general

It might seem as if getting back to the days of cheap or reasonably priced flights — beyond, say, a serendipitous airline pricing blunder — is a thing of the past. But recently, aviation insiders have shown optimism that relief is on the way, with predictions that fares will soften as pent-up demand lets up and airlines continue to expand capacity and improve staffing. Prices have already fallen 12% since hitting a peak in May 2022, says Scott Keyes, CEO of the airfare deals subscription service Going, formerly known as Scott’s Cheap Flights, noting that the spike last spring was caused in part by the convergence of overwhelming “revenge travel” demand and an acute pilot shortage. The April 20 state of the industry report by trade association Airlines for America shows that airfares dropped 8.7% in Q1 2023 from 2019 Q1. “For airfare the rest of the year, it’s going to be largely lower than it was last spring and summer,” says Keyes. If flight cost is a reflection of supply and demand, pressure is easing up on both sides of the equation — at least for international flights out of the U.S. For instance, United Airlines cited lower-than-expected leisure demand for January and February 2023. (Business travel has remained below pre-pandemic levels.) More dramatically, Alaska Air reported a loss of $142m for Q1 2023, citing lower leisure demand and surging costs. That may be the beginning of a trend for those early months in the year, says Brian Sumers, aviation analyst and founder of the Airline Observer newsletter. In the US, consumer behavior is shifting. Household savings aren’t as robust as they were following travel’s restart the past two years. And there’s rising concerns about inflation, banking turmoil and the potential for a recession. Even high-end consumers’ travel spending budgets are showing a dip. On the supply side, global airlines are finally starting taking possession of long-awaited, new aircraft — despite the latest minor aircraft delivery snag — and gradually bringing their ranks of pilots to pre-pandemic levels. The progress on all fronts is incremental. A drop in fares for the second half of the year may point to a temporary reprieve that lasts between the fall and early 2024, before other factors such as pilot retirements and higher oil prices raise airfares again. But all told, says Keyes, “we are looking at cheaper fares today than we were a year ago, and I expect that to continue.”<br/>

The Biden Administration announced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid vaccine requirement for inbound international air travelers to the US will end on May 11. The administration will also remove the requirement for federal employees and contractors. The US Travel Association applauded the requirement’s repeal. “Today’s action to lift the vaccine requirement eases a significant entry barrier for many global travelers, moving our industry and country forward,” said US Travel President and CEO Geoff Freeman, referring to the May 1 announcement. The vaccine requirements were put in place to slow the spread of Covid and allow the U.S. healthcare system time to manage care if faced with rising cases and hospitalizations. The Biden Administration cited the decline in Covid cases, hospitalizations and vaccinations as a reason for the repeal. The removal will likely lead to an increase in international travelers. US Travel called on the government to be prepared. “The federal government must ensure U.S. airports and other ports of entry are appropriately staffed with Customs and Border Protection officers to meet the growing demand for entry,” Freeman said.<br/>

American Airlines pilots voted to go on strike Monday. Southwest pilots are holding a strike vote as well. But none of those union members will be allowed to go on strike anytime soon — if at all — under the labor law that applies to airline workers. That law is the Railway Labor Act, which, despite he name, covers both rail workers and airline employees. Those are two of the most heavily unionized US industries, and the law places considerable hurdles in the way of any union that wants to strike. The pilots have cleared exactly zero of those hurdles so far. If federally mediated union negotiations reach an impasse, a union can be given permission to strike. But the law allows the president to step in at the last moment and order workers to stay on the job for a months-long “cooling off periods” while a presidential panel comes up with recommendations as to how to settle the deadlock. If the two sides can’t reach a deal during that cooling off period, the union could then go on strike — but only if Congress stays on the sideline and allows the strike to take place. But it’s possible that Congress would act to block a strike. That’s what happened with the freight railroads last December when Congress imposed a contract on the angry rail unions to keep the railroads operating. This doesn’t mean that the airline unions and their members aren’t serious about going on strike if given the chance. Most airline employees have gone years without pay raises, and they have endured extremely difficult working conditions during the pandemic. Many unions have had members participate in informational pickets at major airports, at American pilots did Monday. Story has more.<br/>

The Biden administration does not plan to extend a July 1 deadline for airlines to upgrade airplane altimeters, the measuring instruments that are crucial for bad-weather landings, to address potential interference from 5G wireless technology, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. Buttigieg in a call on Tuesday told airlines that the deadline will not be moved. He said airlines had made progress, but urged them to work aggressively to continue retrofitting airplanes, the Transportation Department said. The FAA said last week it did not plan to extend the July 1 deadline before new rules take effect prohibiting certain landings in low-visibility conditions without upgraded altimeters. Tuesday was the first time in recent months Buttigieg has weighed in on the July 1 date after some airlines pressed hard for a deadline extension. The IATA, which represents more than 100 carriers that fly to the United States, said on Tuesday, "Supply chain issues make it unlikely that all aircraft can be upgraded by the 1 July deadline, threatening operational disruptions during the peak northern summer travel season." Concerns that 5G service could interfere with airplane altimeters, which measure a plane's height above the ground, led to brief disruptions at some US airports last year as international carriers canceled some flights. Last year, Verizon and AT&T voluntarily agreed to delay some C-Band 5G usage until July 1 as air carriers worked to retrofit airplane altimeters. IATA said Tuesday that "more is needed" and said many airlines will have to retrofit most of their aircraft twice in just five years.<br/>

Moldovan former Prime Minister Iurie Leanca has been charged with abuse of power over a concession that gave control of the country's main airport to a businessman now in exile, a senior prosecutor said on Tuesday. Veronica Dragalin, head of Moldova's anti-corruption prosecution office, said a former economy minister and six other former officials also faced similar charges in a criminal case which she said had been referred to court. All the accused pleaded not guilty, she told a news conference in the Moldovan capital Chisinau. The 2013 concession handed control of Chisinau International Airport for a 49-year term to a company associated with politician and businessman Ilan Shor, who fled Moldova in 2019 after the election of pro-Western President Maia Sandu. An appeals court ruled last November that control of the airport should return to the state.<br/>

India's domestic air traffic has hit a record high, with 456,082 passengers flying on a single day. The milestone, which was reached on 30 April, came as 2,978 flights took off across the country. "The skyrocketing domestic passenger traffic post Covid is a reflection of India's high growth," aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia tweeted. India's post-pandemic economic recovery has spurred a travel boom. More than 37.5m passengers were carried by domestic airlines in just the first three months of 2023. This marked a 51.7% growth compared to a year ago, data from the country's Directorate General of Civil Aviation showed. "There was no growth for two years during Covid. What we are witnessing now is a snowballing of that pent-up demand," Mark Martin, an aviation analyst, told the BBC. There has also been a significant increase in the number of first-time flyers since the pandemic, according to Martin. He added that air traffic in India has typically been growing at twice the pace of the country's GDP, as disposable incomes rise in Asia's third largest economy.<br/>

The Philippines’ airspace will be closed for six hours on May 17 to allow the replacement of an electrical equipment that malfunctioned and shut the Southeast Asian country’s air traffic systems on New Year’s Day, affecting thousands of passengers. “It’s the entire Philippine airspace that will be shut down” due to the scheduled replacement of the uninterruptible power supply at the air traffic management center, Bryan Co, senior assistant general manager at the Manila International Airport Authority told a briefing on Tuesday. The closure will take place at 12 a.m. to 6 a.m., which is typically a lean period for airport operations so the activity will cause the “least disruption,” said Co. Philippine Airlines will carry out necessary flight adjustments for the scheduled shutdown, said spokesperson Cielo Villaluna. The flag carrier is coordinating with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines so it can make adjustments to its operations and inform passengers, she said. There will be no affected flghts at Cebu Pacific Air, spokesperson Carmina Romero said. The New Year’s Day shutdown caused by a power outage affected about 600 flights and around 65,000 passengers. <br/>

A woman has died after forcing her way through the wrong set of doors of a lift at an Indonesian airport and falling down the shaft. Airport staff found the body of Aisiah Sinta Dewi, 38, after being called to investigate the smell of a foul stench three days later. A spokesman for the airport told CNN Indonesia on Monday that, when checked, the lift was running normally. They did not say when the checks were conducted. Dewi's body has been sent to a local hospital for a post-mortem examination. CCTV footage shows Dewi's final moments before her fatal fall off the lift at the Kualanamu Airport in Medan, northern Indonesia, on 24 April. She entered the lift through a set of doors, then turned to push a button for the second floor. She stood, waited, and began looking at her phone as a second set of doors opened up behind her. Then she appeared to push the lift button again, still facing the doors she had entered from. Ms Dewi then appeared to make a distressed phone call as she pried through the shut doors, stepping through the void. Her body was found at the bottom of the shaft three days later following complaints to airport staff about a foul smell.<br/>

AerCap expects to deliver full-year earnings at the higher end of its guidance as a broadening travel recovery and shortage of new aircraft boosts demand for plane leases and sales, the world's largest aircraft lessor said on Tuesday. CEO Aengus Kelly said Q1 demand, in particular for engine leases and the purchase of older aircraft, showed airlines "simply do not believe" under pressure manufacturers will be able deliver new planes on time. The constrained supply of jets - which Kelly predicted will last several years - helped the Dublin-based lessor increase its Q1 revenue by 4% to $1.87b and forecast full year adjusted earnings per share at the higher end of the $7.00 to $7.50 range provided in March. "The real interesting trend is the amount of purchases airlines are making," Kelly told an analyst call, saying customers would extend leases rather than buy planes outright if they thought there was a quick fix to delivery delays from the likes of Airbus and Boeing. "This supports our view that airlines simply do not believe the production rates announced by the OEMs (original equipment manufacturer) and are planning accordingly." AerCap, which has a portfolio of 3,500 aircraft, engines and helicopters, sold 32 planes between January and March, its third busiest quarter by value in the last four years. Kelly added the lease rates on some engine types were up as much as 30% year-on-year as airlines seek to keep as many aircraft in the sky as possible with global traffic moving towards the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. "It is clear that the tone of the airline industry continues to be positive and unlike recent years, this is now reflected in all major regions of the world," he said. "Demand is robust. From discussions with airlines recently, their main concerns is around securing enough capacity to address the growing demand they see coming their way over the next several years."<br/>