As the United States holiday travel season picks up, many people are noticing that their frequent flier benefits are not going as far as they used to. In September 2023, Delta Air Lines revamped its frequent flier programme to make it tougher to earn status – a tiered system offering travel privileges based on the reward points earned – only to partially reverse course a month later and make it easier. American Airlines also made big changes to its loyalty scheme in 2022 and minor changes in spring 2023. And British Airways recently announced that it is adjusting the way it awards points for travel. Many people think flying is a miserable experience, and having status sometimes makes flights better. So it is only fair that frequent fliers are asking why it is seemingly harder to obtain such status. One big idea to understand is that airlines do not earn very much money, if any at all, from ticket sales. This is mainly due to the highly competitive and capital-intensive structure of the airline industry, which often leads to reduced profit margins. Instead, they make their profits from bag fees, ticket change fees and – importantly – frequent flier programmes. On many airlines, there are two ways to earn status. One is to fly a lot. But that means spending time in crowded airports. The other way is to spend a lot of money using a rewards credit card. Frequent flier programmes, coupled with rewards credit cards, are very profitable for airlines. For example, Delta’s latest annual report shows that the company earned US$5.7b from selling credit card kilometres in 2022. Given Delta made only US$3.6b in profits, this frequent flier programme clearly boosts the bottom line.<br/>
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The late crush of holiday travelers picked up steam Wednesday, with about 2.7m people expected to board flights and millions more planning to drive or take the train to Thanksgiving celebrations. Airline officials say they are confident they can avoid the kind of massive disruptions that have marred past holiday seasons, such as the meltdown at Southwest Airlines over last Christmas. As of Wednesday evening that appeared to be the case. US airports reported 59 flight cancellations into, out of or within the US Wednesday and 2,750 flight delays, according to FlightAware, a tracking service. FlightAware said anything less than 300 cancellations and 4,000 delays per day is considered very good. Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York said it was checking all vehicles arriving at the airport and performing additional security screenings after a car crashed and exploded at a nearby checkpoint on the US-Canada border. But the airport said it remained open and fully operational. All four border crossings in the area were closed, the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission said. Security lines at airports could be long. Delta Air Lines is telling passengers to arrive at the airport at least two hours before their flight if they are traveling within the United States, three hours early if they’re flying overseas — and maybe earlier on Sunday and Monday. The TSA said it screened more than 2.6m passengers Tuesday and it expected another 2.7m passengers to come through airport security on Wednesday. On Sunday, it expects to screen 2.9m passengers, which would surpass a previous record set on June 30. Lines ebbed and flowed all morning Wednesday at Moynihan Train Hall in New York. Some travelers said they opted to travel by train for convenience or lower prices. Others said they just wanted to avoid any chaos at the airport.<br/>
A record 30m people are expected to catch a flight over the Thanksgiving holiday, but airlines that specialize in low-cost US travel still don’t have much of a reason to celebrate. Spirit Airlines, Southwest and other domestic-focused carriers are slashing their already low prices. After pandemic-related lockdowns ended, budget domestic airlines bolstered their supply of seats to accommodate a massive influx of travelers in 2022. But these days they’re often empty because passengers are gravitating toward more-expensive, internationally focused competitors. As a result, domestic-focused carriers, a group that also includes Frontier Group Holdings Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp., are expected to struggle financially in 2024 and possibly 2025, analysts say. Those companies have already had a hard year. They’ve been battered by grounded or delayed aircraft, rising labor costs, volatile fuel prices, and congestion magnified by a shortage of air traffic controllers that’s affecting the whole industry. “I get a fare sale promotion, like, four times a day now,” Conor Cunningham, a Melius Research analyst, said. “It’s insane.” Domestic air fares for Thanksgiving have averaged $266 round trip, down 7% from 2022 and below pre-pandemic 2019, according to booking app Hopper Inc. Tickets for Christmas are at $324, down 12% from 2022 and 10% under 2019. Average domestic round-trip fares have declined year-over-year each month from April through October, based on US travel agency ticket sales, according to ARC Corp. Low-cost US airlines aren’t done building out their capacity. Believing a post-lockdown travel boom would last — as it has in the long-haul international and premium travel market — domestic carriers ratcheted up expansion plans already in the works. So the supply-demand mismatch could worsen if their main customers, budget travelers, remain home. The combined domestic fleet of single-aisle planes and regional jets is scheduled to expand 18% to about 5,000 aircraft in 2025 from 4,247 at the end of 2022, according to Jefferies Financial Group. That’s a 22% increase in the number of domestic seats, compared with about 4% expected growth in air traffic over the period. “Clearly that’s going to exasperate the issues,” said Sheila Kahyaoglu, a Jefferies analyst. “And costs are increasing, whether labor agreements — labor is 30% of airline costs — or maintenance costs spread over potentially less aircraft” due to engine manufacturing problems, constrained parts and delivery delays.<br/>
Dublin Airport is turning away airlines seeking to fly into Ireland more often and may not be able to add extra flights for one-off events while it waits at least two years for approval to increase a cap on passengers, its operator said on Wednesday. The number of passengers permitted at Ireland's main airport each year was capped at 32m when planners approved the construction of a second terminal just over a decade ago. The airport almost hit that figure in 2019 and is on track to reach or come close to it again this year following a rapid recovery from the COVID-19 disruption to air travel, Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) CEO Kenny Jacobs told lawmakers. The DAA will seek to increase the cap to 40m, in line with Ireland's projected population growth, as part of plans to be lodged next month to add new infrastructure to the airport. Jacobs cited the dip in travel following Ireland's 2009 financial crash, the building of a new runway and the pandemic as reasons for only now lodging an application, when there was already enough demand from airlines to potentially fly 35m-36m passengers. "We have turned a few airlines away and told a few airlines that they can't grow," Jacobs told a parliamentary committee. "We are flagging that we might need to do more next year. We have removed a growth incentive that we used to have in place for airlines because we're saying, Look, we are managing to the cap and we're not going to be incentivising new growth."<br/>
The UK’s air traffic control body NATS and Saudi Air Navigation Services (SANS) have signed a contract to conduct a study on enhancing capacity at the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Signed at the Dubai Air Show, the agreement forms part of Saudi Arabia’s growth plans as it intends to secure the expansion of air traffic through the country through major investments into its aviation infrastructure. Ahmed Alzahrani, chief strategy officer for SANS, said: “SANS is committed to transform the aviation landscape and guarantee that we are at the forefront of driving innovation to shape the aviation services of tomorrow. “This collaboration will leverage NATS expertise and digital solutions, to unlock new possibilities in airspace management and seamless flow of air traffic in the Kingdom.” NATS’ project will provide a benchmarked, data driven assessment on current operations to allow the airport to figure out how to safely expand its capacity as it seeks to deliver on the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 strategy which includes the target of tripling annual passenger traffic. The expansion of the King Khalid airport is just one of the projects underway in Saudi Arabia that are seeking to expand the country’s presence and power in the aviation industry, with the construction of the Red Sea International Airport and the launch of another flag carrier, Riyadh Air, also underway.<br/>
Saudi Arabia's strengthened passenger protection regulations have come into force, covering millions of passenger journeys taken within and from Saudi Arabia, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has announced. The new GACA regulations are designed to create a better travel experience, providing greater support at each stage of the passenger’s journey in the event of travel disruptions. GACA has initiated the “Putting Passengers First” consumer education campaign to educate passengers on their strengthened protections, and the importance of contacting their airline to use their rights in the event of a disruption. If passengers don't receive an adequate response in seven days, they can ask GACA to investigate their complaint. Eng Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al Dahmash, the Vice President of GACA for Quality and Passenger Experience, emphasised the importance of these regulations, stating: “From today, passengers travelling in and from the Kingdom have enhanced protections when they are affected by travel disruptions resulting from airline delays. GACA encourages passengers to learn about the strengthened passenger rights communicated through GACA’s “Putting Passengers First” campaign, and to contact their airline when they face a disruption. “These changes reflect GACA’s focus on putting the passenger first, through regulations that create better choice, value and service quality for passengers. By enabling a better travel experience, these regulations support the Kingdom’s broader Saudi Aviation Strategy growth agenda.” added Al Dahmash.<br/>
The head of China's civil aviation regulator, Song Zhiyong, met with the U.S. Ambassador in Beijing Nicholas Burns, and exchanged views on pushing for a substantial increase in flights between the two countries, the regulator said on Wednesday. The CAAC welcomes US aviation-related enterprises to operate and develop in China, Song said. Back in August, the United States and China said they would approve twice the number of passenger flights currently permitted for air carriers to fly between the two countries. In his speech at a reception, Song said the two countries should continue the vision that President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden laid out in their recent meeting at APEC and create a new situation for China-U.S. civil aviation cooperation in the future. Song and Burns expounded on those talks, saying they both want to strengthen cooperation in various fields of civil aviation between China and the U.S., according to a statement. "CAAC welcomes American aviation-related enterprises to operate and develop in China and jointly create a better future for the global aviation industry," Song said. Both want China and the US to further increase flights by a large margin, Song said, as relations between the two countries show signs of thawing after months of tensions over several global issues.<br/>
Boeing’s commercial aircraft sales to China have slowed to a trickle as US-Chinese relations have soured. But there are new prospects for the company to regain traction. A meeting this month between President Biden and President Xi Jinping of China did not yield public progress toward resuming plane sales, but it may ease tensions between the two countries, boding well for Boeing, a giant of American manufacturing. Perhaps more important, Boeing and China still need each other. “There’s lots of incentives for everyone to do a deal here,” said Eddy Pieniazek, head of advisory at Ishka, an aviation consulting firm. “A lot of it is just down to timing.” Six years have passed since Boeing’s last large airplane order in China, an agreement to buy 300 planes that was signed during a visit to Beijing by President Donald J. Trump. For several years, the company’s customers and government officials in China have also refused to allow delivery of previously ordered 737 Max jets, the company’s most popular commercial plane. As a result, Boeing has redistributed dozens of jets earmarked for Chinese airlines to other customers. Boeing is holding 85 Max planes in storage awaiting delivery to Chinese carriers, for which the planes were even painted years ago. Those are among 250 aircraft in Boeing’s inventory, most of which the company said it expected to deliver by the end of next year. China is a crucial market for Boeing. Before the pandemic, about a third of Boeing’s 737s were being delivered to the country. Over the next two decades, Boeing projects, China will account for 20% of global airplane demand. This means China will need an estimated 6,500 single-aisle planes like the 737 Max and more than 1,500 larger, twin-aisle planes, such as Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, Boeing said.<br/>
Incheon International Airport Corp., the operator of Incheon International Airport, seeks to develop Indonesia’s Batam Hang Nadim International Airport into an ASEAN gateway capable of accommodating 25m passengers a year by 2046, its operator, PT Bandara Internasional Batam, said, Wednesday. IIAC signed a public-private partnership with the Batam Indonesia Free Zone Authority (BT Batam), which manages the Batam airport, in a consortium with Indonesia’s state-owned airport operator and construction company in April 2021. The 600b won ($463m) deal is IIAC’s first overseas airport operation and development project, under which the company will renovate, manage and develop the airport’s existing passenger terminal and a new passenger and cargo terminal for 25 years. Built in 1973, the Batam airport is the Southeast Asian country’s one of five international airports and can accommodate up to 5m passengers in its facility renovated by Hyundai E&C in 1997. The airport had 4.2m passengers and transported 43,800 metric tons of cargo in 2019. By year-end, it is forecast to receive 4m passengers whose overwhelming 98% are domestic travelers.<br/>
Boeing said on Wednesday that the US aviation regulator has cleared it to begin certification flight testing of its 737 MAX 10, the largest version of its bestselling jet aimed at seizing the top of the narrowbody market. Boeing shares rose 1.1% in midday trade. The FAA confirmed that has it granted type inspection authorization for the 737 MAX 10. Type inspection authorization is typically associated with the kickoff of the certification process, made after the FAA has examined technical data. The milestone allows FAA pilots to participate in flight testing needed to certify the plane for normal operations, three Boeing executives wrote in a letter to employees on Wednesday. "This is a significant milestone as we work to get the 737-10, the largest airplane in the 737 MAX family, certified to enter passenger service with operators around the world," Mike Fleming, Boeing's senior vice president for development programs, 737 program head Ed Clark, and testing lead Wayne Tygert wrote in the letter. The 737 MAX 10 is Boeing's answer to the A321neo made by European rival Airbus, which has dominated the lucrative top of the single-aisle market in battles against Boeing's MAX 9. Boeing executives last said in October that its schedule for the MAX 10, which calls for the jet to be certified and the first aircraft delivered in 2024, is still on track. "Safety will dictate the certification timeline" for the MAX 10, the FAA said in a statement confirming type inspection authorization. The MAX 10 has so far logged more than 400 flights and almost 1,000 flight hours during Boeing's test program.<br/>
A recent spate of blockades in September and October has resurfaced this week in New Caledonia with Lifou Island's small airport being once again paralysed by a group of disgruntled users who are protesting against what they perceive as the excessive cost of domestic plane tickets. This comes despite negotiations and consultations that involved both domestic airline Air Calédonie, the angry consumers, the local government and even several local high chiefs. At this time, this caused a massive cancellation of flights, affecting hundreds of passengers. The crisis peaked when during the blockade, one Air Calédonie agency building at the small airport terminal of Lifou was severely damaged by a nightly fire on October 4. Public prosecutor Yves Dupas said at the time that several burnt tyres were found amidst the airline's building charred remains and that on that basis, investigations seem to point to a criminal motive. Four individuals have since been arrested and have already appeared before a local criminal court. One of them is facing aggravated arson charges and has been remanded in custody pending an expected verdict on November 28. Public prosecution has required sentences ranging from six months suspended jail to three years. While the earlier one-month blockades had targeted three domestic airports of Lifou, Maré (both in Loyalty Islands group) and the Isle of Pines (South of Nouméa), this time, it was only the airport of Lifou that was affected, local media report.<br/>