US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned Tuesday of the air traffic controller shortage stretching well beyond this summer as the FAA works to rebuild its ranks after the pandemic. “This is going to be a journey, especially when you factor in attrition, to get to levels we want to see,” Buttigieg said Tuesday during a summer travel briefing in Washington, D.C. “I think it’ll be a while before we’re at levels we’d like to see.” The FAA is about 3,000 air traffic controllers short of target levels this summer, he said. That shortage translates to roughly 81% staffed nationally this summer and, in the busy New York market, just 54% staffed. The agency plans to hire roughly 1,500 new controllers this year and, subject to budget approval, another 1,800 controllers next year. New controllers require up to three years of training. The shortage prompted the unprecedented move by the FAA to waive usage requirements at New York’s JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark airports for 10% of the slots or runway timings this summer in an effort to reduce delays. The waiver is effective from May 15 through September 15. Airlines are scheduled to fly nearly 3% fewer flights but 0.3% more seats on US domestic flights from New York this July compared to last year, according to Cirium Diio data. US air traffic control staffing has become a hot button issue in the pandemic air travel recovery. Last summer, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian raised some of the first alarm bells when he called the FAA’s air traffic control organization the most “stressed” in the aviation ecosystem. Other issues affecting the industry include its own staffing levels, lower productivity rates, and supply chain issues including delays of new planes and shortages of certain spare parts. But the air traffic control situation remains top of mind to many in the U.S. amid the continued surge in travel demand and the pending reauthorization of the FAA’s budget. “We need to get an FAA reauthorization bill that gives them money for technology and staffing,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said Tuesday. “This is what I’m most worried about.”<br/>
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Aviation safety technology that helps prevent runway near-collisions should be deployed at more US airports, the government’s top transportation-safety official said, citing early findings from probes into a spate of incidents this year. The systems, which warn air-traffic controllers when planes or vehicles get too close to each other on runways, are in place at just 43 US airports. “That’s not enough,” National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said Tuesday in an interview at a forum on airport safety hosted by the agency. Some of the most severe incidents occurred at airports without a system tracking planes on or near the ground, Homendy said, citing investigators at her agency who are looking into the jump in near-misses. Years of inadequate funding for aviation safety has undercut the government’s ability to field the technology, said Michael McCormick, who previously served at the Federal Aviation Administration’ Air Traffic Organization. The agency would have added it at more airports if it had the money, he said on a panel at the event. “Left to unlimited resources, they would definitely have been promulgated throughout the system,” said McCormick, who is now a professor at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. “So yes, funding is an issue." Serious incidents on US runways surged early this year. There were at least eight cases involving airliners rated as high risk by the FAA or that prompted an investigation by the NTSB. That’s about twice the average annual number in the previous five years. <br/>
The Justice Department on Tuesday asked an appeals court panel to vacate an April 2021 ruling that had declared unlawful a government order requiring masks on airplanes and other transportation modes during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the issue was now moot because the national emergency was now over. In January, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in January heard arguments on the government's appeal of a U.S. district court's ruling that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lacked legal authority to issue a nationwide travel mask mandate to combat COVID-19. The CDC issued the sweeping mask mandate in January 2021, days after President Joe Biden took office. The rules required masks on airplanes, buses, trains, ride-sharing services and at airports and other transportation hubs. The Justice Department said in a court filing the issue was now moot because of "a fundamental change in public health conditions, as evidenced by the joint resolution of Congress terminating the national emergency." The plaintiffs who sued to overturn the mask mandate urged the court not to dismiss the case. They included five individuals who did not want to wear masks on flights including a person diagnosed with anxiety and another who suffered from panic attacks related to wearing masks. Lawyers for the plaintiffs including the group Health Freedom Defense, said in a court filing that dismissing the case "would give CDC the ability to do this -- or something like it -- again while evading review in this court."<br/>
The federal government is rolling out a revamp of its trusted-traveller program to help clear clogged airports as the summer travel season kicks off. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says a new verified-traveller program will open dedicated security screening lines at six of the country's biggest airports by June 21. Eligible passengers include NEXUS members, military personnel and aviation workers, who will be able to pass through security more quickly -- and keep their shoes and belt on throughout. ment comes after months of travel chaos last summer, when a surge in post-pandemic travel demand gummed up terminals and overwhelmed airlines. In March, the Liberal budget laid out $1.8b over five years for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority to improve passenger screening and strengthen security measures at airports. With traveller complaints to the regulator now topping 47,000, the government also tabled an overhaul to its passenger rights charter last month that targets luggage and flight disruption loopholes.<br/>
France has banned domestic short-haul flights where train alternatives exist, in a bid to cut carbon emissions. The law came into force two years after lawmakers had voted to end routes where the same journey could be made by train in under two-and-a-half hours. The ban all but rules out air travel between Paris and cities including Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux, while connecting flights are unaffected. Critics have described the latest measures as "symbolic bans". Laurent Donceel, interim head of industry group Airlines for Europe (A4E), told the AFP news agency that "banning these trips will only have minimal effects" on CO2 output. He added that governments should instead support "real and significant solutions" to the issue. Airlines around the world have been severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with website Flightradar24 reporting that the number of flights last year was down almost 42% from 2019. The French government had faced calls to introduce even stricter rules. France's Citizens' Convention on Climate, which was created by President Emmanuel Macron in 2019 and included 150 members of the public, had proposed scrapping plane journeys where train journeys of under four hours existed.<br/>
Traffic at Geneva airport was interrupted due to climate activists on the tarmac on the first day of a business-aviation conference. Some 100 activists supporting Greenpeace, Stay Grounded and other climate movement groups took part in a protest against private planes, coinciding with the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition, Greenpeace said in a statement Tuesday. Shortly after 12 pm local time most of the activists had been forced to leave the area, AWP newswire reported. The airport said flights gradually restarted at 12:40 p.m. Greenpeace said the protest wasn’t intended to disrupt air traffic. Some activists chained themselves to aircraft gangways and the exhibition entrance to keep prospective buyers from entering, the group said.<br/>
Boeing cautioned that the aerospace industry could suffer from supply disruptions for more than half a decade, delaying deliveries to airlines and hampering the rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic. “I can see supply constraints for a very long time,” CEO Dave Calhoun, appearing on a panel alongside Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker, said at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on Tuesday. “We have backlogs that go out 5 to 6 years, so if the backlogs would suggest supply constraints that far, that means it’s even further.” Aircraft manufacturers have struggled to increase production at a time when airlines are clamoring for new jets to meet the surge in travel demand. Component shortages have restricted output as Boeing and arch-rival Airbus SE seek to scale up production. Calhoun said only after the industry has regained what he called stability — a process that will take about a year and a half — can it really ramp up output rates. Al Baker said that along with delays of new jet deliveries, supply constraints are a hurdle for existing fleets, forcing airlines to ground some planes that need spare parts for everything from engines to avionics. “This is all the consequence of the pandemic,” Al Baker said. Calhoun said he doesn’t expect either Boeing or Airbus to build a brand new aircraft model until 2035 because required propulsion systems won’t be available sooner to justify the huge outlays needed to improve fuel efficiency by 20% to 30%. The two executives dismissed the notion that hydrogen-powered aircraft could soon be available to fulfill the industry’s net zero carbon ambitions, predicting instead that the technology will only be mature in the second half of this century. Until then, the industry will need to rely on so-called sustainable aviation fuel, they said, which is chemically similar to normal jet fuel, but doesn’t require extraction of more petroleum.<br/>
A private jet executive has rejected criticism that his industry was a prime greenhouse gas emitter, claiming that pets polluted as much if not more as demand for the luxury transportation soars. Patrick Hansen, CE of Luxembourg-based Luxaviation, told the FT’s Business of Luxury summit in Monaco that one of his company’s customers produces about 2.1 tonnes of CO₂ per year, or about the same amount as three cats — before a spokesperson rectified the statement offstage by saying he had meant three dogs. The industry was aware about the urgency to limit its carbon footprint but the data must “be put into perspective,” Hansen said during a panel discussion on Tuesday. He added that private flights were “not going away, because they provide a service of time” to the wealthy. Hansen said later he was referring to data published in a book by Mike Berners-Lee, a British academic, called “How Bad are Bananas”. It states that a cat kept as a household pet is responsible for 310kg of carbon emissions per year, and a dog for about 700kg. Berners-Lee said in an email that he was “surprised and disappointed to hear data from my book being used to defend the bogus eco claims made by Luxaviation.” He raised doubt over the 2.1 tonnes figure provided by Hansen, saying that it looked “suspiciously low” and “must be for very short flights and very small planes.” “The simple reality is that the emissions from luxury private jets are many times higher than for standard commercial flights. Nor is it reasonable to claim the climate damage can be undone by so-called ‘offsetting’,” he added. “Luxury private jets are a huge carbon indulgence.” Private jet companies have benefited from booming demand since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when the ultra-rich sought to avoid crowds and restrictions. Despite all travel restrictions being lifted, the trend is set to continue as high-spenders seek more personalised and luxurious travel experiences, according to industry experts. Global demand for private jets has risen more than 14% since before the pandemic, according to industry data. Hansen said the “inflow of new clients in the private jet market” last year had compensated for the loss of clientele from regions affected by air travel restrictions linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Meanwhile, climate change activists and policymakers have called for measures to penalise private flights to help curb global warming. Last month, Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport sought to ban private jets from flying in and out of the Dutch capital after its runway was stormed by climate activists. On Tuesday activists at Geneva airport disrupted Europe’s flagship business fair for private jets.<br/>