The jet era that globalised air travel for half a century was brought to an abrupt halt with Covid. Now, planes are back in the skies but flying’s proliferation is in reverse: Fewer aircraft are plying a smaller network and fares are up. It’s more expensive to fly almost anywhere overseas. And while some markets such as the United States are just about back to pre-virus capacity, swathes of Asia and Europe are wallowing more than one-quarter below 2019 levels. A swift post-virus rebound in demand has overwhelmed an airline industry that has lost about US$187b since 2020 under the weight of travel restrictions. Short of planes and crew, the sector has dropped more than 2,000 city-to-city connections that existed in 2019 and carriers are charging more for tickets on many routes. Air travel, the data showed, is for the richer and the fewer. “Flying has moved upmarket,” said Simon Kuestenmacher, Melbourne-based co-founder of advisory firm The Demographics Group. It’s further evidence that the pandemic has drawn a clearer line between the world’s economic winners and losers, he said. There’s so much appetite to travel that airlines have been able to more than double fares on some routes, particularly for business class seats.<br/>
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President Joe Biden warned Americans traveling ahead of the Christmas holiday weekend to be careful and leave early if possible to avoid the massive storm expected to hit several states Thursday night. “This is not like a snow day when you were a kid,” Biden said. “This is serious stuff.” Biden was briefed by officials from the National Weather Service and FEMA in the Oval Office Thursday morning. Large swaths of the continental US are under blizzard, ice storm and winter storm warnings. Other areas are under wind chill, freeze and flood warnings. The National Weather Service website warns of a “widespread and dangerous arctic blast” approaching which will cause “life-threatening cold” and “consume much of the lower 48.” The Midwest and Great Lakes regions are expected to receive the bulk of the snow fall with nearly all of the Great Plains region under a wind chill warning. The storm will “produce widespread disruptive and potentially crippling impacts across the central and eastern United States.” Airlines canceled more than 2,800 flights from Wednesday through Friday, according to tracking site FlightAware. That period includes what airlines expected to be the busiest travel times before Christmas, which is Sunday. Regardless of how they plan to travel, Biden encouraged Americans to listen to guidance and be careful. “I encourage everyone, everyone to please heed the local warnings,” Biden said, adding information can be found on weather.gov. Biden said the White House has tried to contact governors of 26 states slated to be hit by the storm.<br/>
Snow, rain, ice, wind and frigid temperatures are disrupting air travel plans across the United States as well as bus and Amtrak passenger train service. Airlines canceled more than 2,400 US flights by 9 p.m. ET Thursday and proactively canceled more than 2,200 flights for Friday, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. Even for Saturday, more than 125 flights were already canceled. Delays were even more extensive on Thursday: More than 9,300 as of 9 p.m. ET. The impacts are being felt hardest in Chicago and Denver, where around a quarter of arrivals and departures – hundreds of flights at each airport – were canceled on Thursday, FlightAware data show. At one point Thursday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, delays averaging 159 minutes – almost three hours – were being caused by snow and ice, according to a notice from the FAA. Temperatures at the O’Hare dropped to 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 Celsius) around 6:45 p.m. local time. Light snow and fog/mist were reported by the National Weather Service. The FAA said departing aircraft at Dallas Love, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver and Minneapolis airports require a spraying of de-icing fluid for safe travel. In the busy New York City metro area, the FAA warned that Newark flights should expect delays because of visibility issues. The region’s three large airports are all warning travelers that the incoming winter weather front may disrupt their travels. “Flight activity at #LaGuardiaAirport may be disrupted by heavy rain and strong winds later today and Friday. Travelers, please confirm flight status with your airline before heading to the airport,” LaGuardia Airport posted on Twitter. John F. Kennedy and Newark Airport also posted similar notices. Many airlines have issued weather waivers allowing travelers to change their itineraries without penalty during a short window. John Busch, Reagan National Airport’s TSA federal security director, told reporters that all airports “expect to be busier this holiday season than we’ve been in several years coming out of the pandemic. We’ve already seen some of our busiest days, yesterday and today and we expect maybe Friday 30th ahead of the New Year’s holiday can be also a very busy day.” But Busch added that TSA is “very well prepared to handle additional volume and throughput for our security checkpoints.”<br/>
After a year when many would-be travellers experienced airports clogged by hours-long lineups for security, only to have their flights delayed and cancelled, or their luggage lost, travelling by plane was an experience in frustration for many in 2022. The reality of that frustration can be seen in new data released by the Canadian Transportation Agency on Monday. The agency, which is an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator of transportation, released a new dashboard on the number of complaints airlines received between April and September of 2022. The complaint data is drawn from information submitted by passengers to the CTA. When it comes to Canadian carriers, the results indicate that the CTA received more complaints about discount airlines. Between April and Sept. 2022, the CTA received 13.7 complaints per 100 flights for Flair Airlines, and 12.6 complaints per 100 flights for Swoop Inc. As well, Sunwing Airlines received 8.6 complains per 100 flights, while WestJet received 4.9,and Air Canada received 3.6 per 100 flights. Air Transat had the lowest complaint rate at 2.2 complaints per 100 flights. The CTA also provided data on complaints applying to foreign-operated airlines. The highest number of complaints applied to Qatar Airways, which received 24.1 complaints per 100 flights<br/>
Addressing the ongoing political instability and protests in Peru, the IATA and the Airport Council International - Latin America & the Caribbean (ACI-LAC) urged the Peruvian authorities to secure airline and airport operations throughout the country. Earlier this month, up to five airports had to be closed after some protesters endangered their operations. This week, the IATA, ACI-LAC, and more international entities representing airports and airlines called the Peruvian society and authorities to secure the integrity of employees, teams, and airport infrastructures. The country should guarantee, as soon as possible, the normal functioning of air transport in the country. They stated, “Safety is the main objective in the airline industry and cannot be compromised. When this happens, at any level, the aeronautical operations should be suspended to preserve the well-being of the users.” Last week, five airports, Andahuaylas (ANS), Arequipa (AQP), Juliaca (JUL), Cuzco (CUZ), and Ayacucho (AYP), temporarily closed, impacting hundreds of flights operated by four carriers, Sky Airline, JetSMART, LATAM Airlines, and Viva Peru. Lima International Airport remained open but introduced new safety measures.<br/>
Hundreds of thousands of travellers arriving in the UK have been told to expect disruption as passport control workers begin strikes. Border Force staff are the latest UK workers to take action as rises in the cost of living outpace pay. The military and civil servants have been drafted in at six major airports and at Newhaven port. Postal workers will also walk out on Friday and national rail strikes start again from Christmas Eve. About 1,000 Border Force workers, many of whom check people's passports as they arrive in the UK, will strike from 23 to 26 December, and 28 to 31 December. They will walk out at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports, and the Port of Newhaven. Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) are in a long-running dispute with the government over pay, jobs, pensions and conditions. The Home Office said that it had been working to minimise delays for passengers. Heathrow, the UK's busiest airport, said passengers on departing flights would be unlikely to be delayed - passports are normally checked on the way in to a country. Passengers who are arriving will be able to use passport e-gates as usual, it said. But these cannot be used by all passengers, including children under 12. There are 579 flights due to land at Heathrow on Friday, with an estimated 10,000 passengers arriving before 07:00 alone. This will be the busiest Christmas for airports since 2019, and the first without any coronavirus restrictions in place.<br/>
Russian airlines have held exploratory talks with at least one major Western leasing firm about using state funds to buy some of the more than 400 aircraft stranded in Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, according to documents and sources. The proposal, which would need EU approval and test the scope for compromise in an economic war between Moscow and the West, could lower a multibillion-dollar bill facing lessors and insurers and allow Russian airlines to secure formal ownership of planes at a potentially steep discount. A Russian aviation source said the proposal was still being discussed, but that some Russian officials were pessimistic about it getting European Union approval. An EU official familiar with discussions on the issue declined to comment. Before what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine, Russia was a major market for aircraft lessors, who bought jets from Boeing and Airbus and leased them to Russian airlines who wanted to avoid the up-front cost and inflexibility of buying planes themselves. But after Western sanctions forced lessors to cancel these contracts, Moscow refused to allow the planes to leave, stranding almost $10b worth of aircraft in Russia and triggering claims by lessors against their own insurers. Russian airlines continue to operate many of the jets, but some have struggled to secure replacement parts.<br/>
Russia's aviation sector will do everything it can to avoid the "total cannibalisation" of aircraft for spare parts, industry and trade minister Denis Manturov has told the Vedomosti business newspaper, as the impact of sanctions bites. "Everything is being done to prevent this (total cannibalisation) from happening. Much depends on how intensively the aircraft fleet will be used and how timely they are serviced," Manturov said in an interview published on Thursday. Manturov said that components could be moved between aircraft "for the prompt restoration of airworthiness", but that he was not aware of cases of full cannibalisation of planes for their spare parts. In August, Reuters reported that Russian airlines, including state-controlled Aeroflot, were stripping jetliners to secure spare parts they can no longer buy abroad because of Western sanctions, citing four industry sources.<br/>
India has begun randomly testing international passengers arriving at its airports for COVID-19, the country's health minister said Thursday, citing an increase in cases in neighboring China. Mansukh Mandaviya announced the new rule in Parliament, where he also urged state governments to increase surveillance for any new coronavirus variants and send samples of all positive cases to genome sequencing laboratories. Mandaviya also asked the public to wear masks and maintain social distancing, even though there are no official mandates for either. India relaxed its mask-wearing rules earlier this year after coronavirus cases began dropping sharply. It has reported the most COVID-19 cases in the world since the pandemic began, but confirmed infections have fallen sharply in the past few months. According to health ministry data, India currently has about 3,400 active coronavirus cases. Cases have surged in neighboring China since it relaxed its harsh restrictions earlier this month following rare public protests.<br/>
The Aviation Operators Association of Bangladesh (AOAB) have demanded the government end unfair competition from state-owned Biman Bangladesh Airlines which they claim receives state subsidies on domestic routes. The charge is one of five demands presented by the AOAB to the country's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Civil Aviation and Tourism on December 20, 2022, report Bangi News and The Dahaka Tribune. Apart from the competitive concerns, other complaints included the need for timely policies; provision of affordable fuel; an end to high taxes; and a requirement for reasonable surcharges. In response, the parliamentary committee recommended the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry schedule a meeting with various other affected ministries to discuss the demands. Amongst others, the AOAB believes that current civil aviation regulations are insufficient and contradictory. They dictate, amongst other things, that Bangladesh's airlines have to buy jet fuel from state-owned Padma Oil for domestic flights at 30% to 40% higher cost than the price of jet fuel on the global market. They say the price of jet fuel increases locally concomitant with global hikes, but never comes down again when the price drops globally. As a result, jet fuel makes up more than 50% of local airlines' costs. Another gripe highlighted was the import tax levied on aircraft components.<br/>
Waste gases from a steelworks and household rubbish could be used to fuel aeroplanes for "guilt-free flying". It comes as five projects have been awarded a share of a GBP165m UK government fund. The projects will cut CO2 emissions by an average of 200,000 tonnes a year, once fully up and running. The Department of Transport said the project will also produce 300,000 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel a year. The UK government said this was "enough to fly to the moon and back about 60 times" and equates to around 14,331,300 miles (23,063,991 km). One of the projects will be based at Port Talbot steelworks and will convert steel mill off-gases into fuel.<br/>Another scheme will develop a plant creating duel using carbon captured from a gas-fired power station and hydrogen made from renewable electricity. The other successful projects include sustainable fuel plants in Teesside, Immingham and Ellesmere Port, which will cover domestic and commercial waste. UK government Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: "Using waste or by-products to refuel airliners sounds like a flight of fancy, but... it's going to help us make guilt-free flying a reality. "It's exactly this kind of innovation that will help us create thousands of green jobs across the country and slash our carbon emissions." A Welsh government spokesman called it "great news", adding: "We are committed to helping create green jobs in the new industries of the future, which will help us deliver our ambition of creating a stronger, fairer and greener economy. This is exactly the type of investment we want to see more of here in Wales."<br/>
Boeing said Thursday it had resumed flight testing of its 777X jets after an inspection in October found an engine issue. GE said last month it was reviewing a technical issue that occurred during GE9X post-certification engineering testing of the plane, and had decided with Boeing to remove the engine and send it to a test facility in Ohio for engineering test runs. The 777X, also known as the 777-9, is a larger version of the 777 wide-body jet and has been in development since 2013. Boeing in April said it was halting production of the 777X through 2023 and confirmed a delay in handing over the first 777X jet to 2025 from the previous target of late 2023, but said it remained confident in the program. The FAA warned Boeing in a March 21 letter that existing certification schedules for the 737 MAX 10 and 777X were "outdated and no longer reflect the program activities." Certification is needed before Boeing can begin deliveries. In May 2021, the FAA told Boeing that, realistically, it would not certify the 777X until mid- to late 2023 and rejected a request by Boeing to clear a certification hurdle, citing numerous concerns about lack of data and lack of a preliminary safety assessment. The 777X had previously been expected to be released for use in June 2020.<br/>