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The US TSA said Tuesday it had screened 2.785m airline passengers on June 16, the highest number since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The TSA said it had screened approximately 10.6m people from Friday through Monday, the Juneteenth holiday, giving an average of 2.67m people per day. Airlines reported few cancellations over the holiday period and the TSA said last Friday was the fourth-highest single-day for screenings ever and the highest since November 2019. The post-COVID 19 rebound looks set to continue, with industry group Airlines for America estimating a record 256.8m passengers will fly in the June-August quarter, up 1% over the 254.6m passengers in the same period in 2019. Carriers, which have already cut about 10% of scheduled flights this spring to address performance issues, are often operating larger planes as they have trimmed flights to smooth operations, especially in congested New York airspace. Carriers, which had a rough 2022 with high cancellations at various points, have had a much improved 2023 through April, according to the FAA. The FAA agreed in March to requests by Delta and United Airlines to temporarily return up to 10% of slots and flight timings at congested New York area airports John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia, Newark and Washington National, citing air traffic controller shortages for flights from May 15 to Sept. 15.<br/>

European airports are in for another busy summer as passenger numbers globally recover to pre-pandemic levels. Airlines have said they are ready to avoid a repeat of last year's travel chaos, after strikes and staff shortages forced them to cancel thousands of flights to avoid long queues at major airports. But air traffic control strikes, which have caused airlines to demand protections for overflights, and walkouts by airline and airport staff have continued to disrupt flights into the key tourism season. Story includes a summary of recent developments.<br/>

At the Paris Air Show, manufacturers and airlines returned to form after a four-year hiatus, with a flurry of orders that ran into the hundreds on the first two days. Another long-held dynamic was also on display: the mutual dependence between airframe makers and engine suppliers, with the product strategy of one side inextricably linked to that of the other. Among the hot topics: an aircraft that doesn’t even yet exist, the stretched version of the Airbus SE A220. It’s a model that would expand Airbus’s smallest jet family to three versions, keeping with the rising popularity of longer aircraft that have more capacity. But while Airbus has said it’s keen to move ahead, engine supplier Pratt & Whitney isn’t so sure. Speaking in an exclusive interview at the Paris Air show, the CEO of parent company Raytheon Technologies Corp., Greg Hayes, said building a new engine “for a relatively modest market does not make economic sense.” And while Airbus would like to see General Electric Co. consider a rival engine for the jet, Hayes said he’s skeptical they’ll bite. “Fortunately, GE has the same calculator we do,” Hayes said. “They can do math just as well as we do.” Such resistance from a crucial aircraft supplier won’t make it any easier for Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury to chart a path forward for the A220, a program he inherited when Bombardier Corp. put its ailing C-Series program up for sale. Faury, for his part, said “it makes a lot more sense to have one more child in the family.” But Hayes’ lack of enthusiasm and persistent durability issues with existing A220 power plants suggest it’s an offspring that won’t see the light of day anytime soon. Airbus and Boeing have relied on seamless collaboration with engine makers in the past to push their products. When Airbus put new, more fuel-efficient engines on its A320 model a decade ago, the so-called neo version became an instant hit and forced Boeing to follow suit. <br/>

Brazilian planemaker Embraer Tuesday notched fresh orders from American Airlines and Spanish carrier Binter for its E-Jets in deals announced at the Paris Airshow that are seen totaling about $1b. The new firm orders come amid an influx of deals at the world's largest air show, which is at Le Bourget for the first time in four years and took off on Monday with Airbus bagging a record 500-plane transaction. Embraer, the world's third-largest planemaker after Airbus and Boeing, said the new orders follow expansion goals of regional carriers such as Binter and Canada's Porter Airlines, underscoring positive momentum for its planes in global markets. Despite the new deals, shares of Embraer slipped more than 4% in midday trading in Sao Paulo, making it the biggest faller on the benchmark Bovespa stock index, as analysts at JPMorgan said the firm had a "slow start" in Paris. "We were expecting Embraer to announce at least 30 new orders during the event," they said. "We believe that additional new orders could be announced in the coming days, as in the last Paris Air Show Embraer divided its announcements into 3 days." Binter has placed a firm order for six E195-E2 aircraft, marking its fourth order of E2 jets to bring its fleet to 16 when delivered. The deal was valued at $504.7m at list price, with deliveries commencing in the second half of 2024. The carrier's president Rodolfo Nunez touted the aircraft as "a game changer" for the company and "the perfect aircraft to lead our continued growth", citing better-than-expected fuel burn and maintenance. "The best orders are repeat orders," Embraer's Chief Commercial Officer for commercial aviation Martyn Holmes said. <br/>

Embraer’s latest market outlook forecasts 11,000 aircraft deliveries in the up-to-150-seat segment during the 2023-2042 period, with the airframer’s E195-E2 well-placed to meet strong demand for types covering the upper end of the range. Outlining the airframer’s projections at the Paris air show on 20 June, Embraer Commercial Aircraft CE Arjan Meijer said regional aircraft would “complement narrowbodies, improve regional connectivity around the world, improve the flexibility of fleets and last, but not least, reduce emissions” over the next 20 years. Meijer particularly highlights the demand potential from moves by operators of Airbus and Boeing narrowbodies to add regional types to their fleets, citing Scoot’s and SalamAir’s recent orders for E-Jet E2s as an example of a developing trend. “If you go through a little bit of complexity with adding a new type, the E2 is great aircraft to do that; it has tremendously low unit cost and offers a nice gap to narrowbodies to play with from a network perspective,” Meijer states. He also says that while E2 jets are spearheading the airframer’s offering, the previous-generation E175 “is still a great aircraft – we will build it as long as we have demand”. Expanding on the forecast numbers, Meijer says the 11,000 units would be split between 8,790 jets and 2,210 turboprops, with a total value of $650b. Around 6,500 of those aircraft would be in the 100-150-seat segment, which Meijer notes bodes well for Embraer’s E195-E2 jet. <br/>

Record plane orders by India's top two carriers show the country's untapped potential for air travel and its rise as an aviation superpower, but recent airline failures and rows over regulations suggest progress may not be smooth. Indian budget airline IndiGo announced at the Paris Airshow on Monday the biggest ever plane order by number of aircraft with a deal for 500 Airbus narrowbody jets. A day later, rival Air India firmed up an order for 470 Airbus and Boeing aircraft that, until Monday, had been the industry leading plane deal. With a total of almost 1,000 jet orders between them, IndiGo and Air India are betting an economic boom and growing middle class will spur demand for domestic air travel, and new jets will help them grab a bigger share of international traffic. The number of domestic air passengers in India is expected to surge to 350m by 2030, up from 144m in 2019, with international air travellers up to 160m from 64m in 2019, according to aviation consultancy CAPA India and government data. The number of airports in India is also set to climb to 200 over the next five years from 150 today, as the government looks to connect the country's remotest areas by air. "It is time to seize the skies," civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday, adding the new planes would help Indian airlines expand at home and across continents. IndiGo, which operates a fleet of 300 planes, is yet to take delivery of some 500 jets from previous orders with Airbus. This puts the total deliveries by planemakers to Indian carriers at more than 1,500 over the next decade and beyond - double India's existing fleet of 700 planes across all airlines.<br/>

Canadian flight crew training company CAE says the global aviation industry will require 1.3m new professionals across numerous work groups in the coming decade in order to keep up with the ever-growing demand for commercial and business air travel. The company presented its 2023 Aviation Talent Forecast at the Paris air show on 20 June, in which it outlined the ambitious staffing estimates. About 284,000 pilots, 402,000 maintenance technicians and 599,000 cabin crew will be needed to support the expected growth in the markets between now and 2032, says Nick Leontidis, CAE’s president for civil aviation. The total figure breaks down to 1.18m new personnel in commercial aviation, and 106,000 in business aviation. “With a need for 1.3m people by 2023, CAE’s Aviation Talent forecast is a call to action for the industry to promote careers in aviation to the next generation, reach out to under-represented communities and develop innovative support programmes to expand the pool of talent needed for the continued growth and safety of our industry,” he says. CAE recently opened a new business jet training centre in Las Vegas, located just south of the city’s Harry Reid International airport. It has seven full-flight simulators, including those for training pilots to fly Bombardier Global 7500s, Gulfstream G650s, G500s, GIVs, GVs, and Embraer ERJ-145s and Phenom 300s. The company aims to train 2,500 pilots annually in Las Vegas, and has already invested $80m in the 4,645sq m facility.<br/>

FedEx, which is slashing costs to protect profits as demand wanes, said on Tuesday that ongoing "demand challenges" prompted its plans to ground 29 more aircraft in the fiscal year that started on June 1. The global shipping downturn has hurt margins for the sector and FedEx's challenge is matching costs and capacity to lower demand. E-commerce has been particularly hard hit as the pandemic-driven online shopping bubble burst when consumers returned to stores, resumed eating at restaurants and started traveling again. FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam said on a conference call with analysts that the fresh cost-cutting moves would support sustained profit improvement in the current 2024 fiscal year "through an environment that we expect to remain marked by demand challenges, particularly in the first half." The first half of FedEx's fiscal year runs through November. Last fiscal year, FedEx slashed 29,000 jobs, retired 18 planes, shuttered offices and pared back profit-sapping Sunday deliveries in a bid to cut $4b in permanent costs by the end of its 2025 financial year.<br/>