The FAA has launched nearly 170 new flight routes that are shorter and faster, aiming to cut down on congestion in the eastern US. It’s part of a seven-year effort from the FAA and airlines to redraw high-altitude route maps for planes, the agency said Monday. The FAA launched the 169 new routes last week, and is abandoning older ones, which were longer and zigzagged more. Those longer routes were designed for planes relying on ground-based radar and not the GPS that modern aircraft use. The new ones will be more direct. The new paths are mostly above 18,000 feet, when aircraft are cruising, and aim to reduce crowding on popular routes. Some of the new routes are over the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. “The change helps prevent delays by giving the agency more capacity to direct traffic to specific routes based on the aircraft’s destination,” the FAA said in a release. “When weather occurs, controllers will also have more flexibility. Finally, fewer converging points and more simple flows enhance safety.” The FAA estimated that the new routes would reduce about 6,000 minutes of travel time a year. The change comes just before the summer travel season, which airline executives expect to be busy. Pressure from the airline industry has mounted on the FAA to address congestion and delays, though airline staffing issues have also played a role in exacerbating disruptions. Last year, 1.7m flights, more than 20% of those operated by US airlines, were delayed, up from 1.5m, or roughly 16% of flights, in 2019, before the pandemic, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. So far this year, 22% of US-airline operated flights have been delayed, according to the site’s data.<br/>
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If you’ve been stuck in long lines for security checks at New York City-area airports, your fellow travelers could be to blame. Passenger traffic hit a Q1 record in 2023, with 32m passengers passing through John F. Kennedy, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia airports, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey said Monday. That all-time record high is roughly 1m more passengers than in 2019, when the previous benchmark was set. The growth was driven by a flood of passengers at Newark and LaGuardia airports which both boast new facilities. Newark’s $2.7b Terminal A opened in January and LaGuardia’s $4b overhaul of its Delta Terminal C, which was unveiled last year. Meanwhile, 28.7m vehicles crossed the bi-state agency’s four bridges and two tunnels going east, the most since the first three months of 2008, when 29.7m eastbound vehicles used the crossings. Ridership on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson or Path system that connects commuter hubs like Hoboken, New Jersey, to downtown Manhattan continues to lag. During the first quarter, ridership was 59% of pre-pandemic volume in 2019. <br/>
An Israeli attack late on Monday killed one soldier, wounded 7 others including two civilians and put Aleppo International Airport out of service, Syrian state media reported early on Tuesday citing a military source. Syrian air defenses intercepted the Israeli missiles on the vicinity of Aleppo and shot down a number of them, Syrian state media said earlier on Monday. Israel carried out the missile attack at 23:35 p.m. southeast of Aleppo, targeting the airport and some sites in the vicinity of the Syrian city and causing some material damage, the source was quoted as saying. Israel has for years been carrying out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that started in 2011.<br/>
New powers will help airport authorities to deal with rowdy passengers from today after the UAE signed up to a protocol to manage those arriving in the country aboard international airlines. From Monday, authorities will have the powers to deal with passengers who are responsible for physical assaults, harassment, smoking or failing to follow crew instructions. Regulations will be enforced regardless of where the aircraft is registered to close a gap in aviation law. Incidents on planes can compromise flight safety, cause delays and disrupt operations to adversely affect the travel plans of passengers and the working environment for crew. The UAE’s ratification of the Montreal Protocol 2014 (MP14) aims to strengthen the global legal deterrent against bad behaviour on board planes. “Not only will this give the UAE authorities important new powers in dealing with unruly passengers that land in the country, but as a major aviation market and ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organisation] Council member, it will also encourage other states to ratify MP14,” said Kamil Al Awadhi, Africa & Middle East regional vice president of the International Air Transport Association. “This will ensure greater international harmonisation and strengthening the legal deterrent against unruly and disruptive passengers who pose a threat to passenger and crew well-being. “Safety on board is a priority for the entire airline industry.”<br/>
Regular power supply has been restored at the main Philippine airport's Terminal 3, the airport authority said on Monday, after an almost nine-hour outage led to the cancellation of 48 Cebu Pacific domestic flights. Cebu Pacific also confirmed that electricity had been restored at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3, in a notice on its Facebook page. Only Cebu Pacific flights to and from the capital Manila were affected. Emergency power backup enabled critical facilities at the terminal, such as airline and immigration computers to function partially during the outage, which came as many Filipinos were returning home from a three-day weekend. Cebu Pacific offered its passengers departing to and from Terminal 3 an option to rebook or to request refunds to be put in a travel fund for future use. The outage, initially blamed by some airport engineers on a "fault current" affecting the electrical system, caused congestion at check-in counters and stranded passengers, some of them expressing dismay and frustration on social media. Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said authorities will look into the cause of the outage. In a media briefing, he said he was not discounting the possibility of sabotage. The outage came about four months after Philippine authorities halted hundreds of flights as they shut down the country's airspace on New Year's Day, also due to a power outage that caused the air traffic control in Manila to malfunction.<br/>
Airbus’ newest jetliner, the long-range A321XLR, is running 14 to 16 months behind schedule, a major customer said Monday, noting that it’s one of several popular aircraft caught in production snarls that show no sign of easing. Boeing and Airbus recently notified Air Lease Corp. of another round of delays affecting jets due in 2023 and 2024, John Plueger, the aircraft-leasing company’s chief executive officer, said Monday during a first-quarter earnings presentation. One of the manufacturers also told Air Lease the production logjam could stretch into 2028, he added, without naming the company. “We fully expect delays to persist for several years,” Plueger said. The late-arriving aircraft are frustrating because Air Lease is trying to meet booming demand for the Airbus models, he said. Air Lease is a launch customer for the A321XLR and tailored its order book around appetite for the jet family, according to Plueger. An Airbus spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Airbus first said it expected to bring the jet to market this year, but pushed that back to mid-2024 as regulators probed a potential fire hazard posed by its redesigned center fuel tank.<br/>
Air Lease Corp said on Monday it expects delivery delays from Boeing Co and Airbus SE to persist for several years, adding to the headaches of the aerospace industry amid a faster-than-expected recovery in travel. "In recent weeks, we have received additional notices of delay from both Airbus and Boeing for 2023 and 2024 deliveries," Air Lease CE John Plueger said on an investor call. "One OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has advised us to expect delays compared to originally contracted delivery dates through 2028," Plueger added. Boeing and Airbus did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The constrained supply of jets has frustrated airlines, which then turn to aircraft lessors to expand their capacity to tap into the booming travel demand. The shortage has powered lease rates, helping the Los Angeles-based leasing giant to post better-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Monday. "Commercial aircraft demand is very high now and only seems likely to accelerate as traffic expansion continues at a strong clip," Air Lease Chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy said during the call. While Air Lease benefits from the short supply of jets, the delays are also a headache for the company which has a $24b order backlog with both planemakers. "We don't accept supply chain as a delivery excuse. We expect to be compensated for our late deliveries," added Plueger. As of March 31, the aircraft lessor had commitments to purchase 376 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus for delivery through 2029.<br/>
Sales of private jets are likely to reach their highest ever level this year, placing an increasing burden on the planet, while many of the owners escape aviation taxes, and there are few curbs on the greenhouse gases emitted, according to a report. The global fleet of private jets has more than doubled in the last two decades, and more private flights were made last year than ever before, according to a thinktank report published on Monday. Greenhouse gas emissions from private aviation have increased by nearly a quarter since the pandemic, when flying of all types nearly ceased in many countries for an extended period. There were 5.3m private flights globally in 2022, according to the report compiled by the US Institute for Policy Studies thinktank and the Patriotic Millionaires US group, which is made up of wealthy individuals pushing for higher wealth taxes. Last year was the first time that private aviation surpassed its previous peak, which came in 2007, before the financial crisis of 2008-09 and global recession. Sales of pre-owned and new private jets are forecast to reach $34.6b this year, up from $34.1b last year. Although private jet travel makes up only 4% of the global aviation market, it produces about 10 times as much greenhouse gas per passenger.<br/>