The North American aviation industry is wooing workers with daycare centers, cheaper transport and free iPhones to compete in a tight market where salaries for entry-level, low-skilled jobs often lag those at e-commerce companies like Amazon. Shortages of workers like baggage handlers and customer service agents led to long lines and delayed luggage during the peak summer travel season last year, marring the industry's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and spurring demand for new initiatives to attract workers. "If you want people to work crazy shifts, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the day, you need to be able to accommodate their family life too," Thomas Romig, vice president at airport trade group Airports Council International, or ACI World, said of services like daycare. "Airports are taking more actions to try and recruit, retain and train (or) upskill workers." ACI, which has member airports around the world, is now preparing guidance for them on making jobs at 24-hour centers outside city cores more friendly to workers.Part of the issue for the aviation industry is that low wages and taxing work have long made retaining staff at airports a challenge, a problem exacerbated by the pandemic and now, historically low unemployment rates. In the United States, the unemployment rate is at its lowest level in more than 53 years. US air transportation employment has recovered over the past year to above pre-pandemic levels. But the sector still needs to add jobs as US air travel also rebounds - forecasts show it is set to rise again this year from pre-pandemic levels hit in 2022.<br/>
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Women have hardly made any inroads into airline boardrooms and executive ranks in the past four years, leaving the industry at risk of missing a key 2025 target for female representation. Among 123 listed carriers tracked by Bloomberg, women typically hold just 13% of executive posts, less than the 16% in financial services for example, where representation at board level is 21%. Only JetBlue Airways Corp. has an equal gender split among executives. Twenty-two have no female executives at all. Those are confronting numbers for aviation leaders gathering Tuesday in Singapore for a summit to address diversity and other post-Covid challenges. Years of advocacy work on behalf of women and targets to bring in more female managers and directors seem to be having little effect. Marginalization of women at the top has continued even as many airlines attempt to reset and bolster workforces that were depleted during the pandemic. “The industry has nearly ignored the contributions women could bring,” said Caroline Marete, assistant professor at the school of aviation and transportation technology at Indiana’s Purdue University. “Having representation in key decision-making positions at the national and international levels is key. Women need representation where it matters.” Companies aren’t blind to the gender imbalance — they’ve been talking about doing better for years. While a handful including Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Air New Zealand Ltd. and JetBlue have made advances, they are broadly the exception. Among the 123 airlines, only Canadian tour operator Transat AT Inc. and Air New Zealand achieved an equal split of men and women directors, according to gender employment data collated by Bloomberg. Eleven have all-male boards. Gender bias hangs over global aviation. Pilots, air-traffic controllers and aircraft engineers are mostly men, cabin crew are predominantly women, and executives and directors are largely male. Marete of Purdue University said girls should have exposure to aviation and aerospace from an early age to normalize the sectors as all-gender careers. <br/>
The FAA said Monday it is awarding nearly $1b to 99 US airport projects under a 2021 $1t infrastructure law. The awards include $10.8m to Des Moines International Airport in Iowa to replace the 1948 terminal that is operating above capacity and $29m to Salt Lake City International Airport in Utah for a terminal and concourse redevelopment program. This is second phase of the funding -- FAA awarded nearly $1b for airport terminal projects announced for 85 airports last year.<br/>
ground-breaking ceremony has been held for the development of the new international Terminal 6 (T6) at the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, US. This ceremony was held at the JFK maintenance hangar of US-based budget carrier JetBlue Airways and attended by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, as well as other partners and leaders. Entailing a $4.6b investment, the T6 project achieved financial close last November. It will involve the creation of a new terminal on the airport’s north side with a 1.2m square foot area featuring ten gates. The project will be developed in two phases, with the first new gates scheduled to open in 2026. Construction work is planned to complete in 2028. During the construction phase, the project is expected to create 4,000 jobs, which includes 1,800 union construction jobs and direct wages of $1.9b. The project is a public-private partnership between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, in addition to JFK Millennium Partners.<br/>
Kansas City, Missouri, views its new $1.5b airport terminal as a shiny gateway, symbolic of the economic and commercial success that city officials expect is forthcoming. An improved Kansas City International Airport will open on Tuesday — welcoming passengers with glass jet-bridges, upscale dining options and solar-powered parking garages. The upgraded terminal boasts sensory and simulation rooms to comfort nervous fliers, family play areas and 10 infant feeding rooms. “This is really a next level type of thing, both in branding for Kansas City, but also in saying really whatever you need, really anything other than a mountain or an ocean, we’ve got,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said in an interview. “And I think we have moved our infrastructure in our city from being an impediment to really being a true attribute.” US airports in the last several years have raced to outfit new terminals with amenities, seeking to ride a rebound in air travel after the coronavirus pandemic. Since 2018, governments have sold more than $85b of airport bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the operator of LaGuardia Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport, is in the midst of a $30b renovation to transform the major metro-area travel hubs. And Chicago’s O’Hare International recently launched an $8.5b face lift. While airports are essential to regional commerce, upgrading them doesn’t necessarily spur an immediate economic boom. “Infrastructure development is really a boon for the economy as a whole,” S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Nora Wittstruck said in an interview. “Airports do sort of compete for demand, and we’ve seen when the airports undertake these modernization projects, which there have been a lot of recently, it can help them give a leg up to airlines.” The Kansas City airport hadn’t been renovated since opening in 1972. Built in the brutalist-style that was popular at the time, the airport consisted of cement, u-shaped terminals providing little natural light and a crowded travel experience for the growing city. The old terminals are slated to be torn down.<br/>
Canada’s largest airport authority said Monday it will place a “hard limit” on the number of commercial flights permitted to arrive or depart from Toronto Pearson Airport during upcoming peak travel times. In a statement issued to CTV News Toronto Monday, the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) said that during March break and the upcoming summer season, it's taking “decisive measures” to flatten peak-hour schedules. These measures include limiting the number of commercial flights that can arrive or depart in any given hour and capping the number of passengers that can arrive internationally or depart to the U.S. through each terminal in any given hour. The authority has not yet provided information on what these caps will be set at. Last year, Toronto Pearson Airport, alongside the airlines that operate out of YYZ, experienced a number of operational challenges starting in spring and continuing into the summer months that resulted in unprecedented delays, a significant amount of lost baggage, and a slew of cancellations. In July 2022, the airport was voted the worst major airport in the world for delays and, two months later, the fourth-worst major airport in the world for overall satisfaction. Six months later, in December, the airport once again came under fire after a “baggage backlog” caused by weather-related flight disruptions as well as frozen loading equipment saw hundreds of travellers separated from their luggage. Images from Pearson airport in December showed hundreds of bags piled up after a major winter storm caused days of flight delays and cancellations.<br/>
The majority of flights at Germany's Duesseldorf and Cologne Bonn regional airports were grounded by a 24-hour strike by the Verdi trade union on Monday, the airports said. The Duesseldorf airport on Monday said only 89 flights of a planned 330 were taking place while 29 were diverted to other airports and seven were rescheduled for the next day. Of Monday's usual 136 daily passenger flights scheduled for Cologne Bonn airport, only two were set to operate as scheduled. It is the latest in a series of strikes and protests that have hit major European economies, including France, Britain and Spain, as higher food and energy prices knock incomes and living standards after the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine. "If the employers continue to be obstructionist and do not present us with results, then the reaction of the employees here is clear," a Verdi spokesperson said at Cologne Bonn airport. Verdi announced the strike on Friday after it said collective bargaining efforts for public service workers and aviation security workers had failed to come closer to an agreement. The airports, which service airlines including Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines and Aegean Airlines, were largely empty because passengers had been informed of the strike in time to change their plans. The union brought air traffic to a standstill earlier this month with one-day strikes at seven major airports, including the Frankfurt and Munich hubs, affecting nearly 300,000 passengers. Cities across the western state of North Rhine Westphalia, including Cologne, Leverkusen and Bonn, were also affected by public service worker strikes on Monday. An agreement in negotiations on behalf of more than 2.5m employees of the federal government and local authorities is a long way off, Verdi says.<br/>
Spanish air navigation service Enaire has started implementing an air traffic optimisation project at Madrid Barajas airport, including independent approaches to its parallel runways. The project aims to modernise instrument arrival and departure procedures by adapting them to area navigation and performance-based navigation requirements. Enaire says the scheme – known as AMBAR – will generate “significant savings” for airlines, from reduced fuel consumption and overall enhancement of service quality. It adds that it prepares the airport for European regulatory changes scheduled for 2024 and 2030 relating to arrival and departure routes. Enaire states that the project will improve operational safety, by reducing complexity and making manoeuvring “more predictable”, to the benefit of pilots and air traffic controllers. The restructured airspace will allow aircraft to operate more efficient flight profiles and shorter routes. Enaire’s AMBAR project will make greater use of area and performance-based navigation “Changes proposed in the AMBAR project do not substantially change the acoustic impact in relation to the current scenario in the vicinity of the airport,” says Enaire. “And they significantly improve conditions, in terms of noise emissions, in areas that are further from it.” Analysis of the environmental impact was laid out in a government bulletin published in June last year. The bulletin stated that all conventional departure procedures would be eliminated, and new trajectories defined, with 36 daytime area navigation procedures developed, along with 31 nighttime. Procedures for arrivals would also be overhauled with 11 area navigation procedures for each of the northern and southern runway configurations. Enaire says the project has “gone through the necessary environmental processes” and the changes have been approved by the Spanish aviation safety agency before being included in the Spanish aeronautical information publication.<br/>
Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) has welcomed the first flight from Sphinx International Airport - the second international airport in Cairo, Egypt, serving the Western part of the capital - by Air Cairo. Air Cairo will operate two weekly flights on Fridays and Mondays. This step emphasises Airport International Group’s commitment to offering passengers a broad range of affordable direct route options to major regional cities. The flight was welcomed by representatives from Airport International Group, as well as the carrier’s general sales agent in Jordan, Alpha International for Travel and Tourism, and its ground handler, Menzies AHS. “The first flight from Sphinx International Airport establishes yet another non-stop link to Egypt’s capital via Air Cairo. The importance of this connection lies not only in offering our passengers more affordable travel options, but also in opening new opportunities for leisure and business travel between Egypt and Jordan. We remain committed to expanding our partnerships and routes and providing top-notch services and conveniences to passengers travelling through the kingdom’s prime gateway to the world,” commented Airport International Group CEO, Nicolas Claude.<br/>
Competition for operational rights for lucrative duty-free shops at Incheon Airport is heating up, with China Duty Free Group, one of the largest duty-free retailers globally, joining the race. According to industry sources on Monday, CDFG offered its bid to join the heated race after participating in a tender briefing session last month. Competing head-on with Korean rivals such as Lotte, Shinsegae and Hotel Shilla, the Chinese duty-free giant aims to win as many as two business licenses to operate dozens of duty-free shops at the nation’s largest airport. Industry insiders say CDFG, if selected, will lure away Chinese customers, who account for almost 90% of local duty-free sales. “We are doing everything we can to be the largest business operator in Incheon Airport, but the Chinese company has stronger cash flow than us,” said a local duty-free shop official on condition of anonymity. “Of the total 100 points, 40 points will go to those willing to pay the highest rent to the airport.” Evaluation criteria that measures future business plans accounts for 60 points. However, this hardly gives an upper hand to local duty-free shops because it does not take their past business experience in the airport into consideration, the official said.<br/>
Japan will from Wednesday ease its COVID restrictions on travellers from China, dropping a requirement that everyone take a test for the virus upon arrival, its top government spokesperson said. Instead of blanket testing of travellers from mainland China, Japan will only test selected samples, although travellers will still need to show a negative test before boarding their flights to Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference on Monday. The changes were intended to "support smooth international travels, given a low rate of positive test results among entrants", Matsuno said. Airlines will also be allowed to operate direct flights from China to more Japanese airports, Matsuno said. For now, direct flights from China can only land at the Narita, Haneda, Kansai and Chubu airports. Passengers from Hong Kong and Macau will be exempt from any on-arrival testing or pre-boarding negative test requirements, broadcaster TBS reported earlier on Monday, citing government sources. Japan and South Korea imposed stricter border control on travellers from China after COVID cases surged there when it lifted its strict zero-COVID policy late last year. China retaliated by suspending the issuing of short-term visas in South Korea and Japan. South Korea eased its border controls on visitors from China early this month, which China welcomed.<br/>
The shine has returned to Jewel Changi Airport, after two difficult years of forced closures and languid sales as the Covid-19 pandemic paralysed the aviation sector and kept local shoppers at bay. With the easing of pandemic restrictions and the resumption of international travel, the $1.7b retail complex has made a strong recovery, with footfall more than doubling in 2022 compared with 2021, said James Fong, CE of Jewel Changi Airport Development. Nearly 345,000 people visited the mall on Christmas Day in 2022 – the highest number recorded since Covid-19 struck in 2020. Before the pandemic, Jewel received about 300,000 visitors daily. Fong said that retail sales at Jewel in December 2022 were 8% higher than in December 2019, the strongest-performing month for that year. Between July and December 2022, ticket sales for attractions such as the Canopy Park were also up to about 80% of 2019 levels, he added. Coach, Foot Locker, Nike and Pokemon Centre Singapore were among the top-performing retail shops at Jewel in 2022, while Beauty In The Pot, Burger & Lobster, Jumbo Seafood and Shake Shack were some of the eateries at the top of the sales charts. Fong also cited an increase in occupancy at the 130-room Yotelair at Jewel. The hotel’s occupancy rate from April to December 2022 was more than 95%, higher than in the same period in 2019. Fong said Jewel continues to see a significant proportion of local visitors, and he expects foreign visitor numbers to grow in tandem with the increased passenger traffic at Changi Airport. “We are encouraged by the rebound and foresee a positive outlook, especially with key markets like China also starting to ease travel restrictions,” he added.<br/>
Airbus SE expects the Pacific region — Australia, New Zealand and neighboring nations — to take delivery of 920 planes in the next 20 years, underscoring a fast revival in travel following the pandemic. The demand includes about 750 single-aisle jets, like the best-selling A320 family of aircraft, and about 170 bigger planes, Airbus said in a statement Monday. More than half of those aircraft will be for growth, while the rest will replace existing and aging planes. Air travel has bounced back stronger than expected by most airlines and airports after Covid shattered the industry, with companies increasingly allowing executives to fly for meetings and the general public making trips which were out of reach for years. “We are seeing a surge in travel demand and an increase in flights to and from key destinations,” said Stephen Forshaw, Airbus’s chief representative for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. The Pacific region has 170 Airbus aircraft currently in service with airlines in Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, and the Solomon Islands, and another 166 aircraft are currently on order in that region, he said.<br/>