The Biden administration's nominee to head the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Wednesday the agency must address a persistent air traffic controller shortage that has caused flight delays. Nominee Michael Whitaker, a former deputy FAA administrator, told the Senate Commerce Committee he would support opening a second air traffic controller academy to address staffing. "We just simply need to solve this problem and figure out how to get it done," Whitaker said at the committee confirmation hearing, describing the crunch as "years in the making." Whitaker also said the FAA must address a spate of near miss airplane incidents and "really drive the most serious ones down to a level of zero...that needs to be our target." The FAA has been without a Senate-confirmed administrator for 18 months after the prior nominee withdrew. The FAA last month said it would again extend cuts to minimum flight requirements at congested New York City-area airports through October 2024. New York Terminal Radar Approach Control staffing is just at 54% of recommended levels. In the summer of 2022, there were 41,498 flights from New York airports in which controller staffing was a contributing factor in delays, according to the FAA. US airlines have expressed growing frustration with air traffic staff shortages.<br/>
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Mexico airport operators Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico SAB, Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste SAB and Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte SAB cautioned investors that the government has changed their concession agreements. The national aviation agency “unilaterally and without prior communication” modified the fee structure related to its airports, GAP said in a statement sent after-hours to the local regulator. GAP, Asur and OMA said in filings that they are evaluating the effect of the changes on their operations. A large part of airport operators’ revenues in Mexico come from so-called TUAs, or passenger fees for airport use. It wasn’t immediately clear what changes the government had made, and the companies didn’t elaborate. Authorities have in recent weeks increased their activity in the sector, with the government announcing the revival of state-run airline Mexicana de Aviacion and transferring the operation of Benito Juarez International Airport to the Navy following an announcement in June. A spokesman for the infrastructure, communications and transport ministry didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. <br/>
India has amended its insolvency law to exclude leased aircraft from assets that can be frozen, a long-awaited move expected to shore up the financing of its fast-growing airline industry by addressing discrepancies between global and local rules. The rule change, disclosed in a government notice on Wednesday, aims to bring India's bankruptcy laws into line with a treaty protecting the rights of foreign lessors, following a dispute over the bankruptcy of budget airline Go First. Aircraft lessors of Go First were blocked from repossessing planes due to a moratorium imposed by Indian courts, prompting the world's second-largest lessor, SMBC Aviation Capital, to warn the decision would shake the confidence of the aviation industry at a time when India is acquiring hundreds of new jets. Wednesday's notice said some provisions of the Indian Bankruptcy Code would no longer apply to transactions in aircraft, aircraft engines, airframes and helicopters. The 2001 Cape Town Convention is designed to encourage lessors that control about half the world's fleet to rent jets to airlines in exchange for a mechanism allowing them to take back their planes relatively easily whenever airlines default. Although India signed the treaty in 2008, experts had said there was no local legislation enforcing it, putting the international framework at odds with local courts.<br/>
Typhoon Koinu began brushing past the rural far southern tip of Taiwan on Thursday, injuring 190 but causing no deaths, as lashing rains and strong winds cancelled work and classes for millions in a swathe of cities across the island. Koinu, which means "puppy" in Japanese, made landfall on Taiwan's Hengchun peninsula as a category four typhoon - indicating winds of up to 252kph - but is forecast to weaken as it crosses into the Taiwan Strait and heads toward the Chinese province of Guangdong, according to Tropical Storm Risk. The heaviest rain is falling along mountainous and sparsely populated parts of Pingtung county in the south, and the east coast counties of Taitung and Hualien, but the typhoon will also affect the major southern port city of Kaohsiung. Most cities and counties in Taiwan declared a day off work and school on Thursday, though the capital Taipei, home to the stock and financial markets, is not affected and operating as normal. Taiwan's two main domestic airlines, UNI Air and Mandarin Airlines, cancelled most of their flights for Thursday, while ferries to outlying islands were also stopped. A total of 42 international flights were also cancelled, the transport ministry, said, but the high speed rail connecting northern and southern Taiwan was unaffected.<br/>
The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) has warned of challenges posed by ongoing supply chain issues and rising costs, amid “resilient” travel demand boosted by tourism growth. AAPA director general Subhas Menon says airlines face higher costs from inflation and a rise in jet price prices, both of which “threaten to squeeze margins”. “Delays in aircraft deliveries and parts shortages may affect airline fleet deployment plans,” he adds. “Competition is also intensifying, in tandem with the increase in capacity globally.” His comments come as the AAPA releases its traffic results for August, which shows continued growth in international passenger travel. During the month, Asia-Pacific airlines carried 25.7m international passengers, more than twice the passenger numbers recorded in the year-ago period. The AAPA also notes that the figure is about 76.5% pre-pandemic numbers. Traffic for the month doubled year on year, outpacing a 89% growth in international capacity. The association notes that the recovery is “underpinned by robust travel demand and expansion in city-pair connections from both outside and within the region”. Adds Menon: “Despite the moderation in global economic activity, demand has continued to grow in the services sectors, including travel and tourism.” AAPA data also shows continued weakness in the region’s cargo market, with demand shrinking 1.8% from the already-subdued volumes in the year-ago period. Freight load factors, meanwhile, shrank by 6.6 percentage points to just 58.8% in August.<br/>
General Electric and Safran revealed a growing number of engines fitted with parts sold by a UK distributor with falsified airworthiness records, highlighting how the scandal involving uncertified components continues to spread. The partners in CFM International found 126 engines holding components sold by AOG Technics, the London-based firm at the center of the parts probe. That number compares with 96 engines previously discovered. CFM has also identified 95 falsified documents related to the parts, also an increase from late September. Some of the affected engines were fitted with AOG-supplied parts in CFM’s own repair shops, the company said in a statement. The developments come as CFM, the world’s largest manufacturer of jet engines, seeks to pinpoint the origin of the parts and who purchased them. More forged records and affected engines may still be uncovered. The scandal involving a little-known UK supplier is reverberating around the industry, with an increasing number of airlines saying they’ve found suspected unapproved parts on their aircraft. The incidents have spread from Portugal to the US and as far as Australia, underscoring the global nature of the problem and the effort it will take to fix it. <br/>