People still looking to book trips home to visit family or take a vacation during the holidays need to act fast and prepare for sticker shock. Airline executives say that based on bookings, they expect huge demand for flights over Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Travel experts say the best deals for airfares and hotels are already gone. On social media, plenty of travelers think they are being gouged. It’s an understandable sentiment when government data shows that airfares in October were up 43% from a year earlier, and US airlines reported a combined profit of more than $2.4b in Q3. Part of the reason for high fares is that airlines are still operating fewer flights than in 2019 even though passenger numbers are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels. “Fewer flights and more people looking to head home or take vacation for the holidays means two things: Prices will be higher, and we will see flights sell out for both holidays,” says Holly Berg, chief economist for travel-data provider Hopper. Some travelers in Europe are booking shorter trips, according to Axel Hefer, CEO of Germany-based hotel-search company Trivago. “Hotel prices are up absolutely everywhere,” he said. “If you have the same budget or even a lower budget through inflation, and you still want to travel, you just cut out a day.” Hotels are struggling with labor shortages, another cause of higher prices. Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, which owns travel-search sites including Priceline and Kayak, says one hotelier told him he can’t fill all his rooms because he doesn’t have enough staff.<br/>
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Travel over Thanksgiving is expected to reach nearly 98% of pre-pandemic volume, according to automotive and travel club AAA.<br/>With 54.6m people expected to travel over the holiday period -- a 1.5% increase from 2021, this Thanksgiving is expected to be the third busiest since AAA started tracking travel volume in 2000. (The number peaked in 2005 and was second-highest right before the pandemic in 2019.) While inflation cooled more than expected in October -- to 7.7% -- Americans are feeling pretty bad about the economy. But that doesn't seem to be affecting demand for travel, according to AAA. "It seems counterintuitive given inflation and higher gas prices. But given how separated and isolated we were during the first 2 years of the pandemic -- and with travel restrictions now lifted -- travel demand is high," AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz told CNN via email. While gas is expensive -- on Monday the national average per gallon was $3.77 -- gas prices are down from a month ago and well below the $5 per gallon peak in mid-June. Diaz said Americans are more comfortable taking public transportation again, including airplanes and trains, and they're budgeting for travel. "They're cutting back in other areas of their life -- dining out at less expensive restaurants or shopping less -- and changing daily driving by condensing errands to preserve gas," Diaz said.<br/>
Covid-19. Airport chaos. Lack of available flights. Many travelers say those are the reasons they ditched airlines for private jets during the past two years of the pandemic. But a new survey shows most of the newly converted aren’t ready to return to commercial aviation just yet. Some 94% of those new to the industry said they plan to continue flying privately in the future, according to a survey by the private aviation website Private Jet Card Comparisons. “Users have seen firsthand how private aviation can save time, both at the airport and by using more convenient alternative airports,” said Doug Gollan, the website’s editor-in-chief, in a press release announcing the results. However, respondents also indicated they may not be flying privately as frequently as they did before. The percentage of respondents who said they will continue to use private aviation “regularly” dropped from 57% last year to 40% this year. And the number who said they’ll fly privately “occasionally” when the pandemic ends rose from 43% to 55%. About 6% said they plan to stop altogether after the pandemic, but that’s up from zero who said the same last year. The forecast for longer-term clients was more stable, according to the survey published in October. Nearly 60% indicated they plan to fly privately as often as before the pandemic, while another 29% said they intend to fly privately even frequently in the future. Though demand for private aviation remains high, more than half (50.7%) of survey respondents said they’re considering changing private jet companies. Some 62% cited increasing costs as the reason for their discontent, according to the survey. <br/>
Canada has announced an expanded air transport agreement with India that will allow designated airlines to operate an unlimited number of flights between the two countries. The previous agreement limited each country to 35 flights per week. This government says the move will allow airlines of Canada and India to better respond to the needs of the Canada-India market, which is Canada’s fourth-largest international air transport market. The agreement gives Canadian air carriers access to Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai, and Indian air carriers access to Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver and two additional points to be selected by India. Other cities in both countries can be served indirectly through code-share services. Rights for all-cargo services are already unrestricted. Canada's first air transport agreement with India was concluded in 1982, and was last expanded in 2011. This new agreement was reached under Canada's Blue Sky policy, which encourages long-term, sustainable competition and the development of international air services. The new rights under the expanded agreement are available for use by airlines immediately. "The expanded air transport agreement between Canada and India is a positive development for air transport relations between our countries,” said Omar Alghabra, Canada’s Minister of Transport.<br/>
The Dutch government on Monday outlined plans to spend E7.5b through 2030 on improving transport, including extending an underground railway line to connect Schiphol Airport with Amsterdam. Funding for the plans had been reserved under a pact struck by the four parties comprising Mark Rutte’s current coalition in December 2021, but allocations were determined only after lengthy negotiations with cities and provinces. In all, the national government will spend 4 billion euros on public transportation projects including extending Amsterdam’s North-South Metro Line to Schiphol, E2.7b on improving roads, and E780m on improving infrastructure on an already extensive network of bike paths. The projects are clustered around improvements needed to improve the transport connections for 400,000 new homes being separately planned as part of efforts to ease a structural housing shortage in the Netherlands.<br/>
BOC Aviation Ltd has begun legal action in pursuit of claims against 16 insurers over aircraft the lessor owns that are stuck in Russia, an Irish High Court filing shows. The insurers named in the proceedings, which the filing shows were issued on Nov.3, include Lloyd’s of London Ltd , AIG Inc, Chubb Ltd and Swiss Re AG. Lloyd’s and Swiss Re declined to comment and AIG and Chubb did not immediately respond to requests for comment on BOC’s legal move, which did not include details on the size of the lessor’s claim. Leasing firms have begun pursuing claims over huge losses since losing control of more than 400 leased planes worth almost $10b after Western countries sanctioned Russia over its February invasion of Ukraine and Moscow blocked the jets from leaving. Singapore-based BOC recognised an $804m asset write-down in August relating to the 17 aircraft it owns that remain in Russia, saying it was unlikely to be able to recover the jets “in the foreseeable future, if ever”. BOC said in August that it had filed insurance claims to recover the losses and would vigorously pursue them. Its CE Robert Martin told analysts in August that the proceedings “will keep lawyers busy for many years” and may require a complete rethinking of aviation insurance. Dublin-based AerCap Holdings NV, the world’s biggest aircraft lessor, in June filed a $3.5b lawsuit at London’s High Court over its insurance claim for more than 100 seized planes, the largest claim by any lessor related to the conflict. <br/>
Boeing said Monday that operators of its 787 Dreamliner jetliners have experienced paint peeling issues on wing and horizontal stabilizer surfaces due to ultraviolet radiation exposure, and asked US regulators to approve its plan to address the issue. The announcement is the most recent evidence of exterior problems on the latest carbon-composite jets as Europe's Airbus faces a $2b London court battle with Qatar Airways over the deteriorating surface of its competing A350. Airbus argues it is a generic but harmless problem stemming from the way paint and carbon interact, while Qatar Airways, which operates both competing types, blames a deeper A350 defect potentially weakening lightning protection on those jets alone. Both manufacturers insist the lightweight models are safe. Until now, Boeing's interim fix has involved repeated use of "speed tape" over affected areas. That led some passengers to post photos online of 787 wings with tape and raise concerns. Now, Boeing wants the FAA to approve its plan to incorporate a layer of ultraviolet- blocking black topcoat between the primer and the white topcoat. "Even though the use of speed tape has no effect on the safety of the airplane, the public could perceive an unsafe condition when seeing tape on the wing surfaces," Boeing told the FAA in a regulatory filing made public on Monday.<br/>
Russian businessman Andrey Yakunin indicted by Norwegian prosecutors last week after he was found flying a drone on the Svalbard islands has denied criminal guilt for the charges. Yakunin was charged with violating sanctions regulations, which prohibit Russian nationals from flying drones in Norway. He denies criminal guilt and believes there is no basis for issuing the indictment, according to John Christian Elden from the Elden law office, who represents Yakunin. The dual Russian-British citizen was taken into custody by Norwegian police on Oct. 17 during a boating holiday in the Arctic archipelago and remains detained as prosecutors have appealed court rulings for his release. His father Vladimir Yakunin was among the closest allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin until leaving his post as the head of the national railways, Russia’s largest employer, in 2015. Yakunin was using the drone to take landscape photographs and check for weather conditions on hiking routes, his lawyers said last month. The regulations prohibiting Russian nationals from flying drones in Norway do not apply to British citizens and also contravene the Svalbard Treaty, they said. They also said the sanctions do not apply to the recreational use of drones, as in the case of Yakunin.<br/>
FedEx Corp.’s freight unit is putting workers on furlough in some US markets, adding to mounting evidence of a cargo slowdown as the company joins other large employers trimming their ranks. The furloughed workers will continue to receive health benefits, the courier said Monday in an emailed statement. Some of the affected employees will be offered permanent transfers to areas that are still hiring. “The company will continue to evaluate the environment and bring back furloughed employees as business circumstances allow,” FedEx said in the statement. It didn’t specify how many workers would be affected in the freight business, which hauls less-than-truckload cargo for retail and industrial customers and is the company’s third-largest unit. The move comes after FedEx said last week it’s cutting cargo flights and parking planes as the air-freight market declines. Many companies in third-quarter earnings cited a slowdown of demand as the Federal Reserve continues to boost interest rates to cool inflation. C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc., a large freight broker, said it will cut costs by $175m to cope with a downturn in 2023. The staff reductions aren’t limited to freight companies. Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. is preparing to cut about 10,000 positions beginning as soon as this week.<br/>
Boeing is looking for a glimmer of hope when US President Joe Biden meets with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday. It’s been 3 1/2 years since a mainland Chinese airline took delivery of a Boeing 737 Max aircraft -- a wait brought on by a pair of fatal crashes, a global pandemic and simmering tensions between the world’s two most powerful countries. China used to take a quarter of the cash-cow jets that the US planemaker built each year, and the beleaguered aerospace company could use a lift. Airbus has a lock on China’s lucrative narrow-body jet market for now -- and will until Biden can persuade Xi to let Boeing back in. The Arlington, Virginia-based company is supplying him with a compelling case. Boeing projects Chinese airlines will require 8,485 new passenger and freighter planes valued at $1.5 trillion over the next two decades, accounting for more than a fifth of global deliveries. Airbus and China’s homegrown manufacturer Comac are unlikely to meet that demand alone. If Xi hints Monday at a willingness to work with Biden on aerospace, Boeing would view it as a win, since aircraft have loomed large in relations between the two countries for decades. Even a pledge to continue talks or consider a state visit would be promising sign. The question is whether Biden is ready to press Xi on the matter when they meet in Bali, Indonesia. His administration is focused on the shortfall on Beijing’s side in delivering on a 2020 trade deal to buy tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Boeing planes. But instead of asking for specific concessions for the aircraft maker, the White House views the situation in the broader context of Chinese economic practices that disadvantage many US companies beyond Boeing, a person familiar with the administration’s thinking said.<br/>
Airbus said production concerns have shifted from a shortage of jet engines to smaller suppliers struggling to cope with spiraling energy costs, with the squeeze expected to become most acute next spring. The world’s largest planemaker is working to mitigate the impact of the energy crisis for component makers by being flexible with its aircraft production sequencing and supporting vendors seeking to raise working capital from banks, CEO Guillaume Faury said Monday. “We have new issues coming from the energy situation, the prices of gas and electricity that are impacting small suppliers,” Faury said. “That’s a bit of a different nature and this will not impact the production before maybe the second quarter of next year.” Airbus has struggled with supply-chain constraints since it began lifting output following factory shutdowns at the height of the coronavirus crisis. Hundreds of small firms it relies on face recruitment issues and raw materials shortages even as the manufacturing giant seeks to accelerate build rates to record levels over coming years. Increased power prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have added to the problems. Germany, one of the locations where Airbus makes its workhorse A320-series narrow-body family, is among countries hardest hit as Moscow squeezes gas supplies. Faury, who cut the full-year delivery goal from 720 to 700 planes in July, said the company now expects to hand over “around 700” this year, indicating the difficulties of reaching even a revised target that requires more than 200 planes to be shipped in the final two months of the year. Beyond that, he said there’s time to ensure that the energy squeeze doesn’t result in a further drag on build rates.<br/>
Supply chain trouble and a shortage of pilots in the US are holding back Embraer’s aircraft deliveries, though executives insist the company will still hit its 2022 shipment targets. “We are still suffering from the supply chain a lot, especially for engines”, Embraer chief executive Francisco Gomes Neto says on 14 November. He also cites shortages of aircraft-interior components. Gomes Neto spoke the day Embraer reported a $41m loss in Q3 2022 – a slight improvement from its $46m loss in the same period of 2021. The company generated $929m in Q3 revenue, down 3% year on year. Citing supply chain issues and a pilot shortage, executives say Embraer will likely close 2022 having delivered about 60 of its E-Jet commercial aircraft. That figure is still within its previously disclosed 2022 forecast of 60-70 E-Jet shipments this year. Likewise, Embraer now expects in 2022 to deliver about 100 business aircraft – also on the floor of its 100-110-aircraft guidance. Gomes Neto says supply chain issues are “still ongoing” and have forced Embraer to make recent changes to its production schedule. He expects Embraer will remain constrained by component shortages throughout 2023, with improvement in the second half of next year. “The situation will normalise completely only in 2024,” Gomes Neto predicts. Embraer is not alone; companies throughout the aerospace industry have seen production hampered in recent quarters by parts shortages. Embraer’s E-Jets E2 are powered by PW1900G geared turbofans made by Pratt & Whitney, which also produces, in much higher volumes, PW1100Gs for Airbus A320neo-family jets.<br/>