A House panel voted Wednesday to raise the mandatory retirement age for commercial airline pilots to 67 from 65 as the industry faces a persistent shortage of aviators. Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure voted 32-31 to include the measure in proposed legislation to reauthorize Federal Aviation Administration programs for five years. “It’s a modest increase but that gives us some time for long-term solutions to take shape,” said Faye Malarkey Black, president of the Regional Airline Association, which represents smaller carriers that feed major airlines. The association had pushed for the bill to stem the loss of pilots as airlines ramp up schedules and pilot hiring after shrinking during the Covid-19 pandemic by urging aviators to take buyouts. Airlines have blamed a shortage of pilots on service reductions, particularly to small cities. The last time Congress raised the pilot retirement age was in 2007 when it was raised from 60 to 65. The committee voted 63-0 on the proposed FAA reauthorization bill Wednesday, but it now faces a vote in the full House. It isn’t clear whether the new retirement age provision would be in a final version of the bill or make it through a vote in either chamber. The Air Line Pilots Association, the country’s biggest pilot labor union, which represents aviators at major carriers such as Delta and United, has opposed the measure. “The rash decision to move an amendment on changing the statutory pilot retirement age, without consulting agencies responsible for safety, or studying potential impacts of such a change as has been done elsewhere, is a politically driven choice that betrays a fundamental understanding of airline industry operations, the pilot profession, and safety,” the ALPA said.<br/>
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U.S. officials said Wednesday they will require new airline planes to have a second barrier to make it harder for passengers to break into the cockpit when the main door is open. The FAA rule will apply to commercial planes made after mid-2025. The rule will affect airlines that operate scheduled flights, but not charter operators. Officials called the rule an important step to give pilots more protection. "No pilot should have to worry about an intrusion on the flight deck," said David Boulter, the FAA's acting associate administrator for safety. After the hijacking of four U.S. airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, the FAA adopted standards for flight deck security to make them resistant to forcible intrusion and unauthorized entry. Congress directed the FAA in 2018 to require secondary barriers to cockpits, but the agency did not issue a proposal until last August, after it received recommendations from aircraft makers and pilot groups.<br/>
Dozens of flights at an international airport in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa were suspended Wednesday as protests by farmers demanding guaranteed prices for grains ramped up a standoff with the government. Farmers in at least 20 states kicked off demonstrations on Tuesday, blocking traffic on highways and toll booths and occupying government offices, as well as the airport in Sinaloa state capital Culiacan, which has domestic flights and an international route to Phoenix, Arizona. Operations at the airport were first suspended on Tuesday afternoon and remained paused on Wednesday, pending the arrival of officials to talk with farmers, according to the airport’s Twitter account. Producers urge President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to guarantee prices for corn, wheat and sorghum, saying government intervention is vital to counter a steep drop in international prices.<br/>
Passenger traffic at Portuguese airports in the first four months of the year exceeded pre-pandemic levels, boosted by booming tourism, official data showed on Wednesday. The National Statistics Institute, or INE, said that 5.9m passengers transited through Portuguese airports in April, 11% more than in the same month of 2019 and 19% more than in April 2022. In the first four months of the year, the number of passengers reached a record 18.7m, 14% more than in the same period in 2019 and 41% more than in the first four months of last year. Airport passenger traffic in Europe as a whole has still to recover to levels seen before the pandemic grounded air travel in early 2020, Airports Council International (ACI) Europe said recently. Airports in countries like Spain and Portugal that rely heavily on tourism have outperformed ones in Germany, France and Britain where there was a higher share of business travel. Lisbon's airport, one of 10 main terminals in the country operated by France's Vinci, handled 53% of the passengers, or around 10m people.<br/>
A fire at India’s major eastern airport hub in Kolkata filled the departure lounge with smoke late Wednesday and prompted a brief evacuation of travelers, the airport authority said. There were no injuries, and the fire’s cause was under investigation. The minor fire was extinguished within a half-hour and normal operations were expected to resume quickly, the Kolkata airport authority said in a tweet. Television images from earlier in the day showed the fire leaping out from a portion of the airport’s departure terminal. Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra International Airport is the largest hub for air traffic in eastern India.<br/>
Indian Oil Corp will set up an 80,000 tonnes sustainable aviation fuel plant with LanzaJet in Haryana, the refiner's chairman said on Wednesday. The company is looking at an investment of about 23b rupees ($280.1m), S.M. Vaidya said on the sidelines of an industry event in New Delhi. The refiner is also running a pilot project for green fuel in association with Praj Industries (PRAJ.NS) in the western state of Maharashtra, Vaidya added.<br/>
Police patrol robots will be progressively deployed across Singapore, after more than five years of trials and smaller-scale roll outs confirmed their viability. These robots, each about 1.7m tall, can be used to enforce a cordon or warn bystanders during an incident before other police resources arrive at the scene. Equipped with cameras, sensors, speakers, a display panel, blinkers and a siren, they are capable of autonomous patrol and can allow the police to communicate directly with the public. The Singapore Police Force (SPF) on Thursday said two of the robots have been deployed as part of police patrol operations at Changi Airport Terminal 4 since April, where they serve as additional eyes on the ground. Police robots were first deployed in public as part of a trial at the Chingay parade in February 2018. Since then, they have gone through multiple iterations and names. It was previously known as the Multi-purpose All Terrain Autonomous Robot (Matar) 2.0 and 3.0.<br/>
French jet engine maker Safran has warned that the “unprecedented crisis of supply” in the aerospace industry will stretch into next year as aircraft manufacturers struggle to source the parts and staff they need to keep up with resurgent demand. Safran’s chief executive Olivier Andriès told the Financial Times there had been no let up in supply chain problems dogging the industry since the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that caused shortages of raw materials. “We have to fight every day to get the parts. This is true for Safran and also the whole industry,” Andriès said in an interview. “We’ve gone from an unprecedented crisis of demand back in 2020. Now demand is back but we are in an unprecedented crisis of supply. We have never seen this before,” he added. Others in the industry are also facing similar headwinds, with Airbus warning of supply chain constraints lasting until 2024, as airlines rush to order new aircraft to meet high travel demand. Andriès added the constraints would likely last into 2024, limiting the speed at which the sector can further increase production. “I would like to say it’s going to be over in three months. But this is not true . . . it is going to last,” he said. Despite the challenges, Paris-based Safran now expects sales growth of around 20% this year. That would put it on track for revenues to recover to their pre-pandemic 2019 peak of E25b by next year, according to analysts, and the shares have also rallied 55% in the past 12 months. The company generates significant revenues from supplying both civil and military engines, as well as from its aircraft interiors business, which together accounted for close to 60% of group revenues in 2022. In a sign of how Safran is on firmer financial footing, the company is now looking at bigger acquisitions and is also open to further share buybacks, the CEO said. <br/>
Airbus predicted aircraft manufacturers will deliver 40,850 new jets over the next two decades as customers particularly in Asia expand their fleets and replace older aircraft with more fuel-efficient models. The plane manufacturer expects the global installed fleet to more than double through 2042 to 46,560 aircraft, with 23,680 planes representing growth and 17,170 going toward replacement of older jets, it said in its latest Global Market Forecast. About 80% of the new deliveries will be narrowbodies such as the A320neo and Boeing Co.’s 737 Max, and the bulk of the expansion with come from China and the rest of Asia, Airbus said. The aviation industry has seen demand surge from a virtual shutdown at the height of the pandemic. Capacity on domestic routes in May 2023 was higher than 2019 while international traffic is back to 89% of pre-pandemic levels, the planemaker said. Airbus’s forecast comes a day after jet lessor Avolon Holdings Ltd made a similar prediction, highlighting the industry’s confidence that it has returned to its growth path. Avolon expects Airbus to expand its lead in narrowbody jet manufacturing, the biggest segment of the commercial aircraft market, over the next two decades, while US rival Boeing will maintain its dominance in widebody sales. Airbus said China alone will have 9,440 aircraft by 2042, of which 85% will be narrowbodies. The country is developing its own single-aisle airliner, the Comac C919, as it seeks to break into the lucrative duopoly for such jets now held by Airbus and Boeing. The highest proportion of widebody fleets regionally will remain in the Middle East, Airbus predicted. Already today, airlines like Emirates or Qatar Airways run massive long-range fleets that connect their hubs with airports around the world.<br/>
Honda Aircraft, a US-based aircraft unit of Honda Motor, said Wednesday it will launch a new small business jet that can carry up to 11 people, with the aim of having the plane on the market around 2028. Honda Aircraft said it plans to obtain certification for flight operations from US aviation authorities to commercialize the new jet, which is categorized as a “light jet” and will be bigger than its existing HondaJet. HondaJet is categorized as a “very light jet” that can seat a maximum of eight people. With its high fuel efficiency, the new aircraft will be the world’s first light business jet capable of a nonstop transcontinental flight across the United States, Honda officials said. The new aircraft’s maximum cruising distance is expected to reach 4,862 kilometers, with its fuel efficiency at least 20% higher than conventional light jets and at least 40% higher than medium-size aircraft.<br/>