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A public-sector union representing thousands of Canadian aviation workers is slamming the federal government over its response to a campaign calling on airlines to compensate flight attendants for allegedly unpaid labour. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) accuses the government of turning a blind eye to unpaid work in the airline sector after its lukewarm response to a petition the union said is signed by over 17,000 Canadians. “These are not the words of a minister who cares about workers being exploited by billion-dollar companies,” said Wesley Lesosky, president of the CUPE Airline Division. “But now we know whose side [labour minister Seamus] O’Regan and Prime Minister Trudeau are really on.” In its petition, CUPE alleges flight attendants work an average of 35 hours unpaid every month for duties including boarding, pre-flight safety checks and ground delays, citing a survey it conducted with over 9,000 workers. The union also said flight attendants are only paid half their hourly rate for Transport Canada-mandated training. CUPE called on the government to fix legislation and regulations to ensure employees are being paid at their contractual rate — and no less than federal minimum wage — from the moment their work duties begin. This would include time spent on training, waiting at the worksite to be assigned work, or remaining at the worksite at their employer’s disposal. In its response to the petition, tabled Nov. 3, 2023, the government acknowledged these concerns and noted all employees in federally regulated workplaces have the right to file a complaint if they believe their employer has contravened provisions of the Canada Labour Code.<br/>

French air traffic control currently works on a system developed in the 1970s - sometimes still using paper strips to represent incoming planes. Though it has been regularly upgraded over the years, it is scheduled for a major overhaul in early 2024 due to rapid growth in air traffic. As the system is updated, the first two months of the year could be complicated for passengers. More than 2.5m flights pass through French airspace each year and any disruption can affect journeys across Europe. While the work is taking place, it is estimated that around 16,500 flights will be cancelled, according to business news channel BFM. Between 9 January and 14 February, airlines have been advised to cut the number of flights taking off and landing at Paris' Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Le Bourget and Beauvais airports by 20%. During this period, the new system will be tested at the air traffic control centre in Athis-Mons, the largest in France which manages all of the airports in Paris and Beauvais. Which flights are cancelled will be left up to airlines but they are likely to prioritise long-distance routes. Air France told French media that it has been “forced to cancel certain short and medium-haul flights during this period” - more than 4,200 in total by the Air France-KLM group. In an attempt to minimise the impact on passengers, the airline group has already cancelled these flights, informed passengers and offered them transfers to different flights on the same day.<br/>

Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport on Tuesday reported a 14% rise in third-quarter core profit, but confusion around 2024 tariff guidance weighed on shares in afternoon trade. The group said its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation rose to E478.1m in the quarter from 420.3m a year earlier, beating analysts’ average forecast of 449.9m euros, according to LSEG data. Fraport’s share price was down 3.3% at 1508 GMT after rising as much as 4.8% in morning trade. “There appeared to be some confusion surrounding tariff guidance for 2024,” Redburn Atlantic analyst Ed Vyvyan wrote to Reuters in an email following an analyst call with the company. “Previously, the company had spoken about a 9.5% tariff increase for 2024, however, on the Q3 call, management explained that this was actually a gross figure,” Vyvyan said, noting the expected net growth figure after anticipated airline incentives will be “more like 5-7%”. “Ultimately, it hinges on how many passengers come through the airport,” he added. CE Stefan Schulte said the group’s Q3 EBITDA, revenue and net profit reached “new all-time highs” which would help to “gradually reduce the debt incurred during the pandemic”. Quarterly results were boosted by recovering passenger numbers across Fraport’s global network of airports, with traffic at its homebase Frankfurt growing by almost a quarter in the first nine months of the year. Q3 traffic at the hub was at 86% of 2019 levels. “FRA is thus overcoming the crisis faster than other major German airports,” Schulte said.<br/>

A runway at Bristol Airport has reopened following an earlier technical issue. A spokesperson from the airport posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the problem with airfield lighting equipment has been fixed. Flights are delayed as a result of the earlier suspension. Customers flying from Bristol on Tuesday have been advised to contact their airline for the latest flight information. At about 05:40 GMT a spokesperson from the airport said: "Due to technical problems with the airfield lighting equipment, flight operations have been suspended until 08:00 this morning." A live departure board on the airport's website showed that 14 flights were impacted by the issue.<br/>

Airbus needs to deliver 161 aircraft in the last two months of the year to reach its full-year delivery target, fractionally below the performance seen in the closing stages of last year, company data showed on Tuesday. In a monthly bulletin, the planemaker confirmed it had delivered 71 aircraft in October, up 18% from the same month last year and bringing the total for the first 10 months to 559 jets, as earlier reported by Reuters. In the final two months of 2022, Airbus delivered 166 jets. Orders so far this year have reached 1,399 aircraft or a net total of 1,334 units after cancellations, Airbus said. Airbus reports nine-month results on Wednesday. Agency Partners analyst Sash Tusa wrote in a note that the company was not expected to change its full-year delivery target of 720 aircraft despite pressure on supplies of Pratt & Whitney engines. Airbus last year lowered and eventually abandoned its delivery goal due to supply constraints and started 2023 on a weak note, before deliveries accelerated over the summer. On Monday, leasing company Air Lease questioned whether Airbus or Boeing would meet their delivery goals - in the case of Airbus, because of concerns that scarce engines would get diverted to help airlines keep existing planes flying.<br/>

Brazilian planemaker Embraer has been trying to sell US carriers on the merits of its E195-E2 jet as a "small narrow-body", even as demand in its No.1 market has remained focused on the smaller, first generation E175-E1. The world's third-largest planemaker after Boeing and Airbus amassed fresh orders for 23 E175-E1 planes from both American Airlines and SkyWest in the third quarter, but sees room for its second generation plane to notch up its first orders there too. "It is an aircraft that can very well complement the operation of large narrow-bodies," CE Francisco Gomes Neto said in an interview on Monday. Breaking into the US market with E2 family would be an important step for the planemaker to further improve its production mix, which this year should show for the first time more second generation jets being delivered than first generation ones. Gomes Neto said he hopes that new flights by Canada's Porter Airlines to cities such as San Francisco and Tampa will help showcase the plane to US carriers. The Canadian firm ordered dozens of planes from Embraer since 2021, making it the first E2 customer in North America. The E195-E2 seats up to 146 passengers, while the E175-E1 has up to 88 seats. "I think we'll manage to convince them that the E195-E2 is not a regional plane, but what we've been calling a 'small narrow-body' that the majors could operate very efficiently, helping them offer a higher frequency of flights during the day, explore routes, open routes," Gomes Neto said.<br/>

Shell PLC is looking to scale up sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production in the United States, a country it sees as attractive for development of such low-emission forms of energy, Shell USA president Gretchen Watkins said on Tuesday. US federal and state legislators have designed an array of tax credits to encourage SAF production. Cutting emissions from aviation is more difficult than in other transportation sectors that have more alternatives to fossil fuels. Watkins, speaking at the Reuters Events Energy Transition conference in Houston, did not give details of how much more SAF Shell plans to produce and how soon. Her comments come after Shell CE Wael Sawan said last month the company would cut at least 15% of the workforce at its low-carbon solutions division and scale back its hydrogen business as part of his drive to boost profits. SAF is one of the areas in which Shell believes it has a unique competitive advantage, Watkins said, without providing details. The fuel is produced in only small volumes in the United States because of high costs.<br/>

Hyundai Motor Group, the world’s third-biggest automaker by sales, plans to build a facility in the US where its air mobility division Supernal will make flying electric taxis intended to be used by commuters. A prototype of the electric vertical take-off and landing craft will be shown at CES in Las Vegas in January, Supernal CEO Shin Jaiwon said. The eVTOL taxi will be capable of flying at 120 miles an hour (190 kph) and have capacity for one pilot and four passengers. December 2024 is the target for a test flight, with ambitions to start commercial service four years later, Shin said in an interview this week with Bloomberg News in Singapore. “Considering all the battery technology and all the infrastructure and regulation to come along, it’s going to take some time,” he said. Batteries are the biggest technical challenge for electric air mobility, accounting for up to 40% of an eVTOL craft’s weight. “That’s really the killer,” Shin said. “From the operation side, we don’t have air traffic management systems to govern these vehicles,” he said. “Up until this point, even the foreseeable future, we don’t have man-made objects flying routinely below 500 meters.”<br/>