Four lost years. That’s how long it’s taken the aviation industry to get back to where it stood before the pandemic. This week, global airline capacity is poised to finally surpass its corresponding 2019 levels, based on data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. The moment marks a major milestone in the recovery from the Covid-19 outbreak, which threw the world’s $1.17t travel market into an unprecedented, existential crisis. Widespread border closures forced airlines to park their fleets, driving the industry to the brink of collapse. The spasms that followed, from travel lockdowns and airline bailouts to fitful reopenings cut short by new Covid strains, left the sector financially weakened and understaffed. When cooped-up travelers finally broke loose last summer, airlines and airports were unprepared, leading to schedule disruptions and chaos in terminals. The return to pre-pandemic flight capacity — the number of seats being offered multiplied by distance flown — speaks to airlines’ resilience and ability to adapt to ever-shifting conditions. Still, it’s become a tougher industry in many respects. Travel to and from China remains depressed, keeping a major market largely on the sidelines of the recovery. Airlines have struggled with persistent aircraft-supply bottlenecks, a headache left over from the pandemic. And Russia’s airspace is now closed for many Western airlines, adding to a host of post-pandemic challenges. Industry profit will be less than 40% of 2019’s level this year, according to the IATA. Business travel still hasn’t fully recovered, and it’s unclear when — or indeed if — it will. With prospects for a corporate rebound uncertain, operators are squeezing what they can from leisure’s fading revenge-travel boom. Jetliner delivery delays and recent engine issues are clouding growth prospects and keeping older planes in service. Labor, jet fuel and debt service are growing more expensive. Story has more.<br/>
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Two people were injured at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport Friday evening during an accident on the ground involving an airplane preparing for takeoff and an employee shuttle bus. American Eagle flight 6209 operated by Air Wisconsin Airlines made contact with the bus while the plane was taxiing, American Airlines said in a statement. Two passengers on the shuttle were transported to Ascension Resurrection hospital in Chicago with minor injuries from the accident around 7 p.m., WLS-TV reported. American Airlines said there were no injuries reported aboard the aircraft, while six American Airlines employees were transported to a hospital for evaluation. The exact number of passengers on the flight was not provided. An image on the WLS-TV website showed damage to the nose of the airplane, which the station reported was a 50-seat aircraft loaded with passengers. The airplane was taken out of service and a replacement aircraft flew passengers to Dayton, Ohio, the airline said.<br/>
The UK’s aviation regulator has appointed a chairman to lead a review into the air-traffic system outage that hit the country on a national bank holiday, sending flights and passengers into disarray. Jeff Halliwell, who has worked across the business and public sector, will be in charge of the panel, the Civil Aviation Authority announced in a statement on Friday as the independent review into NATS’ technical failure on Aug. 28 gets underway. The air-traffic disruption was caused by an anomaly in a software system which misread two geographical checkpoints about 4,000 nautical miles apart when processing an airline’s flight plan, according to NATS’ preliminary report in September. The glitch caused the system to shut down, forcing air-traffic staff to input flight plans manually which limited the amount of air traffic that could be processed. As a result, passengers were stranded, hundreds of flights were canceled and planes were left out of position. EasyJet’s Johan Lundgren has criticized NATS for the disruption, while Ryanair Holdings’ CEO Michael O’Leary has called on NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to resign. “This event had a significant impact on many passengers, businesses and the aviation industry and it is clear lessons need to be learnt,” Halliwell said. Halliwell was previously chair of Airport Coordination Ltd., which provides slot coordination to global airports. He also has a customer perspective given he was chair of Heathrow Consumer Challenge Board, an independent advisory body, and Transport Focus, a consumer watchdog for public transport.<br/>
Several international air carriers said on Sunday they had suspended flights serving Tel Aviv in light of the Hamas militant attack on Israel and were waiting for conditions to improve before resuming service. U.S. air carriers United, Delta and American Airlines said they had suspended direct flights, as did Air France. The US air lines normally operate direct service from major US metropolitan areas including New York, Chicago, Washington, DC and Miami. In a statement, United said it had operated two scheduled flights to the United States from Israel late Saturday and early Sunday but that service would remain suspended "until conditions allow them to resume." Delta representatives said they were monitoring the situation to make schedule adjustments as necessary but that flights "have been canceled into this week."<br/>
An anonymous bomb threat that prompted the Philippines to put all its commercial airports on heightened security alert is "most likely a hoax", the aviation police chief said on Friday. Authorities ordered 42 airports across the country to step up security after receiving an anonymous email threat that planes flying out of Manila to several tourist destinations could explode. Despite the alert, the country's main international airport, in Manila, and its two biggest airlines were operating as normal, and Transport Minister Jaime Bautista said no flight delays were expected. Extra police and canine patrols were deployed at Manila terminals as part of "immediate enhanced security measures" at airports, authorities said, adding the threat was being verified. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAAP) said airports had been ordered on Wednesday to step up security "following bomb threats". It added air traffic services received an anonymous email about a threat to flights from Manila to Davao, Bicol and the tourist regions of Palawan and Cebu. In a memo dated Oct. 4 but released to media on Friday, the CAAP referred to a screenshot of the emailed threat, which did not contain the word "bomb" but said "an airplane will explode" at Manila's international airport and "please beware". "Cebu, Palawan, Bicol and Davao will also be hit," the anonymous email said.<br/>
Hong Kong saw heavy flooding on Monday as the remnants of Typhoon Koinu brought heavy rains and strong gales, with many areas inundated with water just a month after the city was paralysed by record-breaking rainfall. Koinu had weakened into a severe tropical storm but still brought gale-force winds and heavy rain, the city's Observatory said. It was tracking west or west-southwest at around 10 kph (6 miles per hour) as it crossed the western coast of China's southern Guangdong province. Schools were shut on Monday while the city's stock exchange closed for the morning session. It is due to reopen in the afternoon as strong winds are expected to ease later in the day. Hong Kong's weather bureau issued a landslide warning with many areas of the mountainous city at risk after unusually wet weather. In the southern part of the city, huge gushes of water washed down Repulse Bay Road prompting the closure of some parts, videos on social media showed. Hundreds of passengers were stranded at Hong Kong's airport overnight and underground metro stations as Koinu disrupted flights and transport, public broadcaster RTHK reported. The Airport Express train which connects the airport to the central business district stopped running while services at some metro stations were partially suspended. Services had since resumed at limited frequencies, operator MTR said.<br/>