general

Thunderstorms that pummeled Fort Lauderdale and other parts of southeastern Florida with up to two feet of rain continued on Thursday after heavy rain the day before trapped motorists in floodwaters and left travelers stranded inside a shuttered airport. Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, on Thursday afternoon and advised residents in flooded areas to stay away from the waters. The Fort Lauderdale airport, which closed Wednesday evening, remained shut down, and flights were not expected to resume until 5 a.m. on Friday because of debris and water on the runways. Storms are a way of life in South Florida, but more than 25 inches of rain fell at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport over a 24-hour period, according to a preliminary estimate released by the National Weather Service. If confirmed, the rainfall total would smash Fort Lauderdale’s one-day record of 14.59 inches, which was set on April 25, 1979. The city, which lies in Broward County on Florida’s Atlantic coast, is one of the largest in the state. “What we are seeing here is a thousand-year incident,” Mayor Dean Trantalis of Fort Lauderdale said at a news conference. “No city could have planned for this.” He said every part of the city had been affected. “This was a very rare event,” he said. <br/>

Federal officials said Thursday they have referred more than 250 unruly airline passengers to the FBI for possible criminal prosecution since late 2021, including one as recently as last month, when a man tried to stab a flight attendant with a broken-off spoon. The pace of the criminal referrals is slowing, however. The FAA identified 17 cases it has sent to the FBI in the first three months of this year — mostly for incidents that happened last year but took time to investigate. Airlines have reported fewer cases of unruly passengers since last April, when a federal judge struck down a requirement that people wear masks on planes and public transportation. Before that ruling, about two-thirds of all incidents on planes involved disputes over masks. The FAA can levy civil fines but lacks authority to file criminal charges, so it asks the FBI to step in for the most serious cases. “If you act out on a plane, you should just stay at home because we will come after you with serious consequences,” acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said in a statement. “We have zero tolerance for unruly behavior.” The FBI did not say how often it acts on the FAA referrals. Assistant Director Luis Quesada said the bureau is “committed to investigating all incidents that fall within FBI jurisdiction aboard commercial flights,” but did not provide numbers.<br/>

The FAA said Thursday it may delay some space launches to minimize disruption to commercial air travel and provide "equitable" access to airspace near launch sites. Space launches have often snarled air schedules, especially in congested Florida airspace. Officials are worried about a repeat of last summer's air travel woes - when more than 50,000 flights were cancelled in the United States and hundreds of thousands others delayed - in the face of rising demand and airline and flight control staffing shortages. The FAA said it will consider factors like number of flights and passengers affected when deciding whether a commercial space launch should go ahead or the scheduled time changed. The FAA will also look closely at launches around holidays or major events like the Super Bowl. Airlines for America, which represents major carriers, praised the FAA for the move. It said planned launches have sometimes been scrapped at the last minute, resulting in hours of restriced airspace and wasted emissions as planes waited at their gates. Airlines expect 145 space launches in 2023, an increase of 222% since 2020. A March 11 space launch in Florida was highly disruptive to air travel, the airline group said in a memo seen by Reuters. Four major US carriers reported approximately 99,000 incremental flight delay minutes, impacting 303,000 customers. The memo added "the launch resulted in an additional 227,000 gallons of fuel burn for three of the four US carriers" or an additional $630,000 in fuel cost and 4.9m pounds of CO2 emissions. The FAA has taken other steps to try avert travel woes this summer including agreeing to a request by Delta Air Lines and United Airlines to temporarily cut up to 10% of flights at congested New York-area and Washington airports this summer because of an air traffic controller shortage.<br/>

Some flights out of northern British Columbia are cancelled due to ash from a Russian volcano that erupted thousands of kilometres away. Air Canada says it is monitoring the ash cloud from the Shiveluch Volcano, which caused the cancellation of some of its regional flights to and from Prince Rupert and Terrace on Thursday. It says in an email that more schedule adjustments could occur depending on the direction of the ash cloud. The volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, about 4,300 kilometres west of Terrace, erupted Tuesday and sent up an ash cloud 10 kilometres high. Alaska Airlines also cancelled more than two dozen flights in the state, citing safety concerns as volcanic ash can cause a jet engine to shut down. Carman Hendry, the manager of Northwest Regional Airport in Terrace-Kitimat, said WestJet has also cancelled flights into the airport because the planes would have to fly through the ash. "Better down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing they were down here," he said in an interview Thursday. Hendry said he is unsure how many flights will be affected, but the airport is not expecting any more incoming flights for the rest of the day.<br/>

Alaska Airlines canceled more than two dozen flights in its namesake state Thursday because of an ash cloud from a volcano in Russia that drifted into Alaska, the Seattle-based airline said. The ash cloud is from Shiveluch Volcano, the airline said. By midday Thursday, 28 flights to, from and within Alaska were canceled. “We continue to monitor the ash cloud, and depending on its location, movement and timing, we might need to cancel additional flights,” the airline said in a statement. It encouraged travelers to check the status of their flights online. Among those affected was U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, an Alaska Democrat, whose overnight flight from Honolulu to Anchorage was canceled, Dillingham, Alaska, radio station KDLG reported. Sam Erickson, a Peltola spokesperson, declined comment to The Associated Press. The ash cloud drifted over Alaska air space in the last few days, the Alaska Volcano Observatory said in a statement. “Although this cloud poses a potential hazard to aviation and has disrupted some flights, no ashfall is expected on Alaska communities,” it said. Shiveluch, one of Kamchatka Peninsula’s most active volcanoes, started erupting early Tuesday, spewing ash more than 500 kilometers northwest.<br/>

The airport operating business in Mexico is thriving as traffic surges due to multinational companies bringing overseas operations closer to home and growth at Mexican airlines, according to the head of GAP, which operates 12 airports in the country. Manufacturing hubs such as Guadalajara have seen record traffic growth due to the relocation trend, called nearshoring, CEO Raul Revuelta told Reuters in an interview late Wednesday. "Yes it's nearshoring, when you think medium-to-long-term," Revuelta said. "But it's also Mexican airlines, VivaAerobus, Volaris, Aeromexico, expanding their fleets, which allows them to open new routes and move more passengers." Airport operators have been rewarded. GAP's shares are up nearly 26% year-to-date, while competitors OMA and ASUR have seen shares rise almost 35% and 20%, respectively. The firm, whose full name is Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, plans to spend around 10bs ($554.90m) in 2023, Revuelta said. Projects range from a second terminal at Guadalajara's airport to an additional runway at Puerto Vallarta. Demand from Mexico's northern neighbors is also likely to continue. Nearly two-thirds of the 39.4m international travelers expected to visit Mexico in 2023 are forecast to be from the US and Canada, Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco told Reuters. In another favorable development, Revuelta predicted that Mexico's aviation safety rating, which was downgraded to Category 2 by the FAA nearly two years ago, will return to Category 1 later this year.<br/>

Passenger traffic at Aena’s Spanish airports surpassed pre-pandemic levels during the first quarter even as many of Europe’s terminals continue to operate at a lower capacity. About 53.6m passengers transited through Spanish airports in first three months of the year, 1.6% more than in the same period of 2019, Aena said on Thursday, and 42% higher than in the first quarter of 2022. In the first months of the year, Spanish airports, which depend more on leisure travel, outperformed those in Germany, Britain and France, which rely more on business travellers. Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport said in March it expects 2023 passenger traffic to be between 80% and 90% of 2019’s level, while London Heathrow’s estimate is 90%. World airport traffic stood at 84.9% of the pre-pandemic level in February.<br/>

China's plan to set up a no-fly zone to the north of Taiwan on April 16 will affect about 33 flights, Taiwan's official Central News Agency (CNA) reported, citing the island's transport minister, Wang Kwo-tsai. The impact on flights was greatly reduced after Taiwan said it had successfully urged China to drastically narrow its plan to close air space north of the island, Wang was reported as saying. Reuters first reported that Beijing had initially notified Taipei it would impose a no-fly zone from April 16-18, but Taiwan's transport ministry said this was later reduced to a period of just 27 minutes on Sunday morning after it protested. Wang said the ministry had discussed with Japanese aviation authorities who will issue notices later on Thursday to boats and planes to avoid the area for that specific period on Sunday morning, the CNA said. Wang said the ban could add "less than one hour" of extra travel time to the affected flights as they will have to divert further south from their original routes. Taiwan's transport ministry on Wednesday published a map showing what it labelled China's "aerospace activity zone" to the northeast of Taiwan and near a group of disputed islets called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan. The development follows days of intense military drills that China has staged around Taiwan in response to President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week. When China imposed air space restrictions during military drills last August, there were significant disruptions to flights in the region, with some aircraft required to carry extra fuel, according to OPSGROUP, an aviation industry cooperative that advises on flight risks.<br/>

Boeing on Thursday warned it will likely have to reduce deliveries of its 737 Max airplane in the near term because of a problem with a part made by supplier Spirit AeroSystems. Boeing said its supplier informed the company a “non-standard” manufacturing process was used on two fittings in aft fuselages. It said the issue affects certain 737 Max 8 planes, the company’s most popular model, with customers including American Airlines and Southwest Airlines. It also affects certain 737 Max 7, the 737 8200 and P-8 planes.Boeing said the problem was not an “immediate safety of flight issue and the in-service fleet can continue operating safely.“ Boeing has notified the FAA of the issue and is working to inspect and address the fuselages as needed, the company said. The FAA said Boeing notified it of the issue and also said there is no immediate safety issue. However, the issue will likely affect a significant number of undelivered 737 Max airplanes, both in production and in storage,” the manufacturer said. Southwest said in a statement that it expects the issue to impact its delivery schedule of new Max planes and that it is discussing the details of that timeline for this year “and beyond.“ United said it didn’t expect any “significant impact” to its capacity planes for this summer or the rest of 2023. The problem, the most recent in a string of production issues, hits Boeing as it scrambles to increase production and deliveries of its best-selling plane while customers await new jetliners to capitalize on a rebound in travel. “Spirit is working to develop an inspection and repair for the affected fuselages. We continue to coordinate closely with our customer to resolve this matter and minimize impacts while maintaining our focus on safety,” the company said.<br/>

Airbus SE has clawed back a E100b market value last reached before the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 knocked the stock, as a rapid rebound in air travel swells the planemaker’s order book. The Toulouse, France-based planemaker last had a market capitalization in excess of E100b in the early weeks of 2020, after which the shares suffered an unprecedented slump as travel restrictions and lockdowns forced airlines to park planes and Airbus to scale back output. While Airbus has projected higher deliveries for this year, part shortages have forced it to slow an ambitious output ramp-up for its best-selling A320 family of single-aisle jets. The planemaker expects adjusted earnings before interest and tax of E6b this year, compared with E5.6b in 2022.<br/>

From engines to landing gear, the hunt is on for aircraft parts as airlines prepare their jets for swarms of summer travelers, with new planes from Boeing and Airbus still in short supply. The search for parts leads some aircraft owners here, where older, retired planes are stripped for parts that will be prepared to fly on other planes or repurposed altogether. Some parts can be turned into high-end furniture, like $42,000 desks. What’s left can be crushed into scrap and melted down. Until they’re picked apart, the planes are stored in arid climates, like the Arizona desert, to avoid damaging weather and humidity. The used-parts business was worth about $3b to $5b before the pandemic, according to Mike Stengel, a principal at AeroDynamic Advisory. It’s now riding a boom in global aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul, an industry that is set to expand 22% this year to $94b, consulting firm Oliver Wyman estimated in a report in February. The current demand for aircraft parts is the result of the industry’s deep demand swings resulting from the Covid pandemic. In an effort to cut costs when demand collapsed amid travel restrictions, airlines raced to retire planes, only to need aircraft later when demand returned. Carriers also deferred maintenance and prioritized using engines with more time left on them. Meanwhile, Boeing and Airbus are still trying to stabilize their supply chains and train workers after thousands left the industry during the pandemic’s slump. One challenge is locating feedstock of aircraft. Travel demand is recovering — the IATA last week said global air traffic is nearly 85% recovered to 2019 levels. In the US it’s already past that point. With deliveries of new jets behind schedule, airlines are holding onto planes longer, repairing or overhauling them, adding to demand for parts and labor. Last year, 273 commercial jets were retired, the fewest in almost two decades and half the number in 2019, said Aerodynamic’s Stengel, citing data from the Centre for Aviation.<br/>