general

The largest US airline pilots union is counseling its members to be more focused to avoid additional close calls. There have been multiple close calls on runways this year which have raised questions about air safety. The Air Line Pilots Association issued a safety alert encouraging pilots to “increase vigilance” and “prevent complacency” in themselves and others. “Maintaining vigilance and promoting vigilance in others is always vital, but it is especially critical during periods of dynamic change,” the alert said. This alert has been sent just two days after the Federal Aviation Administration told airlines in an industrywide bulletin to step up vigilance at airports because of the close calls on or near runways. Friday’s alert noted that the rapid hiring for aviation positions, and with pilots upgrading into new aircraft and shifting between captain and co-pilot roles, meant many people are performing new roles. “Reducing distractions where possible, disciplined procedures and communications, and effective crew resource management help manage strains on the system,” the alert said. The bulletin encouraged pilots to submit voluntary safety reports and be observant of any loss of situational awareness in fellow pilots to help ensure flight safety. On Thursday, the head of the nation’s air traffic controllers said there have been too many near collisions at airports and laid out steps to avoid more, including more supervisor oversight in control towers and extra controller training for “unusual circumstances.” “Even though we all know that multiple levels of safety are built into our system, there is no question that we are seeing too many close calls,” said Tim Arel, chief operating officer of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization. The five steps laid out by Arel in an agencywide memo follow last week’s FAA safety summit focusing on the recent series of near-collisions. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating six incidents this year alone.<br/>

President Biden’s nominee to lead the FAA, Phillip A. Washington, has withdrawn from consideration for the job, according to the White House. Washington’s Republican critics in the Senate had argued that he lacked sufficient aviation experience, and they raised questions about his connection to a corruption investigation in Los Angeles. His withdrawal came shortly after the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation said it would delay its vote on Washington’s nomination, which had been scheduled for Wednesday. Abdullah Hasan, a spokesman for the White House, said that Washington had the right qualifications and experience to run the FAA. “Unfortunately, an onslaught of unfounded Republican attacks on Washington’s service and experience irresponsibly delayed this process, threatened unnecessary procedural hurdles on the Senate floor, and ultimately have led him to withdraw his nomination today,” Hasan said. Though Washington, a 24-year Army veteran, has been the chief executive of Denver International Airport since 2021, much of his career involved ground transport: leading Denver’s Regional Transportation District and later the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He has been linked to a Los Angeles public corruption investigation involving no-bid contracts awarded by the transit system to a nonprofit operating a sexual harassment hotline. Last year, the California attorney general’s office took over the investigation from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Mr. Washington has denied any wrongdoing in the matter. Pete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary, had announced Washington’s withdrawal on Twitter late Saturday, a few hours before the White House released its statement. “The FAA needs a confirmed Administrator, and Phil Washington’s transportation and military experience made him an excellent nominee,” Buttigieg tweeted Saturday night. “The partisan attacks and procedural obstruction he has faced are undeserved, but I respect his decision to withdraw and am grateful for his service.”<br/>

A business jet flying over New England violently pitched upward then downward, fatally injuring a passenger, after pilots responding to automated cockpit warnings switched off a system that helps keep the aircraft stable, US transportation investigators reported Friday. The NTSB didn’t reach any conclusions in its preliminary report on the main cause of the deadly March 3 accident, but it described a series of things that went wrong before and after the plane swooped out of control. Confronted with several alerts in the cockpit of the Bombardier jet, pilots followed a checklist and turned off a switch that “trims” or adjusts the stabilizer on the plane’s tail, the report said. The plane’s nose then swept upward, subjecting the people inside to forces about four times the force of gravity, then pointed lower before again turning upward before pilots could regain control, the report said. Pilots told investigators they did not encounter turbulence, as the NTSB had said in an initial assessment the day after the incident. The trim system of the Bombardier Challenger 300 twin-engine jet was the subject of a Federal Aviation Administration mandate last year that pilots conduct extra safety checks before flights. Bombardier did not respond directly to the report’s contents, saying in a statement that it was “carefully studying” it. In a previous statement, the Canadian manufacturer said it stood behind its Challenger 300 jets and their airworthiness. “We will continue to fully support and provide assistance to all authorities as needed,” the company said Friday. The two pilots and three passengers were traveling from Keene, New Hampshire, to Leesburg, Virginia, before diverting to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. One passenger, Dana Hyde, 55, of Cabin John, Maryland, was brought to a hospital where she died from blunt-force injuries.<br/>

French authorities have asked airlines to continue cutting flights through next Wednesday amid strikes over a retirement reform law. The country’s civil aviation authority asked airlines to reduce flights at Paris-Orly airport by 20% on Tuesday and Wednesday. Companies were already asked to cut flights there by 33% on Sunday and by 20% on Monday. Regional airports in Marseille and Lyon have also been asked to cut flights. Flights at Orly were reduced by 30% on Friday and by 15% on Saturday.<br/>

An increased number of travelers in Germany boarded trains and planes on Sunday, a day before a major one-day strike that aims to bring the country’s transportation system to a standstill. But even advance travel was met with disruption in some places as Munich airport already shut down because of the impending strike on Monday, and technical problems affecting German airline Lufthansa in Frankfurt led to flight delays and cancellations at the country’s biggest airport. Munich Airport, the country’s second-busiest, said that the ver.di union was hitting it with two days of strikes and it has no regular passenger or cargo flights on either Sunday or Monday. A total of around 1,500 connections were affected, and takeoffs and landings were only possible for emergency humanitarian flights, German news agency dpa reported. German unions have called on thousands of workers across the country’s transportation system to stage a one-day strike as employees in many sectors are seeking hefty raises to reflect persistently high inflation. Ver.di chair Frank Werneke said last week that the service workers’ union is calling for 120,000 workers to walk out. Those will include security and ground workers at all German airports except in Berlin, local transit employees in seven of Germany’s 16 states, harbor employees and workers on highways — the latter a measure that Werneke said is likely to affect some tunnels.<br/>

Travelers across Asia Pacific will likely continue to fork out more than usual for flights this year, even as planes return to the skies at a rate not seen since the start of the pandemic. Airfares within the region were 33% higher in February than the same month in 2019, compared with increases of 12% and 17% in Europe and North America, respectively, according to data from Skyscanner Travel Insight. In some cases, customers are paying twice what they did four years ago. A business class ticket from Paris to Shanghai that would have cost approximately $5,650 in 2019 has now doubled to more than $11,500, according to American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT). The firm is a travel platform that was spun off from the eponymous credit card company. The average price for a business class seat from Singapore to Shanghai is also double 2019 levels, says Amex GBT. The surge is part of a broader trend. Flight tickets globally are generally higher than pre-Covid levels due to a myriad of factors, noted Hugh Aitken, vice president of flights at Skyscanner. But passengers in Asia Pacific are currently grappling with bigger price jumps than other regions, highlighting the uneven global recovery. The problem isn’t expected to end anytime soon. Economy fares to Asia from North America and Europe are set to rise 9.5% and 9.8% this year from last year, respectively, Amex GBT forecasts show. The latter is almost double the projected price jump for European economy routes to other geographies. A similar outlook is expected for the business class cabin. Experts say that soaring costs, labor shortages and the closure of Russian airspace are all pushing up prices. The main constraint, however, is that Asia is still in the early stages of reopening.<br/>

India’s airline industry may be on a strong growth trajectory — but don’t expect India’s outbound travel to overtake China’s soon, aviation analysts say. Travel demand to and from India is expected to grow as the country’s middle class expands and more residents travel abroad for the first time, Brendan Sobie, independent analyst at Sobie Aviation said. But “don’t expect India to be a bigger outbound market than China anytime soon.” The South Asian nation may be set to overtake China as the world’s most populous country, but there remains a “massive gap” between their aviation markets, Sobie said. “The gap between China and India is huge,” Lalitya Dhavala, valuations consultant at travel analytics firm Cirium said. Although India has the world’s third largest aviation market, “China’s total fleet is almost five times the existing Indian fleet, for an almost equal population,” she said, highlighting it was “indicating room for expansion.” In addition, only 7.3% of India’s current population holds a passport, Dhavala highlighted.The analysts agree there’s potential for growth in India’s domestic and international travel market. In comparison to China, India has a larger share of young adults, with 40% of its population under 25 years old, Dhavala said. “This generation is on a rising economic trajectory with a growing desire and appetite to travel and explore the world.” According to data from Statista, those under 29 years of age made up 34.12% of China’s population in 2021. China has a rapidly rising aging population. Only 7% of India’s population this year comprised of adults 65 years and older, compared with 14% in China, data from the Pew Research Center showed. With more women entering the workforce, a dual-income household would also give families more discretionary spending power, she added. <br/>

Plane giants Airbus and Boeing face mounting pressure to set up jetliner plants in India, after the country's civil aviation minister told Reuters the "time has come" to serve its soaring demand with jets assembled on domestic soil. Jyotiraditya Scindia said conditions were ripe for a "leap of faith" by both jetmakers as India's fast-growing aeronautical industry reaches an "inflection point" - highlighted by plans to assemble Airbus C295 military transport planes locally in India. Asked whether Airbus and Boeing should now consider setting up jetliner assembly in India, Scindia said, "Absolutely, and with a capital A, and the reason why I said capital A is because Airbus has already made that huge landmark step: the C295." Airbus and Boeing have both highlighted the scale and technology of existing investments in India, playing down the significance of final passenger jet assembly. An Airbus-Tata consortium plans to assemble 40 C295 planes in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who wants aerospace and defence to become a key engine for his "Make In India" drive to expand the world's fifth-largest economy. Tata-controlled Air India last month agreed record orders for 470 jetliners from Airbus and Boeing and sources have said India's largest airline, IndiGo, is in talks for another 500. "The market is there, the volume is there, the engineering talent is there. And then you take that leap of faith. So the time has come now," Scindia said in an interview, adding such decisions would not necessarily be tied to specific jet orders. Now is the time for these companies to look at planting their feet on the ground in India," he said. India has been lobbying quietly for jet assembly for several years but ratcheted up pressure behind the scenes during the past 12 months, two people familiar with the matter said.<br/>