general

The FAA Wednesday named an independent safety review team to look at ways to boost air safety after a series of close call incidents. The National Airspace System Safety Review Team includes former FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, former Air Line Pilots Association President Tim Canoll and former NTSB Chair Robert Sumwalt. Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said in a statement the "team will strengthen our ongoing safety efforts and identify specific investments we can make to bolster the National Airspace System.” The team will begin work in May and make recommendations by October on actions the FAA can take to enhance safety. Last month, the FAA said it was taking steps to improve its air traffic control operations. "There is no question that we are seeing too many close calls," FAA Air Traffic Organization Chief Operating Officer Tim Arel said in a March 23 message. Last month, the FAA issued a separate safety alert to airlines, pilots and others citing the "need for continued vigilance and attention to mitigation of safety risks". Six serious runway incidents since January prompted the agency to convene a safety summit in March. Arel said the FAA would ensure that supervisors devote their full attention to the operation and airfield during peak traffic periods, provide more dedicated training for unusual circumstances and update simulator software for the first time since 2016. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in February a FedEx cargo plane and a Southwest Airlines plane had come within 100 feet of each other in what could have been a "terrible tragedy."<br/>

The EU has agreed rules requiring airlines to start using green aviation fuels from 2025 as it steps up plans to lower emissions from one of the bloc’s most polluting sectors. All aircraft fuel at EU airports will have to be blended with sustainable aviation fuels, starting at a minimum share of 2% in 2025 and rising every five years to 70% by 2050. The landmark rules are part of the EU’s ambitious climate change legislation, which aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels and be carbon-neutral by 2050. Sustainable aviation fuels covered by the rules include biofuels, recycled carbon fuels and synthetic fuels, such as e-kerosene, which is produced using captured CO₂ and hydrogen. Specific targets were set for those synthetic fuels, which have to be included from 2030. Fuels made from food and feed crops such as soy are excluded. The rules aim to kick-start the production of sustainable fuels for aircraft in Europe, which at present are only produced in small quantities. Airports will be required to provide the necessary infrastructure for refuelling with sustainable fuels. Matteo Mirolo, aviation manager from the green group Transport & Environment, said the deal would “provide airlines with the certainty that synthetic kerosene will become cheaper and widely available”. In addition, aircraft leaving from EU airports will only be allowed to refuel with the volumes necessary to complete their flight, to prevent attempts to circumvent the sustainability requirements. According to the EC, aviation emissions are growing faster than emissions from most other sectors. Emissions from aviation rose 5% year on year between 2013 and 2019 before a temporary decline during the pandemic, the commission said, and were projected to grow further.<br/>

French airport group ADP Wednesday beat estimates for its Q1 revenue, as it benfited from a global recovery in air travel despite strike-related disruptions in France. ADP, operator of the French capital's Orly and Roissy Charles de Gaulle airports, posted Q1 revenue of E1.19b, just above the E1.14b forecast by analysts polled by the company. Airlines and airport operators are benefiting from a strong traffic recovery and rising travel demand, despite high inflation and an uncertain economic outlook. "We are preparing for a strong traffic this summer," Finance Chief Philippe Pascal said in a call. Earlier this month, ADP estimated it lost around 470,000 passengers in the January to March period due to the strikes against French President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform. "We clearly see a very strong dynamic with traffic almost fully recovered against 2019 levels," Pascal said. However, he pointed to a lower recovery of traffic in Paris, mainly reflecting the impact of strikes but also the closure of several domestic routes compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. The group expects a progressive recovery in traffic with Asia in 2023, mostly in the second half of the year, while it estimates a full recovery in 2025. "It is difficult to say now, France is still in negotiations with the Chinese government," Pascal said, referring to the recovery of Asian traffic. The group said it expects the impact of wage inflation to be around E20m in 2023, taking into account 6% inflation.<br/>

Heathrow airport has said it remained lossmaking in the first quarter despite a recovery in passenger numbers, blaming a cap on the fees it can charge airlines and the rising cost of servicing its debt. The UK’s biggest airport said on Wednesday that it did not expect to pay its owners, a group of international investors led by Spanish infrastructure company Ferrovial, a dividend in 2023 after it reported a GBP60m pre-tax loss in the first three months of the year. In March, the Civil Aviation Authority told Heathrow to cut landing fees from the current GBP31.57 per passenger to GBP25.43 from next year. The charges are typically passed straight on to consumers in ticket prices, and Heathrow has among the highest landing charges in the world. Last week, the airport appealed against the CAA’s decision. Heathrow’s biggest customers, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, have been pushing for lower landing charges. The cost of servicing Heathrow’s GBP15b of debt rose significantly, from GBP308m in Q1 2022 to £442mn in the same period this year. It last paid its owners a dividend — of GBP100m — in February 2020. The airport did, however, report an operating profit of GBP309mn in Q1, while revenues rose almost 60% year on year to £814mn. Almost 17m passengers passed through Heathrow in the three months, up from 9.7m a year earlier. The airport said the recovery in passenger numbers was driven by leisure travel, while business travel accounted for 29% of traffic, compared with 35% in the same period before the pandemic. It has revised up its 2023 traffic forecast to between 70m and 78m passengers, up from a February figure of 58m to 73m. John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow’s CE, said the UK had become “less attractive” for pension funds and other infrastructure investors because of low returns. <br/>

The rapid rebound in air travel continues to be dominated by leisure passengers, while corporate bookings are held back by economic uncertainty and job cuts, the head of London Heathrow Airport said. “When we look at demand, we haven’t seen business travel come back to the level it was pre-pandemic,” John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive officer of Heathrow, said in an interview. “We can all see that with a lot of economic uncertainty in the world, with cutbacks among some of the big users of travel — the banks, the tech companies — that it’s not surprising that it hasn’t fully recovered to where it was. I think it will get back.” The aviation industry has seen demand swell after travel restrictions were eased and borders reopened. But a revival of high-yield business travel is crucial for the return to profitability for airlines. The technology sector has been hard hit by a wave of layoffs at companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Meta Platforms Inc. , while the banking industry is reeling from the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the bailout of Credit Suisse Group AG. Holland-Kaye, who has announced his departure from the biggest UK airport, spoke after Heathrow released earnings. <br/>

Taiwanese authorities reopened the south runway at Taoyuan International Airport at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, three hours after it was shut due to a bomb scare on an Air China flight from Beijing. Taiwan’s Aviation Police Bureau received a report at 11:30 a.m. local time that Air China Flight 185 was suspected to have explosives on board. After landing, the plane was parked in a remote holding bay and two X-ray cars were sent to investigate the threat. Just after 12:40 p.m., the 103 passengers and 15 crew disembarked the aircraft, and the all-clear was given at 1:30 p.m., the police said. Airport staff confirmed that the runway was reopened after no explosives were found. The airport said on its website that flight operations were able to continue on its other runway. <br/>

Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia's parent company, Capital A, is expanding its maintenance business with the help of a $100m investment, as travel demand continues to rebound following the coronavirus pandemic. Capital A's aircraft maintenance subsidiary, Asia Digital Engineering, on Wednesday announced the funding from OCP Asia, a Singapore-based investment company. ADE will use the money partly for a maintenance facility being built at Kuala Lumpur International Airport that can house 14 aircraft. Construction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024. The facility will triple the company's maintenance capacity, now limited to sites in Malaysia that can handle a total of six aircraft. ADE specializes in the Airbus A320 and A330, but looks to expand its range beyond those aircraft. Mahesh Kumar, CE of ADE, cited the planned "state-of-the-art" maintenance hangar, "in addition to existing facilities at our core AirAsia operating hubs," as making the company one of the largest aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul service providers in the region. ADE, which Capital A spun off from AirAsia's maintenance division in 2020, is also expanding operations to airlines outside the group. It has received maintenance orders from low-cost carriers Cebu Pacific Air of the Philippines and Singapore's Scoot.<br/>

Boeing lost $425m in Q1 — more than Wall Street expected — but said Wednesday that it plans to boost production of its best-selling plane, the 737 Max, later this year. Revenue rose 28% from a year earlier, as airlines scooped up new jets to meet rising travel demand, and the company stood by its forecast of producing $3b to $5b in cash flow this year. Shares of Boeing rose nearly 5% before settling to close up less than 1%. CEO David Calhoun called it a “solid first quarter.” “We continue to make real progress, steady progress, in our recovery,” he said on a call with analysts. “Challenges remain, there’s more to do, but overall we feel good about the operational and financial outlook.” Boeing’s passenger jets have been plagued by production problems, and the quarterly loss was due largely to the cost of reworking planes to fix production flaws. It also took a write-down for a military tanker. Calhoun said again that Boeing will delay deliveries of some planes that airlines were expecting for the busy summer travel season. The delays are due to unapproved fittings that a contractor, Spirit AeroSystems, installed where the tail meets the fuselage on most 737 Max jets built since 2019.<br/>

The worst of the pandemic has subsided, countries are accessible again and airlines expect decent profits now that business and leisure travel has returned. Why, then, are fares still so high? For one, there’s a lack of planes. Airlines idled large portions of their fleets because travel demand was so lackluster during the pandemic that they weren’t needed. Now they can’t bring them back fast enough — it takes 100 working hours to ready the biggest jets for service after being parked away. Another reason: consumers are willing to pay more for tickets after being denied the chance to travel, in some cases for as long as three years. A Booking.com survey of more than 25,000 adults planning to travel in the next 12-24 months found that many wanted to be “more indulgent” with their itineraries to make up for lost opportunities. “Even if some trips might be a bit more expensive than they were previously, many people still see value in spending on travel,” said Marcos Guerrero, senior director of flights at the online travel company. The bad news for consumers is that ticket prices are likely to stay elevated for several years, at least according to Michael O’Leary, chief executive officer of Ryanair Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest airline in terms of passengers carried. Airlines were stung by nearly $200 billion in losses over Covid and tens of millions of aviation jobs were cut. With a travel recovery now well underway, the industry is struggling to re-recruit sufficiently. Many well-trained former workers decided to switch careers entirely to take up more stable jobs. The shortages have worsened delays at airport check-in desks, immigration counters and baggage carousels. They’ve also forced airlines to work harder to attract and retain staff, which has meant offering better salaries. That translates into higher airfares as carriers try to recoup the additional costs.<br/>