general

Air travel demand is showing no sign of easing, airline executives said this month. But new planes are in short supply, they warned, limiting growth and keeping fares high. JetBlue Airways said Tuesday it was supposed to receive 29 planes from Airbus next year but will only get about 22. “I think we’re all well aware that they’re struggling from ramp-up challenges driven by manpower and supply chain,” JetBlue’s CFO, Ursula Hurley, said on the New York-based carrier’s quarterly call. “We’re working hand in hand with them to manage through those.” Last week, American Airlines CFO Derek Kerr said the carrier expects to take delivery of 19 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes in 2023, compared with the 27 it previously expected based on guidance from the manufacturer. That means airlines that had parked planes and slashed growth are now struggling to expand. Along with shortages of pilots, the problems could make bargain flights even more elusive. Executives at Boeing and its chief rival, Airbus, in recent months have said supply chain problems and labor shortfalls have prevented the companies from ramping up production to meet the recovery in air travel. Boeing and Airbus are set to report results on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. “We continue to work closely with suppliers to address industry challenges, stabilize production and meet our commitments to customers,” Boeing said. Airbus declined to comment on Tuesday. The issues have been felt throughout the manufacturers’ suppliers, such as engine makers. “While we are working many actions across our businesses every day to mitigate the impacts of supply chain constraints and labor availability ... we do expect these pressures will continue to persist into next year as well,” said Raytheon Technologies CFO Neil Mitchill during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday.<br/>

The FAA wants the US telecommunications regulatory agency to ensure a delay in some 5G C-Band transmissions from smaller operators. Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said the agency wants the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to mandate voluntary mitigations that AT&T and Verizon agreed to earlier this year mandated for 19 smaller telecoms and other spectrum holders. In a previously unreported letter dated Friday, Nolen cited industry data established "aviation safety would be compromised if the US government does not codify certain additional operating limits in the 5G C-Band environment." The letter was sent to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel was copied. The NTIA, FAA and FCC did not immediately comment.Concerns that the 5G service could interfere with airplane altimeters, which give data on a plane's height above the ground and are crucial for bad-weather landing, led to disruptions at some US airports earlier this year. Nolen's letter warns that without the FCC mandating the mitigations "the FAA would be forced to take immediate steps to ensure the safety of the traveling public, raising the likelihood of flight disruptions across the United States." Nolen's letter said "the aviation industry is aggressively retrofitting the current US domestic and international fleets that fly in the United States" with radio frequency filters. But it added "data indicates that even retrofitted aircraft would be susceptible to interference if the report and order is not modified, resulting in renewed concerns about unsafe interference."<br/>

Mexican authorities will travel to the United States this weekend to discuss regaining a Category 1 aviation rating with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday. The rating is key for Mexican airlines to be able to launch new routes to the United States.<br/>

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday he wants to allow foreign airlines to operate domestic service between Mexican cities, to drive down prices. Mexican law currently prohibits foreign carriers from operating purely domestic flights. For example, a U.S. airline can currently fly from New York to Cancun, but not Cancun to Mexico City. Known as “cabotage,” the president wants to allow the practice to lower ticket prices. “The other thing is to open up aviation,” López Obrador. “Let’s open it up to competition. That’s democracy.” “Let foreign airlines come in, from Europe and the United States, so that they can operate flights inside the country,” he said. The proposal would fly in the face of López Obrador’s push to make Mexico self-sufficient. But the president allows wants to lower domestic airfares, and bring service to smaller cities that lack flights. The president is also eager to get more airlines to fly into the new airport he ordered built at a former air force base just north of Mexico City; that terminal is currently under-used.<br/>

Arab Air Carriers Organization secretary general Abdul Wahab Teffaha is not ruling out possible future ties with Israeli entities, if the recent momentum of improved Arab-Israeli relationships eventually leads to recognition at a higher regional level. Normalised diplomatic relations between Israel and a number of Arab countries have been achieved through the Abraham Accords initially reached with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020. The pact has led to new Arab-Israeli air routes, and closer co-operation between particular Arab and Israeli carriers including Etihad Airways and El Al, as well as an easing of certain regional airspace restrictions. Teffaha points out that AACO is a trade association. Airline membership is conditioned upon registration in a country of the Arab League – a group of 22 states in the Middle East and northern Africa – and AACO does not necessarily have links to organisations with which its members are connected. But speaking to FlightGlobal at the AACO conference in Abu Dhabi, he said “you never know” what could happen if individual Arab-Israeli country relations continue to improve and do not become a “thorny issue” at the higher level. “We always believe that airlines thrive in peaceful situations,” says Teffaha. “We don’t like tension, we don’t like wars, we don’t like disputes. And peace is good for everyone. “That is across the board. We don’t like what’s happening, the war in Ukraine, we don’t benefit from that. And airlines are a bridge between the peoples of the world. We don’t try to involve ourselves in politics. Politics has its own people.” He says that, as political relationships change for the better, so do the rules about contacts and connections.<br/>

Vinci posted a sharp rise in quarterly revenue on Tuesday, with the French infrastructure group citing continued recovery in airport passenger numbers and motorway traffic. As coronavirus-related travel curbs eased across parts of the world, motorway and airport traffic rebounded, boosting the group’s quarterly revenue to E16.70b, up 26% on an actual basis from a year earlier. Europe’s biggest construction and concessions company said that traffic levels at its motorways were above those recorded before the pandemic in 2019 despite higher fuel prices. “In October, the light vehicle traffic has been impacted by the shortage of petrol in France,” head of investor relations at Vinci Gregoire Thibault said on a call. “But now the situation is, let’s say, resolved (...), so I don’t rule out a catch-up effect,” he added. Vinci also benefited from an accelerated recovery in passenger numbers at almost all of its airports. “Momentum was particularly strong in Europe, South America and the Caribbean,” the group said in an earnings statement. “Passenger numbers returned to levels equal to or higher than those achieved in 2019 at several airports, particularly in Portugal, Serbia and the Americas.”<br/>