Multiple airlines have canceled flights in and out of Tel Aviv, home to Israel’s largest international airport, after Israel formally declared war on Hamas. American Airlines said it was suspending flights until Friday as it closely monitors the situation on the ground. The cancellations follow on the heels of a “do not fly” order from the president of the Allied Pilots Association, the union representing 15,000 American Airlines pilots. In a note on Sunday, Ed Sicher said that because Israel has declared that it is now at war, “it is not prudent or appropriate to knowingly put our flight crews and passengers in harm’s way by maintaining flights into a war zone.” He cautioned pilots to refuse any assignment into Israel and added that the FAA has issued a notice to air personnel urging “extreme caution.” Delta Air Lines is also canceling all flights to and from Tel Aviv for the rest of the month, but said in a statement that it will “work with the U.S. government as needed to assist with the repatriation of U.S. citizens who want to return home.” The US Embassy in Israel said in a security update Monday that it is continuing “to closely monitor the dynamic security situation” in the region. Although Ben Gurion International Airport is open, “some flights have been reduced or suspended. US carriers have temporarily suspended flights to Israel,” according to the embassy. Several international airlines have also suspended travel across the country. Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific canceled its Tuesday flight to and from Tel Aviv. Air Canada says it has suspended all flights for now, as it keeps an eye on the dynamic security conditions. Ireland’s Ryanair said Monday it was canceling flights in and out of Tel Aviv until October 11, citing operational restrictions. Air India and Lufthansa announced that they were canceling flights until October 14, and Norwegian Air said it is canceling flights until October 15. Korean Air canceled one of its three regularly scheduled weekly flights into Tel Aviv on Monday, and is scheduled to hold another meeting Monday to discuss future flights between the two countries. However, the airline said it is planning on flying a 218-seat plane from Tel Aviv and to Incheon on Tuesday in order to bring Korean nationals back home.<br/>
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The Mexican army is carrying out humanitarian flights aimed at bringing home nationals from Israel amid the attack on the country by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, the government said on Monday. An unknown number of hostages were taken by Hamas after it launched a surprise attack in Israel on Saturday. Two Mexicans are believed to have been among those taken by the group, Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said on Sunday. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday said in a press conference that Mexico would not take sides in the conflict and the United Nations should convene all member countries to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict. "More than condemnation, what is required is a search for peaceful solutions, that there is dialogue and that further confrontation and violence is avoided," Lopez Obrador said. Some 5,000 Mexican nationals are in Israel and some 300 have asked to leave, according to Lopez Obrador. A plane leaving on Monday morning has a capacity of about 170 passengers, the defense ministry said. A second plane was to leave later in the day.<br/>
Military transport aircraft from around the world are arriving in Israel to evacuate citizens from the Middle Eastern country, which declared a state of war on 7 October after a surprise assault from Gaza-based militant group Hamas. The governments of both Brazil and Poland confirmed on 8 October they had dispatched air force transports to retrieve citizens trapped in Israel, which has been under bombardment from thousands of Hamas rockets over the past three days, in addition to a ground incursion through the country’s southern border with Gaza. “We are sending air force transport planes to carry out the evacuation of Poles currently staying in Israel,” Polish president Andrzej Duda said on 8 October. “Soldiers from our special forces will ensure loading protection and safety on board. We are working so that all our compatriots can return home safely.” Poland’s defence minister confirmed the action on 9 October, saying Warsaw has launched an “evacuation bridge” that will transport Polish citizens from Israel to the Greek island of Crete before onward passage to Poland. As of 13:00 GMT on 9 October, the Polish defence ministry confirmed that three such flights had already reached Warsaw, with a fourth en-route. The ministry shared photos of civilians boarding a Polish air force Lockheed Martin C-130 parked at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. Warsaw has five C-130s in its inventory, according to Cirium data. The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) is also engaged in a similar non-combatant evacuation effort, marshalling even more aircraft to support its operation.<br/>
Nearly half of all flight delays in 2022 were deemed the responsibility of an airline, according to new numbers from Transport Canada. Out of nearly 199,000 delays that occurred last year, just over 87,500 — or 44% — were considered to be within an airline's control and were not due to a safety issue. Passengers still remember the chaotic travel season caused by widespread flight delays and cancellations in the summer and December of 2022. The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) issued hundreds of fines to Canada's major airlines as a result. Rules that came into force in 2019 — often referred to as the air passenger bill of rights — require airlines to compensate passengers for delays or cancellations that are within their control. But as travel began to return to pre-pandemic levels last summer, passengers began accusing airlines of skirting those rules and denying them the compensation they're owed. As a result, the CTA — which is responsible for adjudicating complaints between airlines and passengers — has been grappling with a backlog of passenger complaints which now numbers 57,000. This past spring, the government proposed changes to the air passenger bill of rights. The changes are currently being reviewed by the CTA and aren't expected to come into effect until 2024. The government is looking to close a loophole in the current rules that airlines have used to deny customers compensation for flight disruptions required for safety purposes. The proposed changes would require airlines to automatically compensate passengers unless the airline can prove that "exceptional circumstances" caused a flight disruption. The CTA is proposing that those circumstances include weather concerns, airport operational issues and "hidden manufacturing defects" on an airplane. Technical problems that are part of "normal airline operations" would not be considered part of those exceptional circumstances.<br/>
The authorities at the Hamburg Airport in Germany suspended all flights for roughly 90 minutes on Monday after receiving what they called “a credible threat” that mentioned a specific flight coming from Tehran. The plane in question landed safely and was parked in an isolated section of the airport. All 198 passengers and 16 crew members left the plane without incident. The police then took the travelers to an isolated gate and subjected them to vigorous security screenings, similar to those carried out before takeoff, said Marcus Henschel, a spokesman for the federal police at the airport. The threat “was determined to be credible and so we initiated the appropriate response,” Henschel said. The threat against the plane came in an email sent to several recipients, including the federal police at the airport, early Monday morning, Henschel said in a phone interview. The flight was a direct flight operated by Iran Air, the country’s national carrier. Thanks to high-tech security screening measures, major threats to airplanes have become rare in Europe. With around 11m passengers a year, Hamburg’s airport is Germany’s fifth largest. The police screened luggage and searched the plane thoroughly, but when by 2:15 p.m. local time they had found nothing, the airport was reopened to regular traffic.<br/>
French authorities asked airlines to cut 40% of flights at Paris-Orly airport Friday ahead of unions’ planned strike calling for pay increases. The country’s civil aviation authority also asked the regional Marseille-Provence and Beauvais airports to reduce flights by 20% and 15%, respectively. The strike is set to come three days before a scheduled government-union meeting on low wages. <br/>
Preliminary August 2023 traffic figures from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) show further recovery in international passenger markets, underpinned by robust travel demand and expansion in city-pair connections from both outside and within the region. In total, Asia Pacific airlines carried 25.7m international passengers in August 2023, a solid 129.7% year-on-year growth compared to the same month last year, bringing demand to average 76.5% of pre-pandemic levels. In revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), demand rose by 102% year-on-year, whilst available seat capacity expanded by 88.7%, leading to a 5.4 percentage point increase in the average international passenger load factor to 82.8%. “Despite the moderation in global economic activity, demand has continued to grow in the services sectors, including travel and tourism,” said Subhas Menon, AAPA Director General. “Against this background, Asia Pacific airlines saw a healthy 232% increase in the number of international passengers carried to a combined 171m during the first eight months of the year.” Air cargo demand, measured in freight tonne kilometers (FTK), saw a slight 1.8% year-on-year fall in August when compared to the subdued volumes recorded in the same month last year.<br/>
The notion that hundreds or even thousands of electric-powered air taxis could be whisking people over jammed roads is inching away from science fiction and closer to reality. Battery technology is improving enough for eVTOLs – short for electric vertical takeoffs and landings, the name given to these aircraft that can act like helicopters near the ground but fly like small planes. The bigger question may be whether there is a profitable business in producing them. JoeBen Bevirt is an evangelist for the new industry and the founder and CEO of Joby Aviation Inc., which delivered its first eVTOL to the Air Force last month. Bevirt insists that his Santa Cruz, California-based company, whose largest shareholder is Toyota (11%), can meet an ambitious target of entering commercial air taxi service in 2025. Like other eVTOL startups, Joby is losing money — more than $400m in 2021-2022. Analysts don’t know when, if ever, it will be profitable. Story is transcript of interview with Bevirt.<br/>
Airbus will need to hand over 232 aircraft in the final quarter to achieve its aim of 720 commercial deliveries for the full year. The airframer had delivered 488 jets by 30 September, two-thirds of the target, leaving it with another backloaded Q4. These deliveries comprised 36 A50s, 20 A330s and 391 A320neo-family aircraft plus 41 A220s. It recorded orders for 10 A350-900s for Turkish Airlines and 13 A321neos for LATAM during September. The Turkish agreement takes total passenger A350 orders above 1,000. Airbus also has orders for 39 A350 freighters. Airbus did not disclose any additional cancellations, so its net orders for the first nine months of the year reached 1,241.<br/>