The acting head of the FAA is forming a team of experts to review airline safety after several recent near-miss incidents raised questions about the US aviation system. Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen in a “call to action” memo on Tuesday seen by Reuters said the safety review team will “examine the US aerospace system’s structure, culture, processes, systems, and integration of safety efforts.” The FAA will hold a safety summit in March to examine what additional actions “the aviation community needs to take to maintain our safety record.” Nolen, who is set to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday, said a group of commercial and general aviation leaders, labor partners, and others “will examine which mitigations are working and why others appear to be not as effective as they once were.” The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a series of serious close calls including a near collision last month between FedEx and Southwest Airlines planes in Austin and a runway incursion at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. On Tuesday, the NTSB said it would investigate a Dec. 18 incident in which United Airlines Flight 777, a Boeing 777 jet, lost significant altitude before recovering shortly after departing Kahului, Hawaii. In January, the FAA halted all departing passenger airline flights for nearly two hours because of a computer outage, the first nationwide ground stop of its kind since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The United States has not had a major fatal US passenger airline crash since February 2009. “We are experiencing the safest period in aviation history, but we cannot take this for granted,” Nolen wrote. “Recent events remind us that we must not become complacent. Now is the time to stare into the data and ask hard questions.”<br/>
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A divided US appeals court on Tuesday said federal workers are generally not entitled to extra pay for being exposed to COVID-19 through their jobs. In a 10-2 decision with potentially "far-reaching" ramifications, the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against 188 current and former correctional employees at a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. The employees said they deserved hazardous duty and environmental differential pay because they worked with or in close proximity to people, objects and surfaces infected with COVID-19, and were not wearing sufficient protective gear. But the appeals court said the government's Office of Personnel Management, the human resources agency for more than 2.1m federal workers, had no regulations affording extra pay for exposure in most settings to contagious diseases. It said exceptions covered some laboratories and tropical jungles, and that it was up to Congress or the agency to add categories. "COVID-19 is a serious national and international health concern, and the potential ramifications of this case are far-reaching and cut across the entire federal workforce," Circuit Judge Raymond Chen wrote.<br/>
The Senate Commerce Committee plans to hold a hearing on President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Federal Aviation Administration in the coming weeks. The FAA has been without a permanent administrator since March 31 and has faced criticism over recent incidents including the Jan. 11 grounding of all US departing passenger airline flights for nearly two hours because of a computer outage issue. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell told reporters on Tuesday the committee plans to hold a hearing on Biden’s pick to head the FAA, Denver International Airport CE Phil Washington, the week of Feb. 27. <br/>
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport will again limit passenger numbers during the busy May holiday period as the Dutch hub continues to wrestle with staff shortages. Reneging on an earlier move to remove any outstanding restrictions, the Dutch airport informed airlines Monday evening that it will introduce an extra 5% “safety margin” in the first week of April, resulting in 5,000 fewer travelers per day, according to the director of corporate affairs Kees Boef. Since last year, the home base for Air France-KLM’s Dutch arm has been plagued with significant labor disruption resulting in long queues and waiting times for passengers during peak travel periods. Former CEO Dick Benschop acknowledged the growing criticism for the way in which Schiphol handled capacity issues last summer when stepping down from the role in September.<br/>
Israeli airlines will resume direct flights to Turkey as a mark of a continued improvement in bilateral relations, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said on Tuesday, predicting a 25% increase in tourism this year. The first such flight will depart on Thursday, Cohen told reporters during what he described as a solidarity visit to Turkey, which credited Israel for sending relief delegations after last week's earthquake. An Israeli official said the flights were resuming as part of an airline security agreement reached last year, with the two nations rebuilding ties strained by disputes over Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. "I would like to update you that Israeli flights will renew in two days from now, and all the three major companies in Israel will renew their flights to Turkey," Cohen said. "We will definitely warm the important relations between your important and beautiful country and Israel," he added, predicting that a million Israelis would visit Turkey in 2023, up from 800,000 who went last year aboard foreign airlines.<br/>
Asia-Pacific carriers continue to add to their long-haul networks as the region’s air travel recovery continues. Vietnam low-cost carrier aims to launch its second Australian service on the Ho Chi Minh City-Sydney route on 12 April, says the carrier. This will follow the start of the previously announced Ho Chi Minh City-Melbourne route on 8 April. Both services will be operated six times weekly with Airbus A330 aircraft. The carrier also plans to launch services to the Australian cities of Adelaide, Brisbane, and Darwin. Australian low-cost carrier Jetstar will also add capacity on the Adelaide-Bali Denpasar route by up-gauging from the A320 to its new A321LRs from 21 July. Cirium fleets data indicates that Jetstar’s A321LRs have 232 seats, compared with 180 for its A320s. To support the up-gauged Bali service Jetstar will station two examples at Adelaide. Jetstar is due to receive its fifth A321LR in March, with all 18 to be delivered by the middle of 2024. Thai Airways International, eyeing the Chinese tourist traffic, will re-launch serval China routes from 1 March, with services from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to Kunming, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai, and Beijing. Overall, it will operate 14 services weekly, taking advantage of China’s reopening to the world following the end of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s ‘zero-Covid’ policy.<br/>
Boeing’s aircraft orders and deliveries slipped in January from a month earlier. Boeing delivered 38 jetliners last month, 35 of them its bestselling 737 Max planes, down from a total of 69 planes in December. The delivery count was still was higher than the 32 planes Boeing handed over to customers in January 2022. The figures don’t include a massive order from Air India for nearly 500 new planes from the manufacturer and its chief rival, Airbus, which was formalized earlier Tuesday. Air India ordered at least 220 Boeing planes and 250 Airbus planes, making the combined sale the biggest aircraft order ever as airlines prepare for a further recovery in air travel as Covid pandemic travel concerns wane. Last month, Boeing said it planned to ramp up output of its 737 Max to 50 planes a month in 2025 or 2026, though it’s been cautious about increases beyond the current pace of 31 per month because of instability in the supply chain. The company logged 55 gross orders in January, netting orders for 16 new planes after 39 cancellations. Boeing’s CFO, Brian West, will brief analysts and investors during a Cowen industry conference on Wednesday morning.<br/>
India’s airlines have bounced back well beyond pre-pandemic levels, Boeing said, as Air India, the country’s national carrier, prepared to unveil an historic order for almost 500 new planes on Tuesday.<br/>The US planemaker forecast Indian airline capacity - the number of seats on offer and a gauge of industry confidence - to be 7% higher in the first-half of 2023 than in 2019 amid a strong rebound in the world’s fastest-growing market. Over the next 20 years, Indian passenger traffic is expected to grow by 7% annually, requiring 2,210 new planes, Boeing said in a statement during the Aero India air show. India’s former state-run carrier Air India, now owned by Tata Group, is poised to announce a deal on Tuesday for some 470 jets, worth more than $100b at list prices, split between Boeing and Airbus, industry and diplomatic sources said. The widely anticipated move is expected to include a major deal for French-US engine maker CFM International, co-owned by General Electric and France’s Safran, to power more than 200 Airbus single-aisle jets included in the transaction. None of the companies commented ahead of the announcements, which have triggered hopes of significant industrial spin-offs for local suppliers at the air show, though the commercial dealmaking is happening away from the mainly defence event. On Monday, Boeing said it plans to invest about $24m in India to set up a logistics centre for airplane parts to boost its footprint in the country that it considers as the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world. “The Indian market is recovering rapidly and its domestic capacity has exceeded 2019 levels, with domestic traffic expected to double by the end of this decade,” Dave Schulte, Boeing commercial marketing managing director for Asia Pacific, said in a statement. Boeing expects 90% of India’s demand for new airplanes to be for single-aisle ones like the 737 MAX and competing Airbus A320neo over the next 20 years.<br/>
Aerospace companies are pushing U.S. regulators to simplify domestic rulemaking, after delays led the country's aircraft engine makers to a European agency to meet a global emissions standard on time, executives and regulators said. Raytheon Technologies Corp's Pratt & Whitney and General Electric went to Europe's aviation regulator to comply with the United Nation standard on non-volatile particulate matter (nvPM), set to curb soot particles. The workaround with Europe did not delay jet engine deliveries, but did add costs and work to already taxed suppliers as travel has rebounded, a senior industry source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The source, who asked not to be identified, could not specify the costs. Separately, European planemaker Airbus is tempering the pace of planned production increases due in part to supply chain stress.<br/>