Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday set out Germany's ambitions to become a strategic production centre for sustainable jet fuel and to lure future investment to build on its importance as one of Airbus' (AIR.PA) main planemaking centres. Earlier this month, the European Parliament adopted a deal to set binding targets for airlines in Europe to increase their use of sustainable aviation fuels, or SAFs, which have net zero or lower CO2 emissions than the fossil fuel kerosene. On Monday, German energy firm HH2E announced a joint venture with logistics giant DHL and South Africa's Sasol to explore hydrogen-powered SAF production in Germany. Airbus is considering joining the consortium to use the fuel, HH2E said. Scholz told delegates at the National Aviation Conference in Hamburg on Monday the EU targets would be challenging for companies and that it was crucial they did not distort competition in the event other non-EU countries have less rigorous targets. "We have committed ourselves in Germany to the market ramp-up of these fuels," he said. Referring to the risk of high-emission industries leaving Europe for less regulated regions, he also said Germany was advocating for rules to detect carbon leakage at an early stage. Industry leaders such as Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr, have said reaching the EU targets is not possible on the basis of current SAF production, which is a small fraction of airlines' fuel.<br/>
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Gatwick airport has been forced to cancel more than 160 flights and impose a cap on its operations for the rest of the week because of air traffic control staff shortages. London’s second-busiest airport on Monday said it would impose a restriction of 800 flights per day for the rest of the week because of sickness and other “staffing constraints” in its control tower. The airport said it would be forced to cancel 164 flights because of the unusual cap, but said it hoped to avoid last-minute cancellations and delays for passengers as a result. “This has been a difficult decision but the action we have taken today means our airlines can fly reliable flight programmes,” said Stewart Wingate, Gatwick’s CE. Gatwick subcontracts operations in its control tower to NATS, the UK’s main air traffic manager. NATS said 30% of its staff were unavailable “for a variety of medical reasons”, including Covid-19. “Given the levels of sickness we have experienced over the last few weeks, we believe it is the responsible thing to do to limit the number of flights this week,” NATS said. The air traffic management group has been struggling with staff shortages for much of the summer, and has also been under scrutiny since a technical failure in its systems caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights across the UK during the late August bank holiday. More than one-quarter of inbound and outbound UK flights were cancelled and many more delayed, after air traffic controllers restricted the number of aircraft arriving at and leaving UK airports because of the glitch. Ryanair CE Michael O’Leary has called for the dismissal of the head of NATS, Martin Rolfe, while easyJet boss Johan Lundgren has criticised the “persistent” staff shortages that have “let down customers all summer”. NATS said it was training new controllers “as fast as possible” but it took nine months to train even experienced staff to work at Gatwick because of its complex airspace.<br/>
Israel's Foreign Ministry said on Monday it expects the United States to announce this week that it will be admitted to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which would allow Israeli citizens visa-free entry to America as of November. The deadline for Israel to show compliance with the U.S. conditions is Sept. 30. If successful, it would offer a win for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's religious-nationalist government, whose relations with Washington have been strained over its plans to overhaul the judiciary as well as over its policies towards the Palestinians. "Israel joining the Visa Waiver Program is a diplomatic achievement and good news for all Israeli citizens," said Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Monday that a final decision on Israel's candidacy had not been made. "The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, will make a determination in the coming days," the spokesperson said. For admission to the program, Washington requires countries to treat all U.S. travellers equally, regardless of whatever other passports they may hold. In Israel's case, that would mean free passage for Palestinian Americans at its airports and when travelling into and out of the occupied Palestinian territories. Some Palestinians have protested at Israel's entry into the VWP, citing what they say are decades of discriminatory treatment of Arab Americans and harassment at Israel's borders.<br/>
After a strong summer, China’s travel market is about to get another boost as the Golden Week holiday arrives. More than 21m people are expected to take flights in the space of eight days — the equivalent of almost everyone in Australia getting on a plane in a little over a week. The Sept. 29-Oct. 6 holiday encompasses both Mid-Autumn festival and the National Day break, which doesn’t always happen as the date of the former depends on the lunar calendar. The extra day is a bonus after the population was essentially denied the opportunity to travel during the years of Covid-19. “More than 21m passengers will travel by air during the holiday period,” Jin Junhao, a deputy director at the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at a briefing in Beijing on Sept. 15. Just domestically, there will be some 14,000 domestic flights a day, according to the regulator. With Chinese tourists racing to book flights, airfares are climbing — by more than double on some of the more popular routes. Air China economy-class tickets from Beijing to Chengdu on Sept. 29 are listed at 1,800 yuan ($250), compared with 680 yuan for Sept. 22. Long-haul international flights such as Shanghai-Sydney are also double or more than fares later in October. Higher fares to some degree reflect the growing popularity of some of China’s more far-flung destinations, made more appealing by the longer holiday, online travel agency Tongcheng said in a report. Places such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Ningxia and Heilongjiang in the far northeast are among the most popular. There are more than 10 times the number of searches for Xinjiang-related travel packages than a year ago, according to the report.<br/>
Chinese tourists landing in Bangkok got a VIP welcome on Monday, as Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin personally greeted the first batch of visitors to arrive in Thailand after it waived visas for Chinese nationals to boost the key tourism industry. Dancers in traditional costumes and puppeteers put on performances for the bemused visitors, who came in on a flight from Shanghai. Many stopped to take selfies with Srettha. Tourism is a crucial driver of Southeast Asia's second-largest economy, known for its picturesque beaches and vibrant nightlife, and reviving an industry that was hard hit by the pandemic is one of the priorities of newly elected Srettha, who inherited an underperforming economy. China's own post-pandemic economic woes, however, have meant fewer tourists from what was once Thailand's biggest market are flying in, a situation Srettha hopes the visa waiver can help fix. "We are confident this policy will stimulate the economy," the prime minister told reporters at Suvarnabhumi airport, adding that tourist safety will be prioritised. The visa waiver programme runs from Sept. 25 until February next year. The government expects 2.88m Chinese visitors during that 5-month period, slightly higher than the 2.34m Chinese who have visited this year.<br/>
The head of the UK’s aviation regulator has called for the creation of a global common standard for flying taxis, as he forecast that air travel was on the brink of a “new revolution”. Sir Stephen Hillier, chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, said the travel industry is at an “inflection point” and needs global co-operation ahead of the “widespread” adoption of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) designed to carry passengers on short trips. His comments come after UK airspace struggled to cope with conventional passenger jets during a summer of delays compounded by the failure of the country’s air traffic control system over the August bank holiday, which grounded hundreds of aircraft and delayed thousands of passengers. The CAA has launched an investigation into the outage, which Hillier said would look at the “systemic issues” raised by the failure at the operator, National Air Traffic Services, the resilience of air traffic control and the modernisation of UK airspace. But he added that it was right to prepare to regulate new technologies, which will force the UK’s already dated airspace to adapt to new forms of air travel. “The lessons [of the Nats failure] . . . will help inform how we take forward aerospace modernisation,” he said. Investors around the world have committed billions of dollars to the dream of “urban air mobility” but it has taken longer than expected for flying taxis to become a reality, with companies struggling to overcome technical and operational challenges. The next 18 months will be critical for the industry as several start-ups accelerate their test programmes in the hope of receiving certification for their vehicles from as early as next year. Germany’s Volocopter wants to be the first to fly commercially in Europe as early as next summer, in time for the Paris Olympics. The UK government has set a target date of 2026 for having a craft licensed, but Hillier rejected concerns from some in the aviation industry that the UK is falling behind.<br/>
The Air Force said on Monday that it had received its first electric passenger aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically, a milestone for the companies that hope to one day sell thousands of such vehicles to serve as air taxis. Joby Aviation, an air taxi start-up, delivered the aircraft to Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, where the first supersonic flight took place. Air taxis are typically powered by batteries and designed to lift off and land like helicopters, but include wings to fly like airplanes. Joby, which is based in Santa Cruz, Calif., said that its electric aircraft is substantially quieter than helicopters or planes. Each can carry one pilot and four passengers and travel as fast as 200 miles per hour and as far as 100 miles, according to the company. The delivery is the first under an Air Force contract that Joby said was valued at up to $131m and gives the government the option to receive up to nine aircraft. The Air Force and Joby will operate the vehicle, but Joby will still own the aircraft and receive both fixed and variable payments for hours flown. NASA, which has a facility at the base, will also conduct research on the vehicle. The Air Force has signed similar contracts with other air taxi companies under a program called Agility Prime, part of a broader effort to promote innovation. Agility Prime’s mission is to support development of air taxis and similar technology, giving the Air Force a head start in exploring how it might use such aircraft while also providing financial and testing support to the air taxi companies.<br/>
Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday set out Germany's ambitions to become a strategic production centre for sustainable jet fuel and to lure future investment to build on its importance as one of Airbus' main planemaking centres. Earlier this month, the European Parliament adopted a deal to set binding targets for airlines in Europe to increase their use of sustainable aviation fuels, or SAFs, which have net zero or lower CO2 emissions than the fossil fuel kerosene. On Monday, German energy firm HH2E announced a joint venture with logistics giant DHL and South Africa's Sasol to explore hydrogen-powered SAF production in Germany. Airbus is considering joining the consortium to use the fuel, HH2E said. Scholz told delegates at the National Aviation Conference in Hamburg on Monday the EU targets would be challenging for companies and that it was crucial they did not distort competition in the event other non-EU countries have less rigorous targets. "We have committed ourselves in Germany to the market ramp-up of these fuels," he said. Referring to the risk of high-emission industries leaving Europe for less regulated regions, he also said Germany was advocating for rules to detect carbon leakage at an early stage. Industry leaders such as Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr, have said reaching the EU targets is not possible on the basis of current SAF production, which is a small fraction of airlines' fuel. Scholz also said Germany was targeting investment for a potential new plane to replace the Airbus single-aisle A320. "We would like to see further investment in aviation - not just in Hamburg, but throughout Germany, as part of the successor to the Airbus A320," he said. Hamburg is home to the company's best-selling A320 family as part of a historic worksharing agreement with France, where the Franco-German-led planemaker has its headquarters. The two countries have quarrelled in the past over industrial share.<br/>
It will be a challenge for companies to meet the European Union’s new targets for the use of sustainable aviation fuels, or SAFs, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at an industry conference on Monday. “We have committed ourselves in Germany to the market ramp-up of these fuels,” he said in Hamburg, according to a transcript of his speech. Earlier this month, the European Parliament adopted a deal to set binding targets for airlines in Europe to increase their use of SAFs, which have net-zero CO2 emissions or lower CO2 emissions than the fossil fuel kerosene. Industry representatives, including Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr, have warned that reaching the targets will not be possible with today’s production, with SAFs currently making up just a fraction of airlines’ fuel.<br/>
German logistics giant DHL is teaming up with energy firm HH2E and South African petrochemicals firm Sasol on the expansion of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production in Germany, HH2E said on Monday. The companies have signed an agreement to set up a joint initiative to build potential production capacities for SAFs based on green hydrogen, or eSAFs, somewhere in eastern Germany, HH2E said in a statement. They plan production of at least 200,000 tonnes per year, with the potential to scale up to 500,000 tonnes per year, it added. Aircraft manufacturer Airbus also intends to join the consortium to use the jet fuel, according to the statement. The agreement came as industry met in Hamburg for the National Aviation Conference, where German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke of the importance of expanding SAF production in order to meet EU climate targets. The companies' goal is to realise an eSAF production in Germany by 2030, the statement said, adding that they would immediately specify the technical and financial planning, as well as the financing and definition of the regulatory framework.<br/>