The US TSA said it screened 2.56m air passengers on Sunday, the highest number since December 2019 and the busiest day since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number was, however, below the 2.88m screened on the same day in 2019 at the end of the busy US Thanksgiving travel period. Between Nov. 18 and Sunday, airlines carried 22.2m US passengers compared with 23.5m in the same period in 2019, down by about 5.5%. US airlines reported very few cancellations over the holiday travel period, including 177 on Sunday and 56 on Monday, according to FlightAware. US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday on Twitter that "the system did well. Sunday's weather led to an elevated but not extreme level of delays (5.3%) & overall cancellation rates held below 1.0%." United Airlines said Sunday was its third-busiest travel day of 2022, with more than 476,000 customers traveling and it completed 99.8% of flights over the week. US airlines had planned to operate 13% fewer domestic flights during the eight-day Thanksgiving travel period compared with 2019, data by Cirium showed, but often with larger planes.<br/>
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Canada's transport minister says the federal government and the country's aviation sector are working on strengthening the passenger bill of rights following a summer plagued by delayed and cancelled flights. While answering reporters' questions during a news conference at the Ottawa International Airport on Monday, Omar Alghabra acknowledged the "unacceptable" issues air travellers faced this year, from delayed and cancelled flights to lost luggage. The comments came after the minister convened a summit last week with the air travel industry to discuss outstanding issues facing the sector ahead of the holidays. Speaking on Monday, Alghabra said topics discussed included how to modernize the security screening process, ways that airports could generate additional revenue to ensure greater financial flexibility and lessons learned to reform the passenger bill of rights, including standards for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority and other government agencies. "Those are the type of things we're looking at because it's really important that we keep in mind the focus of the passenger experience. That's ultimately what we're all trying to do," Alghabra said. The federal government has pointed to a surge in demand for air travel — as much as 280 per cent between February and June, Alghabra has said — and labour shortages for contributing to the issues seen at Canada's major airports, as well as others around the world. The wait time, as of Monday, to review air travel complaints made to the Canadian Transportation Agency can be more than 18 months. <br/>
Pan-European air navigation organisation Eurocontrol is pursuing an initiative for solidarity funds aimed at assisting member states affected by the Ukrainian conflict. The voluntary funds will be established to assist, in particular, Ukraine and Moldova as well as the Baltic states and Poland. Eurocontrol says Ukraine and Moldova will receive a donation of E46.5m while Poland and the Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – will obtain a loan of E46.1m. The organisation says the funds are to ease pressure on countries facing crises “beyond their control”. Ukraine and Moldova have suffered a loss of air navigation revenues as a result of airspace closures and traffic re-routing. “This decision allows us together to take collective action to provide support and funding to ensure the longer-term viability of air traffic control in any state that is impacted in such a way now and in the future,” says Eurocontrol director general Eamonn Brennan. Funds will be used to cover staff and training costs and other expenses needed to ensure operational readiness and continuity once air traffic recovers.<br/>
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced on Monday plans to transform Riyadh airport into a massive aviation hub with six parallel runways and designed to accommodate up to 120 million travellers by 2030, state news agency SPA reported. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), will build King Salman International Airport, which should stretch over 57 square kilometres and include current King Khaled airport, SPA said. Aviation is part of a government strategy to become a global transportation and logistics hub by 2030, with Riyadh airport as the operation base of a brand new airline, RIA, that would compete with regional heavyweights Emirates and Qatar Airways. The kingdom has set itself high targets for diversifying its economy and reducing its dependence on oil, pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into a plan called Vision 2030 initiated by the kingdom's de facto ruler Prince Mohammed. "The airport project is in line with Saudi Arabia's vision to transform Riyadh to be among the top ten city economies in the world and to support the growth of Riyadh's population to 15–20m people by 2030," SPA said. It added King Salman airport would create 103,000 direct and indirect jobs, handle 185 million travellers and process 3.5m tons of cargo by 2050. It did not give details on the planned investments but a person familiar with the plans has told Reuters the PIF's aviation department is getting hefty funds to create an ecosystem of cargo and passenger airlines, repair companies and airports.<br/>
Abu Dhabi Airports raised its passenger forecast for the full year after a strong performance in the third quarter of 2022, as the aviation industry continues to recover "remarkably" from the Covid-19 pandemic. Passenger traffic across Abu Dhabi's five airports is expected to reach more than 15m people in 2022, up from an August forecast of at least 13m and a February estimate of 10.7m, the state-owned airports operator said on Monday. A total of 4.7m passengers travelled through Abu Dhabi's five hubs in the third quarter, up from 1.3m passengers in the same quarter of 2021, as the UAE capital attracted more airline customers and launched new routes. “These figures are a demonstration of how the aviation industry has recovered remarkably," said Jamal Salem Al Dhaheri, managing director and CE of Abu Dhabi Airports. "New airlines and air routes continue to be attracted to Abu Dhabi, while new and improved services have played a prominent role in accommodating the expected surging demand head-on."<br/>
The Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) has officially commissioned the third runway at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). This move represents a major milestone of the airport’s expansion into a three-runway system (3RS). In August 2016, construction work for the 3RS began, with the formation of 650ha of land via reclamation concluded in nearly four years. AAHK chairman Jack So said: “Since the construction of the 3RS started in 2016, we have overcome many difficulties and challenges. The project is progressing on schedule with the new runway starting operation in July this year. “I would like to express my deep gratitude to all airport colleagues for their tremendous efforts in completing the new runway, which provides fresh impetus to economic growth. The Airport City is also developing into a new landmark. These achievements are nothing short of miracles against all odds.”<br/>
The Department of Airports has spent more than 4.5b baht to<br/>improve the capacity of 29 regional airports, as part of a plan to facilitate a target of more than 41m passengers next year, the DoA said. "It is estimated that in 2023 there will be more than 41m passengers visiting airports under the DoA, an increase from the 29m passengers during the pandemic," director-general Parinya Saengsuwan<br/>said yesterday. It is unclear which period he was referring to. He said the number of commercial flights is consistently increasing and<br/>the department spent the money to revamp air travel networks in<br/>Thailand. Moreover, the department aims to operate check-in counters with multiple airlines so to save passengers' time, he said. The counters will be in service by the end of next year, he said. He said the multi-billion-baht investment contributed to construction<br/>projects in many regional airports. For example, Terminals 1–3 at Krabi Airport now can handle 3,000 passengers per hour or 8m per year,<br/>as opposed to the previous 1,500 per hour, he said. Capacity at Khon Kaen and Nakhon Si Thammarat airports has doubled as a result of the investment, he said. He said the DoA is also building other airport infrastructures, including taxiways, runways, aprons, and terminals, at regional airports in Nan, Surat Thani, Chumphon, Satun, Mukdahan, and Bueng Kan provinces. The project is currently going through its Environmental Impact Assessment. The DoA is also working on a Transport Ministry project to build a bridge connecting the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman coasts to boost the southern economy.<br/>
Australians facing record high domestic air fares are opting for cheaper overnight trains and coaches to travel interstate, with patronage between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane more than doubling in recent months as services are booked to capacity. Despite decades-old infrastructure on Australia’s east coast that makes train journeys several hours longer than equivalent car trips, fresh ridership statistics have exposed the dramatic effect of the reduction in flights and soaring air fares on summer travel plans. The cheapest available domestic air fares remain above a peak not seen since March 2004, as airlines struggle with the slow rebuilding of the aviation workforce, staff illnesses and high fuel prices. Return economy fares between Sydney and Melbourne – the world’s second busiest air route before Covid – in December average $500 on budget carriers and exceed $1,000 on Qantas, as the number of seats on offer remain at 76% of pre-Covid levels. But the New South Wales government-run XPT train services from Sydney to and from Melbourne, Brisbane and Dubbo, as well as shorter Xplorer services to destinations including Canberra, remain at much lower fixed prices that are only occasionally subject to slight holiday peak increases. An XPT service from Sydney Central to Melbourne Southern Cross takes about 10 hours and 50 minutes, in stark contrast to the 90-minute flight and roughly nine-hour car trip. A one-way adult economy ticket costs $78 and a first-class saver ticket – which boasts more leg room – is on sale for $93. Prices are the same for the roughly 14-hour XPT service from Sydney to Brisbane’s Roma Street station. Two XPT services run in each direction daily between Sydney and Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane, with a sleeper on the overnight service costing $234 for a full fare adult.<br/>
Britain's Rolls-Royce said it has successfully run an aircraft engine on hydrogen, a world aviation first that marks a major step towards proving the gas could be key to decarbonising air travel. The ground test, using a converted Rolls-Royce AE 2100-A regional aircraft engine, used green hydrogen created by wind and tidal power, the British company said on Monday. Rolls and its testing programme partner easyJet are seeking to prove that hydrogen can safely and efficiently deliver power for civil aero engines. They said they were already planning a second set of tests, with a longer-term ambition to carry out flight tests. Hydrogen is one of a number of competing technologies that could help the aviation industry achieve its goal of becoming net zero by 2050. Planemaker Airbus is working with French-U.S. engine maker CFM International to test hydrogen propulsion technology. It said in February it planned to fit a specially adapted version of a current generation engine near the back of an A380 superjumbo test plane. The aircraft manufacturer however told the European Union in 2021 that most airliners will rely on traditional jet engines until at least 2050. A switch to hydrogen-powered engines would require a complete redesign of airframes and infrastructure at airports.<br/>