A US government probe has found flaws in airport fast-track service Clear Secure Inc.’s process for speeding customers through security lines, leaving the company to defend its business against the agency responsible for guarding the country’s skies. The TSA investigation into Clear’s methods determined its facial-recognition system to enroll new members was vulnerable to abuse, said people familiar with the review, who asked not to be identified discussing security-sensitive information. The computer-generated photos of prospective customers at times captured blurry images that only showed chins and foreheads, or faces obscured by surgical masks and hoodies. The process — which allowed Clear employees to manually verify prospective customers’ identities after its facial recognition system raised flags — created the potential for human error. That’s how, last year in July, a man slipped through Clear’s screening lines at Reagan National Airport near Washington, before a government scan detected ammunition — which is banned in the cabin — in his possession. When police were called in to investigate, officials discovered something altogether more troubling: the man had almost managed to board a flight under a false identity. The security scare, the details of which haven’t been previously revealed, set in motion an extensive TSA investigation into Clear’s methods, which the company says it has since changed. The probe has culminated in a high-stakes face-off between the agency and the publicly listed company. The dispute could threaten Clear’s business proposition: speeding people through airports. In total, the TSA raised concerns about almost 49,000 Clear customers who were enrolled despite facial-recognition software flagging them as non-matches, and concluded its broader methods were inherently inferior to how the government checks travelers’ IDs, the people said. Enrollment photos seen by Bloomberg in some cases didn’t show a face at all and instead, for example, a shoulder and ceiling.<br/>
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The FAA intends to tweak its certification process to require manufacturers to specifically inform the agency about “safety critical” items. The FAA has long required companies, during the process of achieving certification for new transport aircraft, to include “safety critical information” in initial certification plans. But in a notice released by the US government on 26 July, the FAA says such information is often not “clearly demarcated as safety critical”. “The FAA plans to… provide guidance for applicants to delineate safety critical information,” it adds. The change marks the FAA’s response to provisions in a 2020 law under which the FAA must require companies to be more forthcoming with details about systems and designs that could cause significant safety hazards. The law responded to the FAA’s perceived inadequate oversight of Boeing’s 737 Max certification – specifically its review the jet’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, which sent two Max 8s into dives from which the pilots could not recover. The law defines “safety critical information” as including designs and systems that, without pilot input, could command changes to “the flight path or airspeed of an airplane”. Other examples include failures that can have “hazardous or catastrophic” effects. Under the law, the FAA must require such information from both applications for new type certificates and for holders of existing certificates. Companies that discover new safety risks must report those to the FAA. The agency is accepting public comments about the regulatory changes, which come as Boeing is working to achieve FAA certification for its 737 Max 7 and Max 10.<br/>
The European Union will shrink the supply added to its carbon market next year, as it presses ahead with reforms to strengthen Europe's main policy for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, the European Commission said on Friday. The EU carbon market requires power plants, industrial facilities and airlines to buy CO2 permits when they pollute - providing a financial incentive to emit less planet-warming carbon dioxide. The EU caps the total number of permits added to the market each year. That cap decreases each year, to make sure emissions gradually decrease. A total of 1,386b CO2 permits will be added to the EU carbon market next year, the Commission said, down from the 1.486b permits added this year. EU countries agreed reforms to strengthen the carbon market last year to deliver climate change goals, including by shrinking the supply of permits in the scheme faster. The reforms will also impose two extra, one-off cuts to the supply of permits, the first in 2024. Next year will also see the EU force ships to buy CO2 permits for the first time. Next year's supply includes 78.4m new CO2 permits that will be added to the market to reflect the inclusion of the shipping sector, the Commission said. Analysts expect carbon prices to increase in the coming years as the tougher reforms kick in and CO2-emitting companies compete to buy a smaller pool of permits.<br/>
Travellers determined to take to the skies despite soaring ticket prices have pushed airline profits to fresh heights, as resilient consumer spending buoys the global economy. As they reported record profits on Friday, British Airways-owner IAG said trips across the Atlantic and to leisure destinations had been particularly popular “as customers prioritise holidays”, while Air France-KLM said high-spending holidaymakers were filling business class cabins. The strong bookings — reported as temperatures hit new records and the UN secretary-general warned of “global boiling” — defied a sharp rise in air fares, which have risen about 30% in Europe this year. In the US, United reported a 42% increase in revenue from flights to Europe in the latest quarter compared with the same period last year while Delta reported a 65% surge in sales of transatlantic flights. “Consumer spending has remained resilient with spend on experiences and travel remaining a focus,” said Mastercard chief executive Michael Miebach this week as the payments company reported that cross-border spending by its card users had reached 154% of 2019 levels in Q2. Royal Caribbean, one of the world’s largest cruise lines, on Thursday said its business was “firing on all cylinders” because of “exceptionally strong” demand for cruises and a “step change” in bookings and prices. Consumers’ willingness to spend in the face of higher prices and rising interest rates is raising hopes of the US avoiding a recession. US GDP growth accelerated to a better-than-expected 2.4% in Q2, with a 1.6% rise in consumer spending also surpassing expectations. From Colgate-Palmolive to Coca-Cola, companies have this week reassured investors that the “resilient consumer” is still spending. UK cinemas have been at their busiest for four years as Barbie and Oppenheimer hit the screens last week. In the US, cinemas had their strongest opening weekends this year. Although many households have retrenched, and the poorest have been hit hard by soaring food and energy costs, consumption has held up better than many had expected in the US, UK and eurozone.<br/>
The Sudanese civil aviation authority extended the closure of Sudan's airspace until Aug. 15, except for humanitarian aid and evacuation flights, Khartoum International Airport said in a statement early on Monday. Sudanese airspace was closed to regular traffic after a military conflict erupted between the country's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in mid-April.<br/>
Drones hit two office towers in Moscow’s prestigious business district and prompted the temporary closure of one of the city’s international airports during an overnight attack that Russia blamed on Ukraine. Two drones that hit buildings in the Moscow City development were brought down using electronic jamming, while a third was shot down by air defenses in Moscow region, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a Telegram statement Sunday. Ukraine hasn’t commented. Vnukovo airport halted operations for several hours before later resuming work, the state-run Tass news service reported. It’s the second time this month that flights at the airport have been disrupted over a drone assault, following an incident on July 4. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Tass. Moscow has faced a series of strikes including on the Kremlin by unmanned aircraft in recent months as Russia keeps up a barrage of missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities as part of its faltering invasion. In May, the Defense Ministry said it downed eight drones during an attack on Moscow that prompted Putin to demand stronger air defenses around the capital. <br/>
China and France welcome the recent trial certification of an Airbus helicopter and aircraft, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng said at the China-France economic and financial dialogue in Beijing on Saturday. He also said China appreciates France’s decision to extend 5G licences in some cities to Huawei. China will also support coordination of civil aviation departments to restore airline connectivity between both countries, He said.<br/>
A new biometric identification system using the facial features of travelers now substitutes for passports at Incheon International Airport, Korea's largest international air hub. The enhanced identification process started being used on July 27, the Incheon International Airport Corp. said, Friday. The new service, dubbed "Smartpass," enables the quick and efficient identification of passengers at departure and boarding gates at the airport without having to present their passports or boarding passes, according to IIAC. The service has been implemented across all departure gates and 16 boarding gates at the airport as of Friday. "We expect the timely introduction of the smart pass service (for outbound travels) to greatly help ease congestion caused at the airport for the peak summer season," IIAC President Lee Hag-jae said during the launching ceremony, Friday. "The IIAC will continue to improve convenience for passengers through the introduction of cutting-edge technology." For the time being, the service is available only for passengers flying with Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, Jeju Air, Jin Air, T-way Air and Delta Air Lines. The airport has plans for full integration of the document-free system by April 2025, extending the service to passengers of all airlines.<br/>
Boeing has pushed back its expected first 737 Max 7 delivery until next year, marking continuation of its struggle to get the long-delayed aircraft into customers’ hands. “We continue to expect the 737-7 to be certified in 2023, and now expect first delivery in 2024,” says a Boeing securities document filed on 26 July. Boeing had previously anticipated that in 2023 it would both secure the Max 7’s certification from the Federal Aviation Administration, and begin delivering the type. The jet’s entry into passenger service has been repeatedly delayed since its first flight in March 2018. The delays came amid the grounding of the 737 Max 8 and Max 9, and then amid the Covid-19 downturn. Boeing has been working the get both the Max 7 (the smallest member of the Max family) and the Max 10 (the largest) through certification at a time when the FAA – responding to two Max crashes – significantly stepped up its scrutiny of certification programmes. Boeing on 26 July said it expects the 737 Max 10 will “begin FAA certification flight testing in 2023, with first delivery in 2024”. That timeline is unchanged since Boeing’s last update in April.<br/>
Snazzy new liveries have been revealed for two of NASA's hottest aircraft projects. These upcoming planes want to be the next generation of sustainable flight - and also to look good when doing it. First there's the X-66A, which NASA has been cooking up along with Boeing as part of its Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project. The US aerospace behemoths want to build, test and fly an emission-reducing, single-aisle aircraft before the decade is out. The X-66A is the full-scale demonstrator on which they'll be doing all that. "It's our goal that NASA's partnership with Boeing to produce and test a full-scale demonstrator will help lead to future commercial airliners that are more fuel efficient, with benefits to the environment, the commercial aviation industry, and to passengers worldwide, " said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in January. "If we are successful, we may see these technologies in planes that the public takes to the skies in the 2030s." The design that NASA and Boeing are working on could reduce fuel consumption and emissions by up to 30 percent compared with today's most efficient aircraft, according to the agency. It's called the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing concept, which relies on elongated, thin wings stabilised by diagonal struts that connect the wings to the aircraft. The design's shape creates less drag, which means burning less fuel. The new livery was unveiled at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh and features a white body with a blue, orange and red striped tail. "This is an experimental aircraft," Bob Pearce, NASA associate administrator for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, said in January. "This is not a commercial development of an aircraft that passengers are going to fly in today. And the reason we need to do this is because this is high-risk technology. We're trying to validate technology."<br/>