner of low-cost carrier Kulula, which operated about 40% of local flights.<br/>
China will show off its homegrown civil and military aviation technology at the country's biggest air show in November, the mayor of host city Zhuhai said on Tuesday, though there was no confirmation that would include the C919 narrowbody jet. The C919, made by Commercial Aircraft Corp of China and designed to rival single-aisle jets made by Airbus and Boeing, is close to certification but has never been displayed or flown at previous editions of Airshow China. The normally biennial show will be held from Nov. 8 to 13, with 740 businesses expected to take part offline and online, organisers said at a media conference in Beijing, up from 700 in 2021 when it held a show meant to take place in 2020 that was delayed because of the pandemic. This year's show will include participants from 43 countries and regions, up from 40 a year ago, according to the organisers. China requires international travellers to quarantine for a week on arrival. On the military side, as China steps up its presence in the Taiwan Strait, its first large-scale stealth long-endurance drone, Rainbow-7, will be among the items on display. On the civil side, foreign companies including Airbus, Boeing and General Electric will attend alongside Chinese companies, Zhuhai mayor Huang Zhihao told reporters. Western suppliers are behind some of the key technology in the C919, including the avionics and engines. Two C919 jets arrived in Beijing on Sept. 13, in a move widely viewed as preparation for certification by the aviation regulator on Sept. 19, a symbolic date given the model number. But that did not happen and the two jets remain parked in Beijing, according to flight tracking websites.<br/>
Global aviation fuel demand is expected to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels of 300 million tonnes per year in the next one to two years, the head of aviation at Shell said Tuesday. Demand in the United States is back at 2019 levels while Europe's consumption has recovered to more than 80% and is on track for full recovery in the next year, Shell Aviation President Jan Toschka told Reuters on the sidelines of the 38th Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC). "Asia has been a bit more of a bumpy road with markets opening up and closing down but mostly we expect Asia in particular, in the next year, to come back, but it might take another year before we see the full potential of the market," he said. However, jet fuel supplies are tightening in Europe with the European Union's sanctions on Russian oil products kicking in on Feb. 5, causing the region to import more fuel from the U.S., China, India and the Middle East. "The market needs to buy from refineries further away ... shipping and rail and all kinds of distribution are under more stress now with this new kind of routing (of trade)," Toschka said. Shell is considering building two more sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plants in the United States, as it aims for renewable fuel to account for 10% of its global jet sales by 2030, Toschka said.<br/>