general

Global airlines are setting up a task force to deal with non-carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, stepping up efforts to tackle cloudy streaks formed by aircraft known as contrails, an environmental threat that until now has taken a backseat to carbon pollution in the response to global warming. The move comes as the IATA, representing some 300 major airlines, is preparing to discuss the warming effect of contrails for the first time at its annual meeting in Istanbul next week. The streaks are formed in moist atmospheric conditions and are made up of frozen ice crystals. While they don't emit CO2, scientists say they can trap radiation and reflect it back down to earth, creating a harmful warming effect. Starting this year, the task force will coordinate efforts by researchers and airlines to limit the creation of contrails in an effort to encourage the sector to do more, IATA said. The idea is to "accurately predict conditions favouring the formation of contrails and minimize the risks of increased fuel when avoiding them," an IATA spokesperson said in response to a Reuters query.<br/>But some researchers and environmental groups - supported by companies claiming to be able to help solve the problem - say airlines have done too little to handle the issue. According to such experts, research shows that non-CO2 emissions can actually be more harmful than carbon emissions. "(Up to) 10% of all flights contribute to 80% of the warming effects," said Roger Teoh, a researcher at Imperial College London, adding that "the annual warming effects of contrails could be two times larger than the cumulative effects from CO2."<br/>

Dwindling air service to small cities across the US is the result of changing airline economics, and not just the pilot shortage airlines face, long-time industry analyst William Swelbar said Wednesday. “This is all about economics … it really is a lot more than pilots,” the chief industry analyst at the Swelbar-Zhong Consultancy said at a US National Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, DC. The high cost of flying small planes, which has increased dramatically along with so many other airline industry expenses, along with limited pilot resources, has contributed to network carriers American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines deciding to end flights to cities like New Haven, Conn., Toledo, Ohio, and Williamsport, Pa. Those air service losses have raised questions about the future of such service, both in the industry and Congress, and threatens what the Regional Airline Association (RAA) says is $152b in economic activity flights bring to small communities. Small U.S. cities have been losing air service for decades. As planes grew in size, and fuel prices and other expenses rose, airline planners could not make the math work for destinations like Farmington, N.M., or Hickory, N.C. — last served by US Airways in 2008 and Delta in 2006, respectively, according to Cirium Diio schedules. The trend has accelerated as the industry emerged from the pandemic facing a pilot shortage (now focused on captains), higher costs, supply chain issues, and a more challenging operating environment.<br/>

Lawmakers who want tougher standards for evacuating aircraft in an emergency have criticized the Federal Aviation Administration for what they consider unrealistic simulations, and now they are calling for a do-over of current evacuation tests. Decades-old federal rules require that planes be designed so that passengers can escape the cabin within 90 seconds in case of fire or some other emergency, even with half the exits blocked. Critics say the FAA has been lax in ensuring that today’s airliners — with more seats and narrower rows — meet that standard. They point to incidents including an American Airlines plane that caught fire on the ground in Chicago in 2016. Video from inside the plane showed panicked passengers clogging the aisle as they waited to slide down emergency chutes. Twenty people were injured in the chaotic escape. “It should not — it cannot — take another tragedy to bring our aircraft evacuation standards up to date,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said in announcing legislation she and others introduced Wednesday to require changes in how FAA conducts evacuation tests. When the FAA ran drills on an aircraft cabin mock-up in Oklahoma City in 2019, all the volunteers who took part were able-bodied adults under 60. The FAA’s administrator at the time acknowledged that the tests provided “useful, but not necessarily definitive information.” The FAA grudgingly conducted those tests only after Congress ordered the agency to come up with minimums for the size of airline seats and the distance between rows. Lawmakers said new standards are necessary because Americans are getting heavier while airlines are cramming more seats on planes.<br/>

Fewer than 6% of US flights to and from mainland China that existed in 2019 have resumed, according to a Nomura report. In contrast, flights between mainland China and Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Italy are nearly back to pre-pandemic frequency or more, the report showed, citing data as of May 22 from Variflight. “We think geopolitical factors in China’s outbound tourism revival ... are clearly at play here,” Nomura’s Chief China Economist Ting Lu and a team said in the report Monday. In March, China brokered the restoration of diplomatic ties between Middle East rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. Beijing has refused to condemn Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, while calling for peace talks. Tensions between the U.S. and China have meanwhile simmered. China’s ambassador to the U.S. assumed office last week after a gap of about six months with no one in the position. This past weekend, an Air China flight between Beijing and New York marked the first direct passenger on the route by a Chinese carrier in months. It was one of the four new weekly flights between the two countries by Chinese airlines that the U.S. Department of Transportation approved in May. Previously, the only regular direct flights by Chinese carriers between mainland China and New York since the pandemic were from Shanghai and Guangzhou. The cross-border non-stop flights also cover Los Angeles. On the other hand, reports say U.S.-based airlines have chosen not to resume many flights between the U.S. and China. That’s because restrictions on flying over Russian airspace give Chinese carriers an advantage — an added cost of $2b a year for the three major U.S.-based airlines. Delta, United and American Airlines did not respond to a request for comment. In early January, Beijing relaxed border controls after nearly three years and scrapped inbound quarantine requirements, while allowing more people to get visas for travel in and out of the mainland.<br/>

Ireland's High Court on Wednesday ordered the winding up of two sanctions-hit state-owned Russian leasing firms based in Ireland after a group of creditors said the companies had no prospect of clawing back an almost $1.6b net deficit. GTLK Europe DAC and GTLK Europe Capital DAC, whose main business is aircraft leasing, had sought to prevent the appointment of liquidators by applying for court protection from creditors, citing a decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin to relieve $1.5b of debt. The High Court denied the request to enter examinership, a process akin to Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States that allows an applicant time to restructure debts while operating as a going concern. "It seems to me that the petitioner did not act in good faith and the relief should be refused," Judge Conor Dignam told the court. He went on to list a number of "fatal" shortcomings of the examinership request, noting that the possible appearance of certain assets in the future did not amount to creation of a reasonable chance of survival for the firms as going concerns.<br/>

Monthly passenger traffic at Italian airports surpassed the pre-pandemic levels for the first time in April, the Italian airport operators association Assaeroporti said on Wednesday. Last month the number of passengers at Italian airports rose to 16.5m, a 2.5% increase compared with April 2019. In period January-April passenger traffic was equal to 97.6% of the same period in 2019. Tourism is vital to southern Europe’s economies. The travel industry was worth E100b or 6.2% of Italian output in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic brought the sector into its knees.<br/>

Sudan’s civil aviation authority will extend the closure of Sudanese airspace until the 15th of June, a statement for Khartoum international airport said on its Facebook page. “Aid and evacuation flights will be excepted from this decision after securing permissions from relevant authorities” the statement added. <br/>

The Investment Corporation of Dubai, the government's main investment arm, reported on Wednesday a more than 250% surge in profit for 2022, extending a post-pandemic recovery. ICD, which owns the airline Emirates, reported profit of 36.1b dirhams ($9.83b), up from 10.1b dirhams in 2021 and a loss in 2020, a filing showed. <br/>

Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal will seek a long-term deal to export hydroelectric power and the opening of new air routes through India during his visit to New Delhi beginning on Wednesday, officials said. The four-day visit is Dahal's first foreign trip since he was elected prime minister again in December. He has visited India twice before in two previous tenures as prime minister dating back to 2008. The visit is a tradition of new Nepali leaders making New Delhi their first foreign port of call after assuming office, underlining the strong ties between the neighbours. Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud said Nepal was seeking long-term deals on energy, including more Indian investment in hydroelectric projects and the construction of transmission lines between the two countries. “We also want India to facilitate the export of our electricity to Bangladesh,” Saud told reporters. Nepal, which has the potential to generate up to 42,000 megawatts of hydroelectric power, hopes to produce about 3,500 megawatts by next year against its domestic demand of 2,000 megawatts. Kathmandu wants to export the excess energy to power hungry India, its biggest economic and trade partner. India is investing billions of dollars in infrastructure including hydropower plants, as New Delhi looks to grow its influence among its smaller neighbours, where China is also increasingly active. During the visit, Dahal will urge India to open three more points along their border from which airlines can enter and exit Nepal's air space. That would help boost air traffic to two new international airports - one in the tourist town of Pokhara and the other near Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, officials said.<br/>

A key government program monitoring Australian airlines’ behaviour is ending just as carriers face claims they are overcharging passengers, prompting consumer and aviation figures to call for a dedicated and ongoing inquiry to probe the industry. Calls for greater scrutiny from Australian Airports Association CE, James Goodwin, and former competition tsar Rod Sims come as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) domestic aviation monitoring taskforce expires at the end of June. Beginning in June 2020, the Morrison government directed the ACCC to monitor the domestic industry for anti-competitive behaviour at a time of crisis, following Virgin Australia entering administration and the loss of budget carrier Tiger, as well as broader disruptions from pandemic border closures threatening other airlines operations. However, as the three-year term of the monitoring direction entered its final year, the quarterly reports released by the watchdog have also come to comment on international operations and examine more pressing consumer issues, including putting airlines on notice over concerns of price-gouging. Airlines were compelled to hand over detailed operating data they otherwise would not share, which has allowed insights into revenue-per-passenger figures and a more behind-the-scenes look at an industry where big players such as Qantas are posting record multibillion-dollar profits as air fares remain stubbornly high. While departmental reporting of aviation statistics such as on-time performances are set to continue, the ACCC will no longer be able to request more detailed data from carriers, and the government will no longer provide extra resources for the level of dedicated monitoring the industry has been subject to for the past three years.<br/>

The certification of the Boeing 737 MAX 7 is taking a "considerable amount of time" due to new documentation requirements, but the planemaker still believes it can be certified by the end of the year, a company executive said on Wednesday. Both the MAX 7 and MAX 10 are seen as critical for Boeing to compete against Airbus for orders at the larger and smaller ends of the narrowbody market. Southwest was expecting to accept the first MAX 7 this year, although the airline's CEO has noted plans to put the aircraft into service could be delayed until 2024. Boeing is readying the final "handful of documents" required by the FAA as it proceeds through the regulatory process necessary to approve the 737 MAX 7 to enter service, Mike Fleming, Boeing's senior vice president for commercial development programs, told a press briefing. The planemaker is also "close" to receiving FAA approval to begin certification flights of its new longer 737 MAX 10, Fleming told reporters. Certification of that aircraft is still projected to occur in 2024, but will depend on when Boeing is approved to begin those flights, he said. "The amount of documentation that we're producing on these airplanes relative to what we had to produce in the past is considerably much larger than it has been," Fleming said. Asked about Boeing's comments, the FAA said "safety will dictate the timeline. We do not comment on ongoing certifications." Congress in December exempted the MAX 7 and MAX 10 from a new safety standard for modern cockpit alerts that applied to all planes certified after late 2022. <br/>

General Electric's aviation arm, already expecting to benefit from a boom in Indian domestic air travel, sees an even bigger boost from a surge in international travel that will drive demand for larger jets, its country head said. Engines built by GE Aerospace and partner Safran power about 60% of India's 700 plus commercial planes, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium. But most of them are narrowbody jets, which largely cater to domestic travel. Airlines in India, a country of 1.4b people, still have just 50 widebody planes deployed for long-haul travel, something GE sees changing as more Indians splurge on travel. "There's clearly a need for more widebody aircraft," Vikram Rai, GE Aerospace's country head for India and Indonesia told Reuters, adding it would be "the next path of growth". GE estimates by 2030 India's international passenger traffic will hit 125m from 70m in 2019. Over the same period, India's middle-class population is seen rising to 700m from around 450m, spurring demand. "That is more than the population of the US, which has 5,500-6,000 commercial aircraft in service, as against 700 for India. So, there is room for significant growth," Rai said. GE's bullish outlook for India comes after a recent record deal to supply 800 fuel-efficient LEAP engines for 400 Air India narrowbody jets, part of a mega plane order. GE will also supply engines for 30 of the 70 widebody planes on order. This comes on top of an order pipeline for IndiGo's 500 Airbus narrowbody planes and a deal to power startup airline Akasa's 72 Boeing aircraft - giving GE a stranglehold on India's narrowbody jet market.<br/>