IATA’s safety chief has expressed concern about a shortfall in the number of final accident reports being published in line with ICAO Annex 13 standards, noting that recommendations from such inquiries are invaluable for improving air safety. Mark Searle, IATA’s global safety director, says that the airline industry continues to provide an extremely safe travel experience for passengers. He points to IATA’s mid-year accident figures, which show an improvement over 2023. “Everything in the safety report seems to be showing that we’re trending in the right direction,” says Searle, who spoke with FlightGlobal at the recent World Safety & Operations Conference in Hanoi. One challenge that IATA has identified, however, is that governments are failing to provide timely safety reports in line with ICAO Annex 13 guidance. This calls for the state leading an accident investigation to release a preliminary report within 30 days of the occurrence, and a final report, which includes safety recommendations, as soon as possible, ideally within 12 months. Accident investigations were the subject of a panel discussion at the conference. Rafael Rastrello, head of safety at LATAM Airlines, gave a presentation on the issue, disclosing that of 242 accidents between 2018 and mid-year 2023, just 113, or 47%, have had their final accident investigation report published. The problem is not specific to any region, although Africa and South America show the biggest final report shortfalls in the last two years. “Looking back over the last three years, it most certainly appears to us that fewer than 50% of accident investigations are providing the reports as required by ICAO Annex 13,” says Searle. “For me, as an ex-pilot, and for the wider airline industry, accident reports ensure that we learn from the issues that have happened in the past and [that we] try to mitigate those with corrective actions.” He points to the accident reports covering the loss of flight AF447, an Air France Airbus A330-200 that crashed in the mid-Atlantic in 2009 while operating the Rio de Janeiro-Paris route. Although the investigation period was extended due to the challenging location of the crash site, lessons from the accident greatly influenced upset and recovery training. Searle lists several reasons for the lack of timely reporting. <br/>
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Ryanair has demanded the CE of air traffic control provider Nats “step down” over Covid-related staff shortages that have caused widespread disruption. Staff sickness in the control tower meant the “flow rate” of flights using the world’s busiest runway was reduced. Fifty flights to and from Gatwick Airport were cancelled or diverted, while many other services were delayed by up to seven hours. An estimated 8,000 passengers were left out of position, with eight flights grounded between Gatwick and Belfast – six to and from the Northern Ireland capital’s International airport, and two serving Belfast City. “It is the most basic requirement to hire and train adequate staff numbers including standby coverage,” a statement from Ryanair read, adding that it pays Nats almost E100m annually for air-traffic control services. “It is clear that Nats CEO, Martin Rolfe, has taken no action to resolve these air-traffic control staff shortages and should now do the right thing and step down as Nats CEO so that someone competent can do the job. We call on the CAA to immediately intervene and protect passengers from this ongoing UK air-traffic control shambles.”<br/>
The UK will sign a trade pact with Washington state aimed at facilitating aerospace deals with the US, as it seeks to bolster its economic ties in the absence of broader free-trade discussions with President Joe Biden. The memorandum of understanding, the sixth such pact with a US state, is focused on forging closer ties between the two countries’ aviation sectors. Washington state is the birthplace of US aerospace giant Boeing Co. The framework will enable UK and US businesses to work together more seamlessly, Nusrat Ghani, the UK minister for industry, told Bloomberg News in an interview. Ghani touted the collective impact of the mini trade pacts. “The combined GDP of the six states will be over GBP2t, the equivalent of the GDP in France,” she said. Ghani will sign the agreement alongside Washington state Governor Jay Inslee at an event in Seattle late Monday in the US. The UK has sought closer commercial ties with individual states with a broader US free-trade deal, touted as a benefit of leaving the European Union, still far off. The country has signed agreements with Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Utah, and hopes to sign agreements with Florida, Texas and California.<br/>
Vietnamese airports welcomed 23.7m foreign passengers in the first nine months of this year, an extraordinary growth of 266.8 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV). That has shown the gradual recovery of the country's international aviation market, Vietnam News Agency reported on Tuesday. Vietnamese airlines transported 44.1m passengers during this period, a surge of 20.3% year on year. Among those passengers, 11.5m were foreigners, soaring over 300%. Vietnam's international air transport market continues to maintain its recovery momentum for the most traditional markets and has some new markets in Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Some routes to Australia and India have seen an expansion of flight services. According to experts, the open-door policies of nations, particularly those in Northeast Asia, are the major reason behind the increase in foreign travellers to Vietnam. Vietnam welcomed more than 7.8m international visitors in the first eight months of 2023, within touching distance from the 8m target set for the whole year, according to the General Statistics Office.<br/>
Airbus confirmed the appointment of sales chief Christian Scherer as CEO of its core planemaking operation on Tuesday, restoring dedicated leadership of its main business for the first time in four years as it steps up jet production. The world's largest planemaker said the move would free group CEO Guillaume Faury, who has combined the job of running the wider company with the jetliner business since 2019, to steer the group in a "fast-evolving global environment". Scherer's appointment as Commercial Aircraft CEO, first reported by Reuters, will take effect from Jan. 1 after discussions with unions, Airbus said. The shake-up propels a career-long insider to effective number two of Europe's largest aerospace group, allowing Faury to focus on its wider portfolio amid uncertainties over its future in space and the pace of development of a new fighter. The appointment of Scherer, 61, heralds broad continuity inside the main commercial arm, which competes with Boeing (BA.N) and makes up about 70% of the company's revenues.<br/>
For US corn farmers, the rise of green jet fuel is their best hope of staving off an existential threat. With battery-powered cars poised to slash gasoline demand by 2040, corn-ethanol makers need to find new markets, and fast. After all, roughly 40% of the country’s output of the grain is used to make the biofuel that’s blended into gasoline. That’s why some producers are betting on a nascent technology that promises to use ethanol to power planes. “It’s a lifeline,” said Patrick Gruber, CEO of renewable fuels producer Gevo Inc., which is building an $850m plant to make green jet fuel from corn. “It creates an outlet for ethanol and it’s actually huge.” The search for new uses for ethanol represents a pivot for an industry that has been powered by the force of the US government for almost half a century. Even with disputed environmental credentials, the federal government has subsidized corn ethanol as a way to curb tailpipe emissions and promote energy security. Now President Joe Biden is throwing his weight behind electric vehicles, prompting biofuel makers and crop traders like Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. to pursue investments in sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. If it all works out, the US market for converting ethanol and other alcohols to jet fuel could grow to about $105b by 2050, according to BloombergNEF. That’s because the likes of United Airlines Holdings Inc. and other major carriers are under pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But for now, ethanol has yet to be used for aviation fuel at commercial scale, and it’s not even clear whether ethanol-derived SAF will be eligible for tax breaks.<br/>
Pratt & Whitney plans to expand its Singapore engine shop, boosting capacity to service the PW1000 geared turbofan (GTF) by two-thirds. The expansion will see its Eagle Services Asia facility grow by 4,460sq m (48,000sq ft), says P&W. “Pratt & Whitney is investing globally to support the GTF fleet,” says Shangari Meleschi, vice-president of aftermarket operations – Asia Pacific and Turkey. “As part of the expansion, we will increase staffing and provide extensive staff training so that we are well equipped to meet the increased demand. We are dedicated to maintaining our customers’ trust as we work through the impacts of the GTF fleet management plan.” Eagle Services Asia is a joint venture between SIA Engineering and RTX unit P&W. The shop inducted its first PW110G engine for overhaul in 2019. <br/>