More than 1,000 US flights have been canceled Sunday, and more than 4,500 others have been delayed as of 9 p.m ET, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. Not all of the disruptions are due to Tropical Storm Hilary, but airlines have issued waivers specifically for the storm. Travelers are automatically entitled to a refund if their flight is canceled for any reason, according to Department of Transportation policy, but airlines have more leeway in the event of delays. The DOT has a dashboard that can help travelers unpack airlines' policies around delay compensation.<br/>
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US aviation regulators outlined inspections needed for potentially faulty parts on some of Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan engines that power Airbus’s best-selling A320neo model. The directive affects 20 engines on US-registered aircraft, according to a regulatory filing by the FAA on Friday. The impact on the worldwide fleet will be larger as other nations adopt the FAA’s requirements. Pratt, a unit of aerospace giant RTX Corp., said in July that 1,200 GTF engines must be removed and inspected over the next 12 months after the company discovered contamination in the powdered metal used to manufacture high-pressure turbine discs could shorten their life span. The company has said that the first 200 turbines will need accelerated removals by mid-September. Inspections of first- and second-stage high-pressure turbine discs will cost $8,500 each, according to the FAA’s airworthiness directive. Replacing any faulty discs will cost operators about $171,000 apiece. The costs could be substantial. Based on the FAA estimates, the total cost across the global fleet could exceed $400m if all 1,200 engines that need inspection were found to have flawed first and second-stage discs. The FAA cautioned that it could not determine how many will actually need replacement.<br/>
Brazil's government expects Congress to approve a series of energy transition-related bills in the next 100 days that it believes will boost the country's decarbonization credentials at the upcoming COP28 climate summit, an official told Reuters on Friday. Rodrigo Rollemberg, a secretary at Brazil's development ministry, said in an interview that the package of bills are set to include projects aimed at increasing the use of renewable fuels and regulating related sectors, such as offshore wind farms. That would allow the South American country to strengthen its "green" commitment as nations from all over the world prepare to gather in November and December in Dubai for yearly climate talks held by the United Nations. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who took office in January, has staked his international reputation on reversing environmental backsliding under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, when Amazon deforestation soared. Lula has pledged to halt illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest by 2030 and help drive an ecological transition led by renewable energy. Rollemberg said the government-sponsored bills would be focused on four main topics: establishing a new carbon market, regulating offshore wind power, launching the "Fuel of the Future" project and regulating green hydrogen. "They are all separate bills, but when put together there is a convergence towards sustainability that gives them economic support they otherwise would not have," Rollemberg said.<br/>
Airlines that break the law by not helping customers when flights are delayed or cancelled should be fined, consumer rights groups and online travel agents have said. In a letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, the consumer rights group Which? and leading online travel agents called for the aviation regulator to be given more powers to act amid flight cancellations. It comes after a summer of travel chaos due to strike action and the devastating effects of fires on Rhodes and other Greek islands. Travellers have found themselves out of pocket when routes are disrupted or abandoned. The letter to Sunak, co-signed by the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO), and online travel agents loveholidays, On the Beach and Thomas Cook, is calling for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to fine airlines directly if they fail in their legal duty to customers. Which? said that although airlines were not always directly responsible for problems that arise, they had a number of legal responsibilities to their customers that are frequently ignored. These include ensuring passengers are quickly rerouted – with a rival carrier if necessary – or refunded when their flight is cancelled and providing assistance such as adequate accommodation or meals depending on the length of the delay. Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said: “Thousands of passengers have been subjected to unfair and in some cases unlawful treatment by airlines - and enough is enough. We’re calling on the prime minister to show he is on the side of holidaymakers by giving the aviation regulator the power to issue substantial fines to airlines when they flout the law.” Which? said it had heard from countless travellers this year who felt let down by their airlines, or suffered poor customer service, with more than 1,000 consumers submitting evidence to an independent review of the CAA.<br/>
Passengers at Stansted Airport have been left stranded after a power failure affected the entire site, including trains to and from the airport. The site suffered a "power outage" in its terminal and train station on Sunday, officials said, leading to "ongoing disruption" and by the evening, trains were still unable to run to and from the airport. The situation sparked a flood of complaints from passengers on X - formerly Twitter - about the fallout of the situation, including queues for passport control, passengers being stuck on board planes that had landed, as well as passengers having to get off trains before reaching the airport. Others also criticised a lack of information or updates, saying it had added to an already-stressful situation. Images shared on social media echoed similar scenes at London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports in May, with frustrated passengers complaining of having to wait several hours in line due to border system issues.In an update at 5pm on Sunday, London Stansted Airport said: "Earlier today, we experienced a brief power outage in our terminal and train station. "Power has been restored, and we are working hard to get all systems up and running as quickly as possible, but we are experiencing some ongoing disruption and apologise to all those affected."<br/>
Singapore will work with China to increase direct flights between the two countries, as part of efforts to grow business and people-to-people ties, Acting Minister for Transport Chee Hong Tat said on Saturday. Speaking at a dinner event in Beijing marking Singapore’s National Day, Chee noted that a 15-day visa-free policy for Singaporeans entering China has resumed, while the accelerated resumption of all direct flights between the two countries was announced during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Singapore on Aug 10 and 11. “The Ministry of Transport will certainly want to facilitate and encourage more direct flights between our two countries,” said Chee, who is on a week-long trip to China. “We will work with our Chinese counterparts to try and see how we can move forward, and to have more direct flights to benefit our businesses and our people,” he told the audience at the event organised by the Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China. Singapore Airlines resumed direct flights to China in December 2022 and said earlier in August that it plans to increase the frequency of flights to key destinations including Beijing and Shanghai from March 2024. Airlines reportedly increased their monthly flights between Singapore and China from 160 in January to about 1,200 in June 2023.<br/>
Air cargo enjoyed record demand when COVID-19 closed borders and snarled supply chains. Now, it is reeling from overcapacity and tumbling freight rates as the freight boom makes a hard landing. Consumers who had the means to spend the lockdown shopping online for goods needing to be delivered, diverting budgets from restaurants and leisure, are travelling in ever-rising numbers. The result? Passenger jets grounded during the health crisis are flying again and bringing their lower-deck cargo space, which competes with dedicated air freighters, back into play. The switch in demand from goods back to services and the abrupt expansion in belly capacity on passenger planes have sliced about a third off cargo rates in the last year. Some pilots are leaving to fill passenger airline vacancies. And shipping is flowing again after congestion sent goods as mundane as jeans and bathtubs into the air during the pandemic. It's a perfect storm for the roughly $200b air cargo industry, which handles a third of global trade by value, industry executives and analysts say. Looking forward, shippers whose freight bills climbed in 2021, will have more bargaining power in upcoming winter price negotiations, Norwegian cargo analytics firm Xeneta said. That should ease inflationary pressure on high-value lightweight items from electronics to luxury goods that traditionally go by air. But it is bad news for cargo operators. "(They) are in for a rough ride. Shippers are spoiled with capacity, but they're not really utilising it because demand is not really there," Xeneta Chief Analyst Peter Sand told Reuters.<br/>
JetZero, which has won US Air Force backing to build a demonstrator for a futuristic aircraft, expects a projected 50% cut in fuel consumption to open the doors of the airline industry as well the Pentagon, its CE said. The US Air Force on Wednesday announced a $235 million contract for the California startup to develop a "blended wing body" demonstrator, named because its wings merge seamlessly with the curvaceous fuselage, reducing drag. The concept has been around since the 1940s but has attracted renewed attention because of its efficient elliptical shape, saving fuel and boosting range. The demonstrator is expected to fly in 2027 and could influence the design of future military cargo jets and aerial refuelers. The Air Force hopes to begin buying a next-generation tanker in the mid-2030s and has its eyes on designs that could offer greater range and stealth needed in the Asia-Pacific. While military contracts could offer JetZero a chance to break into aircraft production, it also eyes a much-touted gap in the civil market between medium- and long-haul jets, where its 200-250 seat aircraft will sit, CEO Tom O'Leary said. Boeing abandoned a "middle of the market" plane project in 2022, saying the case did not work. Airbus has focused on expanding smaller models. In an interview, O'Leary said this would not deter JetZero and its radical design.<br/>
While noting a strong traffic and profitability recovery among airlines, lessor BOC Aviation expects supply chain challenges to continue slowing aircraft deliveries. In half-year call with investors, BOC Aviation chief financial officer Steven Townsend said that conditions continue to improve at the lessor’s airline customers, driven by a growing passenger business and rising ticket prices. Moreover, headwinds have eased somewhat in the first six months of 2023, chiefly the cost of fuel. High interest rates, however, increase costs for airlines and BOC Aviation itself, although these are offset by improving revenues. “While rebounding more slowly than originally anticipated, growth in China’s outbound passenger flows should sustain the Asia-Pacific market’s impetus over the balance of this year and into 2024,” says Townsend. “The number of domestic flights now exceed 2019 levels, while international and regional flight numbers were at 53% of those as at end-July – up from less than 10% at the beginning of the year. ”We expect this renewed activity to be reflected in Chinese airlines’ aircraft orders and their demand for leased aircraft, especially following the expansion of permissible countries to which Chinese can travel from 60 to 138, announced last week.” But BOC Aviation chief operating officer Tom Chandler warns that aircraft delivery delays continue to be an issue: the lessor saw deliveries of twelve aircraft originally scheduled for the first six months of 2023 pushed back to the second half. Of those aircraft delivered in the first half a “significant number” only arrived in June, he says.<br/>