Nearly 8,000 flights were delayed and nearly 900 canceled on Sunday as thunderstorms snarled air travel in and out of some of the country’s busiest airports and the Federal Aviation Administration briefly halted departures to major airports serving Washington D.C., citing repairs to a power panel needed at an air traffic control facility. Shortly after 6 p.m. ET, the FAA issued ground stops for Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles International Airport, preventing aircraft from taking off for those destinations. It lifted the orders within an hour. “Departures to D.C.-area airports have resumed and repairs to the communications power panel are complete,” the FAA said in a statement. “During the repairs, a back-up system handled communications safely.” Delays at Washington Dulles were averaging around 90 minutes as of 7:15 p.m. Another 7,000 U.S. flights were delayed on Saturday. Throughout Sunday, weather caused delays at airports from Miami to Boston to Detroit. More than 440 flights to and from Newark Liberty International Airport were delayed. The airport is a major hub of United Airlines, which had more than 840 delayed flights Sunday, according to FlightAware. American Airlines posted 938 delayed flights, 27% of its mainline schedule, Delta Air Lines had 716, or 20% of its schedule, and New York-based JetBlue Airways had 472 delays, or 45% of its planned schedule.<br/>
general
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned the nation’s airlines Friday that flights could be disrupted starting next week because some planes lack updated equipment to prevent interference from transmissions by wireless companies. Buttigieg said that only planes retrofitted with the right equipment will be allowed to land when visibility is poor, such as during bad weather. The warning — in a letter from Buttigieg to trade group Airlines for America — comes just before AT&T, Verizon and other wireless carriers will be free to boost the power of their C-Band, 5G signals on July 1. Airlines have told the government they are having trouble getting equipment to retrofit planes because of supply-chain problems. Still, the industry trade group said airlines are confident they will avoid disruptions. Some aviation experts believe that C-Band signals are too close on the radio spectrum to the frequencies used by radio altimeters, which measure the height of a plane above the ground. Newer altimeters are protected from interference, but some airlines have complained that a shortage of the devices has prevented them from upgrading all their planes. It’s unclear whether the spectrum conflict could cause major travel disruptions. When the issue arose early last year, predictions of widespread problems turned out to be wrong, although a small number of flights were canceled or diverted. Delta Air Lines said about 190 of its more than 900 planes won’t be equipped with updated radio altimeters by the deadline and could face restrictions operating in bad weather. The airline said it will route them carefully to limit disruptions while it works with a supplier to retrofit more planes through the summer.<br/>
Critical U.S. air traffic control (ATC) facilities face staffing challenges and the Federal Aviation Administration "lacks a plan to address them," a government audit released on Friday found. The Transportation Department Office of Inspector General said the staffing issues pose risks to the continuity of air traffic operations. U.S. airlines are expecting record summer air travel and have urged more air traffic-control hiring. The report said the FAA has made limited efforts to ensure adequate controller staffing at the busiest air traffic control facilities, adding that 77% of critical ATC facilities are staffed below the FAA's 85% threshold. COVID-19 led to training pauses over a period of nearly two years, "significantly increasing controller certification times," the audit added. "Due to these uncertain training outcomes, FAA cannot ensure it will successfully train enough controllers in the short term." Managers told auditors facilities are not adequately staffed and many do not have enough supervisors. At several facilities, controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day work weeks to cover staff shortages, the report found. Of the FAA's 13,300 total controllers, 26% are trainees. The FAA released a controller workforce plan in May and said in response it "fully understands that adequate staffing at its critical facilities helps ensure the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System and is committed to getting to adequate staffing levels." Jacksonville Center overtime costs in 2022 exceeded prepandemic costs by 27%. The center in busy Florida has had 300 staffing triggers - events when workforce issues require reducing air traffic, the report said. The Transportation Department in May sought $117m to hire 1,800 air traffic controllers next year, in addition to 1,500 being hired this year. Many critical facilities have more trainees than average and it can take more than three years to train new controllers.<br/>Advertisement · Scroll to continue<br/>
China and the US agreed to explore increasing the number of flights between the world's two largest economies, encouraging students, scholars and business professionals to visit each other. The agreement was reached during the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as one of five points of consensus. It was confirmed by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning at a Tuesday briefing. International air travel to and from China is still experiencing a patchy recovery nearly half a year after the country lifted its pandemic-era border controls, with the resumption of services between China and the U.S. lagging far behind. Fewer than 6% of the U.S.-China flights that existed in 2019 have resumed, according to a Nomura report. Flights to North America, including to the U.S. and Canada, accounted for only 1% of total international flights operated in the week of June 12-18, data from flight tracking app Flight Master shows. Meanwhile, air tickets between China and the U.S. are expensive, as demand is high. Canada and the U.S. are among the top destinations for visa applications in China, according to visa service provider VFS Global. U.S.-China routes have been among the industry's most profitable, with minimal fluctuations in business, tourism, family visits and student passenger flows before the pandemic. With sparse direct flights, many passengers have to transfer in Hong Kong, Seoul, Istanbul or Abu Dhabi, costing domestic airlines revenue. The slow recovery in international flights continues to weigh on the operations of Chinese airlines. Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines -- the big three state-owned carriers that were major domestic operators of China-U.S. flights before the pandemic -- are deep in the red. They lost a combined 8.6b yuan ($1.2b) in Q1 after nearly 109b yuan of losses in 2022.<br/>
The threat of serious disruption to travel at the UK’s busiest airport this summer has receded after staff at London Heathrow accepted a revised pay offer. More than 2,000 members of the Unite trade union working as security staff at Heathrow on Friday cancelled a series of planned strikes. They had been due to walk out on a total of 31 days over summer in a dispute over pay. But the problems facing England’s NHS deepened as junior doctors announced the longest strike in health service history. Tensions escalated between the government and the British Medical Association as the union announced that doctors below consultant grade would strike for an unprecedented five days from 7am on July 13. For airport workers, the revised offer, which unions had recommended members accept, is for a 10% pay rise this year, backdated to January, which will increase by a further 1.5 percentage points to 11.5% from October. The previous offer had been a 10.1% salary increase for the whole year. Heathrow has also guaranteed its staff a pay rise for 2024 matching consumer price inflation, with a minimum increase of 4%. Unite had said the strikes, timed to coincide with the busiest days of summer leisure travel, were bound to disrupt flights, with one-day walkouts scheduled to continue until late August. Union general secretary Sharon Graham called the settlement a “hard-won victory”. Heathrow said it was pleased Unite’s members had accepted the offer. “We can now move forward together and focus on delivering an excellent summer for our passengers,” the airport said. <br/>
The workhorse plane of the future may look radically different to the familiar shape that has dominated the skies since the start of the jet age, according to Boeing, which is experimenting with a long, thin wing supported by struts from the fuselage. The US manufacturer hopes its new design can be among the technologies that will help the industry meet its target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050. Aviation accounts for more than 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions, almost half of which come from single-aisle aircraft such as Boeing’s 737 and European rival Airbus’s A320 that are largely used for shorter and medium-haul flights. This week’s Paris air show was dominated by orders for the latest models, which will be flying for another 25 years at least. But manufacturers are already shifting their focus to the technologies — like the unusual Boeing wing — that could replace today’s best-sellers. New generations of aircraft have typically consumed 15-20% less fuel than their predecessors, thanks largely to improved engines. Airbus’s single-aisle A321neo uses at least 20% less fuel per passenger than older planes, according to the company. With the next generation of planes, the stakes are much higher. Climate change presents a near-existential threat to commercial aviation. The industry has pledged to reduce its carbon emissions but not everyone is convinced the 2050 net zero target is achievable — a recent poll of industry executives by GE Aerospace found that 32% doubt it can be reached. Guillaume Faury, CE of Airbus, said this week that decarbonisation was one of the industry’s big challenges. It is going to be “very difficult” for the industry to keep growing and meet the 2050 target, Sir Tim Clark, president of Dubai-based Emirates Airlines told the Financial Times ahead of the show. Although the airline industry is already trying to mitigate its environmental impact in terms of its operations, “we as an airline community have to do more than we’ve done in the past”, he added.<br/>
When it comes to flying, going green may cost you more. And it's going to take a while for the strategy to take off. Sustainability was a hot topic this week at the Paris Air Show, the world’s largest event for the aviation industry, which faces increasing pressure to reduce the climate-changing greenhouse gases that aircraft spew. Even the massive orders at the show got a emissions-reduction spin: Airlines and manufacturers said the new planes will be more fuel-efficient than the ones they replace. But most of those planes will burn conventional, kerosene-based jet fuel. Startups are working feverishly on electric-powered aircraft, but they won't catch on as quickly as electric vehicles. “It's a lot easier to pack a heavy battery into a vehicle if you don't have to lift it off the ground,” said Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia University. That means sustainable aviation fuel has become the industry's best hope to achieve its promise of net zero emissions by 2050. Aviation produces 2% to 3% of worldwide carbon emissions, but its share is expected to grow as travel increases and other industries become greener. Sustainable fuel, however, accounts for just 0.1% of all jet fuel. Made from sources like used cooking oil and plant waste, SAF can be blended with conventional jet fuel but costs much more. Suppliers are “going to be able to kind of set the price," Molly Wilkinson, an American Airlines vice president, said at the air show. "And we fear that at that point, that price eventually is going to trickle down to the passenger in some form of a ticket price.” With such a limited supply, critics say airlines are making overly ambitious promises and exaggerating how quickly they can ramp up the use of SAF. The industry even has skeptics: Nearly one-third of aviation sustainability officers in a GE Aerospace survey doubt the industry will hit its net zero goal by 2050.<br/>
The clock is ticking on Boeing’s plan to hike output of its bestselling jet, as a key supplier heads back to the bargaining table in a labor dispute that has already shut down production of fuselage assemblies for the 737 Max. Boeing’s goal of raising build rates by almost a quarter to 38 jets a month by mid-year and then beyond was put in jeopardy on Thursday when Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. suspended factory work in Kansas, where employees build most of the narrowbody’s frame. About 6,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers rejected a four-year contract offer and voted overwhelmingly to strike. Spirit is due to restart negotiations on Saturday with union leaders who had backed the earlier deal and have since told workers that “the membership has been heard.” Spirit, once part of Boeing, sends the 737 hulls by rail to Seattle-area factories. While the planemaker has some spares, a production glitch in April that temporarily halted shipments from its former unit means Boeing may have a smaller buffer available than normal. “Our best guess is that a possible strike of even 2-3 weeks would start to impact BA’s 737 output,” Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr wrote in a research note. The main sticking points are maintaining health insurance coverage, Spirit’s onerous mandatory overtime policies and the length of the contract, said Cornell Beard, who heads District 70. Union members want a three-year deal instead of the four-year term in the management offer.<br/>