United Airlines is cutting daily flights at its Newark Liberty International hub amid ongoing disruptions, and the lower volume of departures is expected to persist next summer as the company works to alleviate congestion. United, which handles 57% of passengers at the New Jersey airport, will trim daily flights to 390 in August from the roughly 410 it had been operating this summer, executives said Thursday during a conference call to discuss quarterly financial results. The carrier historically has operated 435 flights a day at Newark. The airport is critical for United because it’s the airline’s largest hub for international departures and a primary gateway for domestic flights. Delays or cancellations there can ripple across the airline’s entire network. This summer, Newark’s operations have been snarled by storms, congestion and a shortage of air traffic controllers. “We’re now doing more than ever to mitigate the impact of weather, congestion and other infrastructure constraints at Newark and, frankly, to build a schedule at Newark that’s more manageable given the frequency of weather events and the very real operating constraints that exist there, even on blue sky days,” CEO Scott Kirby said on a conference call Thursday. The airline has been working with the FAA and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on changes to help reduce cancellations and delays, he said, adding that some steps already have been taken. United is also adding six gates and improving crew scheduling and other technology in its operations.<br/>
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United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has acknowledged that the carrier's pilots are shunning promotion to the captain's chair, hurting its flight capacity in the fourth quarter, confirming what Reuters reported earlier this week. Multiple pilots at United told Reuters that senior first officers have been avoiding promotion to captain as they do not want the unpredictable schedule that comes with the bigger paycheck, creating headaches for the Chicago-based company. "It's the first time that I've ever known it to happen in the airline industry," Kirby said in response to a question on the company's earnings call on Thursday. "It is going to impact capacity in the fourth quarter." A first officer helps navigate and operate flights, but a captain is the pilot in command of the plane and is responsible for its safety. Airlines cannot fly their planes without a captain in the cockpit. At United, bids for 978 captain vacancies, or about 50% of the vacancies posted, have gone unfilled in the past year, United pilot union data shows. In June, 96 of 198 openings went unfilled. Currently, United has about 5,900 captains and 7,500 first officers, according to union data. United's pilots blame current work rules for making senior first officers reluctant to take promotions. Pilots told Reuters they can be forced to accept assignments on days off and that trips can be changed or extended "on a whim."<br/>
Canada's largest airline has inked a deal seeking to bring in more lower-carbon aviation fuel from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide by 2025, Air Canada and its partner company told Reuters on Thursday as efforts to reduce airplane emissions accelerate. Air Canada will work with New York-based Air Company, which produces the fuel, to explore potential options for production of so-called "power-to-liquid" sustainable aviation fuel in Canadian regions, including Quebec, to expand development of the fuel in North America. Air Company has already partnered with JetBlue, Virgin Atlantic and Boom Supersonic, which have collectively agreed to purchase more than one billion gallons of the fuel. Air Canada and Air Company did not outline if there were financial terms to their agreement. Air Company, founded in 2019, makes sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, by taking power from renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen, which then combines with captured carbon dioxide. Investments to produce SAF, more typically made from biomass such as used cooking oil and animal fat, have grown in recent years as governments bolster efforts to fight climate change. The aviation industry, which represents some 2% to 3% of total emissions, is known as one of the hardest to decarbonize. With new engine technology not expected before the next decade, the near-term focus is on developing more environmentally friendly fuels. The United States produces around 24.7b gallons of petroleum-based jet fuel annually. By comparison, President Joe Biden's administration has targeted 3b gallons of SAF production per year in the United States by 2030. <br/>
Air India has finalised an order for over 800 CFM International Leap-series engines to power its incoming fleet of new narrowbodies. At the recent Paris air show, the carrier firmed tentative commitments, unveiled in February, for 210 Airbus A320neo-familiy aircraft, alongside 190 Boeing 737 Max jets. The Leap-1A is an option on the A320neo, while the -1B is the exclusive powerplant for the Max. In addition, the two companies signed a multi-year services agreement to cover the entire Leap engine fleet. Air India has been a CFM customer since 2002, when the airline began operating Airbus A320ceo aircraft powered by CFM56-5B engines. It took delivery of its first Leap-powered A320neo in 2017 and now operates 27 examples of the re-engined narrowbody. “The introduction on a greater scale of the Leap engine, as well as our services agreement, will help us to optimise our operations in terms of environmental footprint and operational cost, while benefiting our customers,” says Campbell Wilson, Air India CE.<br/>