The US TSA screened 2.49m air passengers on Sunday, the highest daily number since February 2020. The number was, however, below the 2.61m screened on the same day in 2019. The Sunday checkpoint traffic was the highest since Feb. 11, 2020, when TSA screened nearly 2.51m passengers and comes as airlines reported business and leisure travel is increasing. The figure is just above the number screened on July 1. Some US leisure travelers - who faced few seats and high summer prices - opted to delay trips to the fall. Delta Air Lines CE Ed Bastian said last week on an earnings call that demand remains very strong for air travel. "After two years of delaying travel, it is clear that consumers are getting out and traveling the world," Bastian said. "Business travel continues to recover in line with our expectations as bookings have improved after Labor Day and companies reconnect with their teams and their customers."<br/>
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The FAA told Boeing that some key documents submitted as part of the agency's ongoing certification review of the 737 MAX 7 are incomplete and others need a reassessment by the US planemaker. In an Oct. 12 letter to Boeing from FAA official Ian Won seen by Reuters, the agency asked Boeing to reassess some assertions that hazards classified as catastrophic "do not contain human factors assumptions." The FAA also said it was unable to complete some reviews of Boeing submissions "due to missing and incomplete information regarding human factors assumptions in catastrophic hazard conditions." The new letter intensifies concerns about the company's timeline for beginning deliveries of the smaller variant of the best-selling MAX. Boeing faces a late December deadline for the FAA to certify the MAX 7 and MAX 10 or it must meet new modern cockpit alerting standards that could significantly delay the airplanes unless the company receives a waiver from Congress. The requirements were approved by Congress in late 2020 as part of FAA certification reforms after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people and led to the bestselling plane's 20-month grounding. Reuters first reported on Oct. 3 Boeing does not anticipate winning approval for the MAX 10 before next summer, citing an FAA sent to Congress. Boeing said Monday it "is focused on meeting all regulatory requirements to certify the 737-7 and safety remains the driving factor in this effort."<br/>
The European Union finalized a deal with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to expand flights between the two trading blocs following negotiations that began six years ago. The deal, signed Monday in Bali, Indonesia, will add passenger and cargo services between and beyond both regions, boosting connectivity as Asia reopens following Covid-19 restrictions, the EU said. Under the accord, airlines from member states can operate unlimited flights between the blocs, replacing more limited bilateral arrangements. In addition, they’ll be able to fly as many 14 weekly passenger services and any number of cargo flights via a third country or beyond to another nation. The EU said the pact represents the world’s first bloc-to-bloc air transport agreement. It will open up services for carriers including Deutsche Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways International and Malaysia Airlines.<br/>
The number of flights from and to Spanish airports in September reached 94% of the number registered in September 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the travel industry, flight controlling agency Enaire said on Monday. Enaire routed 191,069 flights in September to and from the country's airports, which are operated by Madrid-listed and government controlled Aena, 94% of the figure in the same month in 2019, the agency said in a statement. The number of flights was 30% higher than during September 2021, Enaire added. As most travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted around the world, the Spanish tourism industry has shown during the summer a swift recovery that seems to be continuing during the autumn.<br/>
China is unlikely to ease its long-drawn ‘zero-Covid’ pandemic strategy in the near-term, with Chinese president Xi Jinping doubling down on the country’s strict virus controls at a key speech. The move adds to uncertainty over when China will reopen its borders, a subject that regained prominence in recent weeks as its North Asian neighbours, like Taiwan and Japan, have begun easing border restrictions. China is the last remaining major economy to keep its borders shut, nearly three years since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. International travel remains at a standstill, with regulators only allowing airlines very limited frequencies into the country. There had been expectations in the lead-up to the important Communist Party congress in Beijing that Xi would signal a gradual easing of strict controls, including when and how China would reopen. Yet, in his opening speech on 16 October, Xi defended the validity of the ‘zero-Covid’ strategy, painting it as a “people’s war” to stop the spread of the virus, and noting that the policy had helped save lives. His speech echoed commentaries published in state media days leading up to the national congress. An opinion piece in People’s Daily, the party’s flagship mouthpiece, had urged the country to not “lie flat” in its battle against the coronavirus. Another commentary in state-run Global Times cites local infectious disease experts as saying it was “necessary” for the country to hew close to a zero-infection strategy, pointing out the virus’ higher mortality rate, as well as the “unknown long-term effects” of the virus. As the congress drew closer, a number of regions in China have been put under lockdown following the discovery of a few Covid-19 cases. The policy has thwarted any meaningful traffic recovery from the country’s airline sector, with traffic and capacity fluctuating month on month. <br/>
Airbus is poised to carry out its first cargo flights for an external client using a fleet of giant Beluga jets originally built to ferry wings between the planemaker’s European factories. The assignment with the model, named due to the resemblance of its domed fuselage to the white Arctic whale, will be performed before the end of this year, Benoit Lemonnier, managing director of Airbus Beluga Transport, said Monday. Airbus is expanding into outsize cargo using the first generation of Belugas, a variant of the A300 widebody, which have outlasted their original use due to the emergence of larger and more efficient A330-based models to carry wings. The move has coincided with a drop in global heavy-lift capacity after the war in Ukraine reduced the availability of Antonov An-124s, which had dominated the market. “We know that the market is made up of several hundred missions a year and we want to capture a significant part of that,” Lemonnier said in an online briefing after the new division delivered a satellite to the US. He declined to name the customer for the pending third-party flights, though Airbus said it’s pursuing contracts in the US, Europe and Asia. All five Beluga STs in service will be available by 2024 with the deployment of six new Beluga XLs for wing missions. In another example of how the jets will now be used, a satellite known as Hotbird I3G manufactured by Airbus’s space arm was flown to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be launched into orbit for French operator Eutelsat.<br/>
Planemakers will trot out their latest models and efforts to reduce emissions at the world's largest corporate jet show this week, as a boom in private travel faces pressure over climate, supply chain woes and economic uncertainty. The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) show starts on Tuesday in Orlando in the shadow of a United Nations aviation goal set this month to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. It will also test the strength of business jet demand, which surged during COVID-19 and swelled order backlogs, but could now face a softer economy. The media event on Monday was light on order announcements, with an executive at one jet maker saying they have no planes available due to lengthy backlogs. Dassault Aviation CE Eric Trappier said on Monday he sees a slower economy but no impact yet on orders. "It's slowing down a little bit," Trappier told Reuters on the sidelines of the show. "Is it the start of a crisis or not? It's hard to say because the demand is strong." Honeywell International has forecast up to 8,500 new business jet deliveries worth $274b from 2023 to 2032, up 15% from last year's outlook. While demand remains strong, there is hesitation among some buyers, said Zipporah Marmor, incoming chair of the International Aircraft Dealers Association. "Those who can wait are waiting to see what the new year brings, to see if there will be more inventory, to see if there will be a softening of pricing," said Marmor.<br/>
The Sunderland Airshow has been cancelled indefinitely as a council says it wants to make the city carbon neutral. The popular event, which attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators to Roker, was last held in 2019. Subsequent dates were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Council leader Graeme Miller said the city would host other events, including the World Triathlon Championship next year. He said residents wanted "to see new and different events" which the council hoped would "inspire more people to become physically active". A council spokeswoman said: "In light of the new approach to events and the council's ambitions to be carbon neutral by 2030 and the city's to be carbon neutral by 2040, the council has confirmed it has no plans to run the Sunderland Airshow in the future." Miller said: "Residents have identified the environment as one of their top concerns and both the council and the city have committed to tackling the global climate emergency by reducing carbon emissions. This makes it all the harder to justify events such as the airshow, which generate large amounts of carbon, going ahead in the future." <br/>