US airlines are preparing for their busiest Independence Day travel period since the beginning of the global Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. The nation’s commercial jets are typically packed on the days before and after the 4 July holiday, a period that typically serves as a bellwether for the strength of the summer air travel season. Chicago-based United Airlines said on 22 June that it expects to fly “nearly 5m people” between 30 June and 9 July. United’s number of bookings during the period are 12% higher than in 2022, and “nearly equal” to pre-pandemic levels, it says. “Friday, June 30 will be the busiest day… with more than 500,000 customers expected to fly United.” US airlines have recently suffered widespread operational disruptions, but United insists its network ”is built to run well and recover fast, and we expect our operation to reflect that through the peak summer season”. Fort Worth-headquartered American Airlines, meantime, also says 30 June will be its busiest day of the week, with 5,800 flights scheduled. Because the holiday falls on a Tuesday this year, American expects “higher than usual demand the following weekend, suggesting more customers are taking the full week for their trip”. “American expects to welcome nearly 3m customers across more than 26,000 scheduled flights” between 30 June and 4 July – “a schedule that’s nearly 25% larger than our closest competitor,” the company says. A third major US airline, Delta Air Lines, did not immediately respond to a request for information about its planned operations for the weekend. <br/>
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More than 7,800 flights across the United States were delayed or canceled Monday after powerful storms ripped through the parts of the country, mainly in the Southeast and the Ohio Valley. Data from FlightAware showed that on Monday evening, 6,196 flights within, into or out of the US were delayed and another 1,674 were canceled. United Airlines was faring the worst of the American domestic airlines. About 10% of its schedule, or 314 flights, was canceled and another 17%, or 853 flights, was delayed as of 6 pm ET. Delta (DAL) wasn’t far behind, with 6% (216 flights) of its schedule canceled and 24% (845 flights) delayed. Two commuter airlines also had their schedules disrupted. Republic Airways, which operates short-haul flights for American Airlines, Delta and United, had 30% of its schedule canceled (300 flights) and 23% (233 flights) delayed. Endeavor Air, a Delta-owned carrier, experienced a similar number of delays and cancellations. The delays and cancellations come after thunderstorms battered parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and the Ohio Valley Sunday evening, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.<br/>
Personal information for more than 8,000 applicants to become pilots at American Airlines and Southwest Airlines was stolen when hackers broke into a data base maintained by a recruiting company. The breach at Austin, Texas-based Pilot Credentials occurred April 30, and the airlines learned about it on May 3. They notified affected job seekers last week. According to letters that the airlines were required to file with regulators in Maine, hackers gained access to names, birth dates, Social Security and passport numbers, and driver and pilot-license numbers of applicants for pilot and cadet jobs. According to filings, 5,745 applicants to American and 3,009 at Southwest were affected, many of whom were hired by the airlines. The Allied Pilots Association, which represents pilots at American, said 2,200 of its members were affected by the breach. Spokesman Dennis Tajer said the union is upset that American knew about the breach for more than seven weeks before it notified victims. American said it had no evidence that the information was used for fraud or identity theft, but it offered each applicant two years of coverage from a service designed to protect people from identity theft. The airlines said that since the breach, they have run their recruitment work through websites that they run instead of relying on an another company. Fort Worth, Texas-based American and Dallas-based Southwest say they are working with a law enforcement investigation.<br/>
Istanbul Airport on Sunday set a new record in terms of daily passenger numbers, the airport operator said Monday. More than 250,000 passengers traveled on Sunday through the airport aboard over 1,500 flights, "a passenger record of all times," the statement said. The record was broken during the Eid al-Adha holiday in Türkiye, which was extended to nine days this year from June 24, instead of the traditional four days. Istanbul Airport ranked one of the busiest airports in the world last year, according to a report published by the Airports Council International World.<br/>
Hong Kong is poised to allow airport check-in services in the heart of the city again, according to people familiar with the matter, reviving a system that epitomized the financial hub’s convenience and efficiency before its Covid isolation. After being cordoned off for more than three years, check-in counters at Hong Kong Station are expected to open as soon as July 5, the people said, enabling some airline passengers to drop off their luggage downtown at any point during the day of their flight and then collect it at their final destination. A decision hasn’t been made on restarting check-in at Kowloon and Tsing Yi stations, the people said, asking not to be identified because discussions are private. In-town check-in was suspended in April 2020 as Hong Kong imposed strict curbs on international travel, including weeks of mandatory quarantine in designated facilities for anyone flying in. Even though Hong Kong dropped its last Covid restrictions months ago, a shortage of workers has prevented train operator MTR Corp. and the airport from restarting the bag-drop service. Cathay Pacific Airways and the Airport Authority deferred to the MTR to comment. In an emailed response, MTR said it “has been liaising and working with airline partners on the resumption of ITCI service.” Hong Kong is one of only a few places in the world that have in-town check-in — others include Taipei and Kuala Lumpur. Restarting the service will lift one of the last vestiges of the pandemic from a city that persisted with Covid restrictions longer than most — a policy that damaged its reputation as a freewheeling, easy-to-navigate financial hub. Visitor numbers are still way off pre-pandemic levels.<br/>
A delegation led by Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison will launch a marketing campaign and meet airlines and travel service providers in China this week in a bid to attract Chinese tourists. Later this week at an event in Chengdu, capital city of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Tourism Australia will formally launch its Come and Say G’day Campaign, featuring mascot Ruby the Roo, according to News Corp Australia. It comes as the industry said seat capacity on flights between Australia and China rose to about 54% of 2019 levels in recent months. Harrison said the delegation will take part in meetings with major airlines and travel providers, showing Australia’s commitment to working with partners to strengthen aviation capacity between the two countries and get travel bookings to Australia back to the levels seen in the past.<br/>
Preliminary flight paths have been released for Western Sydney Airport (WSI), along with an online tool to let residents see the impact on their location. The flight paths, which will be subject to a formal planning and consultation period later this year, have been designed for WSI’s single initial runway. They include reciprocal runway operations (RRO), where planes arrive and depart from the same direction, to minimise noise at night when traffic permits. During the day, aircraft will use Runway 05 (approaching from the southwest and departing to the northeast) or Runway 23 (approaching from the northeast and departing to the southwest) depending on prevailing wind conditions. At night (11pm to 5:30am), when weather conditions are suitable and there is lower traffic demand, the airport will have the option of RRO, with all aircraft approaching from and departing to the southwest. This will minimise the impact of aircraft noise on more densely-populated areas of Western Sydney. According to Federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King, a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is coming later this year, with community information and feedback to be conducted across Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains in coming months. Additionally, the Government has released an interactive Overflight Noise Tool that will allow residents to search by address or location, giving information such as daily aircraft numbers, expected altitude, and predicted noise levels.<br/>
Airbus is linking with alternative fuels specialist LanzaJet to accelerate certification and take-up of 100% sustainable fuels, to eliminate the need for fossil-fuel power on current aircraft types. The co-operation will also support the establishment of sustainable fuel facilities which will use LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet technology. LanzaJet’s process involves low-carbon ethanol which is dehydrated to ethylene, and then used to form longer carbon-chain molecules, during which a refinement procedure enables the production of either jet fuel or diesel. Airbus says the process generates sustainable fuel that cuts emissions by more than 70% compared with fossil fuels, and overall emissions can be trimmed further with the use of carbon-reduction technology. This alcohol-to-jet process and the resulting drop-in fuel produced are already approved as being compatible with current fleets and infrastructure. Airbus’s new agreement with LanzaJet – the subject of a memorandum of understanding – will “advance” the building of facilities to use the process. The co-operation also intends to bring forward “certification and adoption” of the drop-in fuel. “We are committed to supporting sustainable aviation fuel as a major lever in the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions on the decarbonisation roadmap,” says Airbus corporate affairs and sustainability executive vice-president Julie Kitcher. She says the co-operation will support advancement of fuel production “at scale”. LanzaJet chief Jimmy Samartzis adds that the agreement is an “important step” given that sustainable fuel is the “best near-term solution” to cutting aviation emissions.<br/>