Six fatal air accidents during 2022 claimed 174 lives of passengers and crew, together with four people on the ground. Despite these tragedies, it was one of the safest years for commercial air travel in history. The figures are revealed in the latest Civil Aviation Safety Review by a leading expert. Adrian Young, of the Dutch consultancy To70, concludes that despite flight numbers returning towards 2019 levels, there was not a corresponding increase in fatal accidents. He writes: “The post-Covid recovery that everyone expected came in 2022. Whilst it was a difficult summer with capacity issues at airports, leading to long queues at terminals, the recovery has not resulted in a higher accident rate. The current rate of one fatal accident every four and a quarter million flights and this year’s fatal accident rate is better than average over the last 10 years.” The aviation death toll of 174 corresponds to the average number of fatalities on the roads in an hour and a quarter worldwide. The United Nations says that 1.3m people die each year on the roads worldwide, with road traffic accidents the leading cause of death for people aged five to 29 years. The first fatal air crash of 2022 accounted for three-quarters of the year’s death toll. On 21 March, China Eastern flight 5735 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, to Guangzhou when it entered a near-vertical dive and crashed into a mountainside. All 132 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 737-800 were killed.<br/>
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The FAA has issued an airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Boeing 747 models following safety concerns about a pump in the aircrafts’ horizontal stabilizer fuel tank. The AD, which was published in the National Register on 29 December, will go into effect on 13 January 2023. The FAA says it affects 28 Boeing 747-400 series and 747-8 series aircraft currently registered in the United States. “This AD was prompted by reports of wear-through of the motor impeller inlet adapter of a transfer pump for the horizontal stabilizer fuel tank caused by contact between the pump inlet check valve and the inlet adapter,” the FAA writes. The AD calls this an “unsafe condition” and will require inspections and possible replacement of the inlet check valves and adapters of the transfer pumps. The issue was noticed when operators were conducting “troubleshooting of fuel imbalance issues involving the main wing fuel tanks, which utilize the same pump design as the horizontal stabilizer fuel tank”. So far, Boeing has found two pumps with wear “sufficient to allow contact between the motor impeller inlet check valve flapper and the pump inducer”, as well as 22 more worn pumps. The inlet check valve can vibrate so much that it could create steel-on-steel contact, causing friction and heat, and possibly create a spark in the fuel tank. “This condition, in combination with flammable fuel vapours, could result in a fuel tank explosion and consequent loss of the airplane,” the AD says. The FAA estimates the inspections will cost operators just over $30,000 per aircraft, and replacing the inlet adaptor and check valve will cost about $23,000 per aircraft. According to Cirium fleets data, 94 747-400s and 41 747-8s are currently registered in the United States. The majority of those aircraft fly for Atlas Air, Kalitta Air, UPS Airlines and FedEx.<br/>
Air travelers to Canada from China must test negative for COVID-19 no more than two days before departure, Ottawa said on Saturday, joining other nations that have implemented such restrictions. The requirements, which take effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Thursday, apply to all travelers aged 2 and older on Canadian-bound flights originating from the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong or Macao. The temporary measure will be in place for 30 days and be reassessed as more data becomes available, the Canadian government said. "We will adapt our measures based on available data, the science, and the epidemiological situation in our country and globally to protect Canadians," said Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. South Korea, Spain and France on Friday joined a growing list of countries, including the United States, Britain and India, that have imposed COVID tests for travelers from China. The US testing requirements also take effect on Jan. 5. Travelers from China to Canada and the United States who test positive more than 10 days before a flight may provide the airline with documentation of recovery in lieu of a negative test result. The Public Health Agency of Canada said Saturday it would implement a pilot project on wastewater testing from aircraft with Vancouver airport, and expand such an existing project with Toronto Pearson airport, to assess COVID-19 prevalence in various parts of the world. Samples are sequenced to monitor for novel variants, the agency said.<br/>
France on Sunday urged European Union peers to test Chinese travellers for COVID after Paris decided to do so amid an outbreak sweeping the country. Only Italy and Spain also require tests in the 27-nation, largely border-free EU and health officials from across the bloc failed last week to agree on a joint course. More talks will follow this week. From Sunday, France is requiring that travellers from China provide a negative COVID-19 test result less than 48 hours before departure and will randomly test those arriving. "France will push for this methodology to be applied across the EU," Health Minister François Braun said as he and Transport Minister Clement Beaune checked on the new procedures at Paris' Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport. Asked about the fact that a Chinese traveller with COVID could for the time being land in another EU country and then travel unchecked to France, Beaune said: "This is why we must coordinate (across the EU), to be more efficient."<br/>
The UK said on Friday that passengers arriving in Britain from China will require a negative COVID-19 test after a surge in infections in China. Starting on Jan. 5, Chinese travellers will need to show a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than two days prior to departure, UK's Department of Health and Social Care said. The move comes after doubts over the transparency of official data from Beijing raised concerns about a wave of infections. Airlines will be required to check all passengers from China for tests, and passengers will not be allowed to board a flight without providing evidence of a negative test result, it added. The UK joins other countries, including the United States and India, to impose COVID-19 tests for travellers from China. France, South Korea and Spain have also done so. The Times and The Telegraph on Friday reported that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had weighed in to take the step. The BBC had earlier reported that the UK government was set to announce the China arrival policy, without providing a specific time. UK officials had said on Thursday that the government was reviewing whether to impose restrictions on people arriving from China. Chinese state media on Friday called the imposition of COVID tests by various countries on travellers arriving from China "discriminatory".<br/>
The super-rich should be forced to pay an extra tax each time they fly on “hugely damaging” private jets to help fund better and cleaner public transport, a charity has said. The Campaign for Better Transport (CfBT) called on the government to introduce a “super tax” on private jet travel, saying it is “about time that these individuals started paying for the damage their flights cause and the proceeds used to help improve public transport for communities up and down the country”. The charity said private jets are between five and 14 times more polluting than commercial flights and 50 times more polluting than taking a train. They argue that a “super rate of air passenger duty (APD)” should be applied to account for the damage caused to the planet. The CfBT also called on the government to strip private flights of their current VAT-free status. “Private jets are hugely damaging to the environment and are the preserve of the super-rich,” said Norman Baker, the CfBT’s director of external affairs and a former Liberal Democrat MP. Currently, private jet passengers are charged the same rate of APD as business or first-class passengers, with a higher rate applied to aircraft of 20 tonnes or more with fewer than 19 passengers onboard. The campaigners said the new super rate of APD on private jet travel should be set at 10 times the current higher rate for domestic and European trips, which would apply to all private jet passengers, regardless of the size or capacity of the aircraft or distance travelled. They said the tax could raise GBP1.4b-a-year – roughly equal to Network Rail’s entire annual maintenance costs. In addition, CfBT said the government should charge VAT each time a private jet lands or takes off, regardless of size or distance travelled, which would raise a further GBP79m-GBP623m.<br/>
The Syrian army said on Monday that Israel had carried out a missile strike on Damascus International Airport and put it out of service, the latest in a string of strikes targeting Iran-linked assets. A volley of air-launched missiles had hit the airport at 2 a.m., the army said. They had come from the direction of Lake Tiberias in Israel. Missiles had also hit targets in the south of Damascus, killing two members of the Syrian armed forces and causing some damage, the army said. Earlier, two regional intelligence sources said the strikes had hit an outpost near the airport of Iran's Quds Force and militias it backs. Their presence has spread in Syria in recent years. The Israel Defence Force did not immediately comment on the attack. Last year, Israel intensified strikes on Damascus International and other civilian airports to disrupt Tehran's increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Hezbollah.<br/>
Chinese state-media have railed against the growing number of foreign governments imposing COVID tests on travellers from China, calling the measures "discriminatory." Having kept its borders all but shut for three years, imposing a strict regime of lockdowns and relentless testing, Beijing abruptly reversed course toward living with the virus on Dec. 7, and infections have spread rapidly in recent weeks. South Korea and Spain on Friday joined a growing list of countries, including the United States, India and others, which have imposed COVID tests for travellers from China over concerns about the scale of its COVID outbreak and scepticism over Beijing's health statistics. Malaysia said it would screen all international arrivals for fever. "The real intention is to sabotage China's three years of COVID-19 control efforts and attack the country's system," state-run tabloid Global Times said in an article late on Thursday, calling the restrictions "unfounded" and "discriminatory." China will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine from Jan. 8. But it will still demand a negative PCR test result within 48 hours before departure. Senior Chinese health officials held a video conference with the World Health Organization on Friday and exchanged views the current epidemic situation, China's National Health Commission said in a statement without elaborating further.<br/>
Chinese airlines will be the early winners of the country's international reopening, analysts say, having kept most widebody planes and staff ready while foreign carriers struggle with capacity constraints after previous border openings. Less than one-fifth of China's widebody fleet of about 500 planes is in storage, according to a McKinsey analysis using Cirium data, with most planes active but flying fewer hours than usual on domestic routes and limited international and cargo flights. Chinese airlines also retained most pilots and cabin crew during the pandemic, and airports kept about 90% of their workers, a move that should help carriers avoid the chaotic ramp-up seen in North America and Europe, said Steve Saxon, a Shenzhen-based McKinsey partner who leads its Asia travel practice. "The profitability is going to be good in the short term... because even if the Chinese carriers activate quite quickly, what we've seen around the world is the demand comes back faster than supply," he said. "And that typically means that prices are therefore high." About 62% of tickets to and from China were sold by Chinese carriers and 38% by foreign carriers in 2019, ForwardKeys data shows, reflecting the strong outbound market dominating traffic flows. State-owned Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines received financial support during the pandemic and kept narrowbody planes active on domestic routes so the aircraft can be redeployed quickly to Asian destinations.<br/>
The Philippines' main gateway remained on reduced operations on Monday after a New Year power outage that jolted its air traffic control, with authorities scrambling to resume full service after more than 300 flights were disrupted. The ageing Ninoy Aquino international airport was early on Monday handling a maximum 15 arrivals per hour compared to 20 during normal operations, said Cesar Chiong, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority. The outage was the result of the unprecedented failure of both primary and secondary power supplies, he said. "It will take around 72 hours or thereabout for the airlines to normalise their operations," Chiong told ANC news channel. There were 361 flights either delayed, cancelled or diverted to other regional airports on Sunday, affecting about 65,000 passengers, while numerous other flights were forced to re-route to avoid Philippine airspace. Philippine Airlines said it was arranging recovery flights out of the United States, Singapore and Malaysia and diverting some flights to domestic airports. Budget carrier Cebu Pacific cancelled 54 domestic flights on Monday. Chiong said the airport had introduced its own power system in 2018 but on Sunday, both the main and backup systems failed. When they connected directly to the regular commercial electricity, they experienced over-voltage and power surge, he added, forcing equipment to fail including radar, communications, radio and internet. The Ninoy Aquino International Airport has previously been ranked among the world's worst international gateways, with flight delays a regular occurrence, and a history of upgrades being delayed or abandoned due to disputes between the airport and contractors.<br/>
The newly-built Pokhara Regional International Airport, the third international airport in Nepal, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' at a special ceremony. A Buddha Air flight carrying Dahal was saluted with water cannon when it landed at the new airport on Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency. "With this airport, Pokhara has become the centre of connectivity with many countries," Prachanda said at the inauguration ceremony which attracted hundreds of thousands of audience. Pokhara is a popular tourist destination in central Nepal. "Nobody will dispute the contribution of Pokhara International Airport to the economic development of the district, the metropolitan city and the whole nation, because of the enhanced connectivity established by this airport," Prachanda said. Buddha Air, Shree Airlines, Yeti Airlines, and Guna Air have started conducting daily flights to and from the newly-built international airport. Meanwhile, Himalaya Airlines performed a successful demonstration flight at the airport, becoming the first airline to land Airbus A320-214 in Pokhara.<br/>
Australia said on Sunday that travellers from China will have to provide negative COVID-19 test results from Jan. 5, joining a growing number of nations that have implemented similar restrictions as cases surge in China. Citing a lack of epidemiological information and genomic sequencing data from China, Australian health minister Mark Butler said the government has decided out of an abundance of caution to require visitors to present a negative test taken within 48 hours of their departure. The requirement will also apply to visitors from Hong Kong and Macau. The government is also considering additional measures including testing wastewater from airplanes and voluntary sampling at airports for arrivals, Butler told a news conference. "I want to stress that the government welcomes the resumption of travel between Australia and China... I also want to stress that this is a temporary measure, reflecting the lack of comprehensive information right now about the situation in China," said Butler.<br/>