Vast stretches of America are dominated by corn, nearly 100m acres of it, stretching from Ohio to the Dakotas. What once was forest or open prairie today produces the corn that feeds people, cattle and, when made into ethanol, cars. Now, the nation’s airlines want to power their planes with corn, too. Their ambitious goals would likely require nearly doubling ethanol production, which airlines say would slash their greenhouse gas emissions. If they succeed it could transform America’s Corn Belt yet again, boosting farmers and ethanol producers alike, but also potentially further damaging one of the nation’s most important resources: groundwater. Corn is a water-intensive crop and it can take hundreds of gallons to produce a single gallon of ethanol. But as airlines embrace the idea of ethanol, prompting lobbyists for ethanol makers and corn growers alike to push for clean-energy tax credits in Washington, vital aquifers face serious risks. “We’re on track to massively increase water usage without any real sense of how sensitive our aquifers are,” said Jeffrey Broberg, who is concerned about groundwater in Minnesota, a major corn state, where he is a water-use consultant and founder of the Minnesota Well Owners Organization. United Airlines this year signed a deal with a Nebraska ethanol company to buy enough sustainable aviation fuel, as the biofuel is known, to power 50,000 flights a year. In August, Delta announced a plan to create a sustainable fuel hub in Minnesota, a major corn state. The Biden administration could decide on its tax incentives for the industry as soon as December. “Mark my words, the next 20 years, farmers are going to provide 95% of all the sustainable airline fuel,” President Biden said in July. This year a New York Times data investigation found that groundwater is being dangerously depleted nationwide, largely by agricultural overuse. As climate change makes rainfall less reliable and intensifies droughts, rising demand for ethanol could put even more pressure on America’s fragile aquifers to be used for irrigation.<br/>
general
US regulators will propose requiring that new planes be capable of recording 25 hours of sounds in the cockpit, up from the current two hours, to prevent valuable information from being lost after close calls. The FAA said Thursday that it will publish its proposal in the Federal Register on Monday and give the public — and segments of the airline industry — 60 days to comment before issuing a final rule. The proposal, which the FAA first hinted at this spring, follows incidents in which investigators could not learn what pilots were saying before, during and after near-collisions because the recordings were taped over. In January, an American Airlines plane crossed an active runway at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport without permission from air traffic controllers, forcing a Delta Air Lines flight to abort a takeoff and brake to a stop. Investigators were unable to hear what the American pilots were doing, however, because they took off for London and the recorder taped over all cockpit sounds after two hours. “This rule will give us substantially more data to identify the causes of incidents and help prevent them in the future,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said of the 25-hour proposal. Regulators in Europe already require new planes over a certain weight to have cockpit recorders capable of capturing voices and engine sounds for 25 hours. The cockpit voice recorder is one of two so-called black boxes that capture data that is used to investigate crashes and close calls.<br/>
US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Wednesday he was confident the Treasury Department would release guidance by the end of the year that would make it easier for sustainable aviation fuel made from corn-based ethanol to qualify for subsidies. The Biden administration has been divided over this issue for months, as it faces a strong lobbying push from stakeholders in the US Farm Belt that see sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as one of the only routes to grow the ethanol industry. Environmental groups say clearing land to grow crops for fuel is counterproductive to curbing global warming, while the ethanol industry argues that the US needs to use ready technology to quickly reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Reuters reported in September that the Biden administration would likely delay a decision until December. The guidance was expected in September. "You can be confident you'll see something coming from Treasury, I would anticipate and hope, by the end of the year," Vilsack said in a conversation with Reuters reporters. "They will provide some direction and guidance, and I think the actual rules and regulations and so forth may take a little bit longer."<br/>When asked if he was confident that ethanol will become an SAF feedstock, Vilsack said he was. The billions of dollars of subsidies the ethanol industry hopes to have access to are part of last year's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), President Joe Biden's signature climate law. SAF producers seeking tax credits must demonstrate with an approved scientific model that their fuel generates 50% less greenhouse gas emissions over its lifecycle than petroleum fuel.<br/>
Airlines face their biggest challenge since the invention of the jet engine: how to decarbonise an industry built on the power of fossil fuels. The aviation sector is one of the hardest in the world to clean up. The industry is responsible for about 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to the International Energy Agency, but its proportion of emissions is set to increase as airlines push forward with growth plans and other sectors decarbonise more rapidly. Airlines have, nonetheless, committed to reaching net zero by 2050 using new fuels and technologies. But this ambitious pledge relies on significant scientific breakthroughs in the coming decades, from how to turn waste products and other non-fossil fuel materials into cost-effective cleaner fuels, to safely powering an aircraft using hydrogen or electricity. Virgin Atlantic’s first transatlantic flight fully powered by so-called sustainable aviation fuel — biofuel or synthetic fuel — took off this week. The industry believes using cleaner fuel could cut net emissions by 70%. Many environmental groups and scientists are sceptical, though — particularly about whether these alternative fuel sources are truly sustainable amid worries over changes in land use to grow crops for biofuels. However, alongside planning for a clean fuel revolution, airline executives in Europe are also stepping up lobbying for the greater adoption of an emission reduction already within their grasp: reforming the flight paths that aircraft follow through the skies. “We have to look at . . . how to improve how we fly,” says Adina Vălean, EU Transport Commissioner. The Single European Sky (SES) — first proposed by the European Commission in 2004 and amended in 2020 — is a programme to reform the organisation of fragmented airspace in the region that could lead to drastic emissions savings. Yet it has never been fully implemented. Airlines rarely fly the most efficient paths between two airports, instead building flight routes to take into account airspace congestion and restrictions as they snake through separate blocks of airspace overseen by national air traffic controllers. Implementing the SES would allow aircraft to carve the most optimal routes through the skies, saving time and fuel. Planes could fly more consistently at higher altitudes, burning less fuel, and descend more efficiently and smoothly to land, according to an EU report. The sector believes it could cut emissions in Europe by up to 10% overnight if the reforms were fully implemented — the equivalent of 11.6 megatonnes of carbon per year. “There is overwhelming agreement that reform to Europe’s fragmented airspace and change-resistant air traffic management system will have an immediate impact in terms of fuel burn and thus emissions,” says Andrew Charlton, managing director of Aviation Advocacy, a consultancy. But the apparently simple reforms have stalled spectacularly. Story has more.<br/>
Brussels is lobbying for an international tax on aeroplane fuel as governments look to levies on polluting industries to finance climate action. Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s climate commissioner, has said that China, Zambia, Brazil and the Gulf nations are among those that have expressed interest in such a tax in talks leading up to the UN’s COP28 climate summit starting in Dubai on Thursday. Unlike other fuels, kerosene is exempt from tax throughout the world. The levy would be a way to generate “a substantial amount of money” with a “relatively small sum” charged per flight, Hoekstra said in an interview with a group of journalists in Brussels. It also had “an element of fairness to it because it is typically those from Europe and North America and other more affluent countries that fly more”. Earlier this year, France and other countries pushed for the introduction of a shipping levy to help fund a response to climate change. Hoekstra said his plan at COP28 was “to not only test the waters but to talk about the why, the what and the how” of an aviation levy. “We tax everything alive, what we eat, when we work, and then at the last time when we die but not aviation, and that is off.” Hoekstra, who was named as the EU’s climate chief in October and will represent the bloc at COP28, has conducted more than 60 calls and meetings with climate ministers and diplomats since his appointment, according to a document seen by the Financial Times. Paying for the worst effects of climate change is expected to be a key issue at the summit, as developing nations increasingly call for funding as temperatures and sea levels rise. A fund for loss and damage related to global warming is set to be established at COP28 but has been one of the most contentious discussions in the lead-up to the summit. Three people involved in the talks said that they expected the fund to be launched on the first day of COP in the hope that leaders would pledge money for it in their opening speeches. The EU has expressed willingness to make a “substantial” contribution to the fund in the context of “an ambitious outcome” at COP28. Beyond that fund, estimates for how much money is required to counteract the worst effects of climate change vary but amount to trillions of dollars annually. The International Energy Agency has said that $4.5t will be needed each year for clean energy alone by the early 2030s, up from $1.8t currently.<br/>
Higher oil prices amid turmoil in the Middle East are increasing prices of jet fuel, which accounts for a big portion of airlines' costs. Brent crude oil almost hit $94 per barrel shortly after the Hamas attack in Israel on Oct. 7. It has since eased to around $84. Spot Northwest European jet fuel prices were at $914 per metric ton, or around $116 per barrel, on Thursday. That compares to a peak of over $128 per barrel in the week following the assault, and an all-time high of around $186 in June 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Some airlines use futures and options to hedge against price increases. They also try to hedge against value changes in the U.S. dollar, in which jet fuel is priced. Story lists how European airlines are hedged heading into 2024. <br/>
A “healthy travel appetite” – especially in the short-haul market – boosted international passenger traffic among Asia Pacific carriers in October, with near-term prospects still looking positive. International traffic data from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) for October shows the region’s carriers doubling their passenger volumes year on year, to 25.3m. The figure is around 80.5% that of pre-pandemic 2019. Traffic, meanwhile, climbed about 86% – helped by “relative strength” of the short-haul travel market – with capacity growing at 78%. In turn, passenger load factors rose about 3.4 percentage points year on year to 80.4%, a figure that is higher than pre-pandemic levels. AAPA director Subhas Menon says: “Asia-Pacific carriers continued to enjoy robust growth in business and leisure travel markets going into the fourth quarter, reflecting healthy travel appetite supported by resilient growth of the region’s economies.” <br/>
Airlines flying in Australia may soon pay more for air traffic control services, which could result in a rise to already inflated airfares. Airservices Australia – the government-owned body that oversees air navigation in Australia – has proposed to the competition watchdog to increase its fees for the first time since 2015. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission [ACCC] will seek industry consultation until January 19 before making a determination. If the suggested price increase is implemented, international and domestic airlines will pay an average of 19% more for navigation and aviation firefighting services across four rises between mid-2024 and 2026. Airservices has not increased fees since a 0.4% rise in 2015. It dropped its fees by 2% in 2019 after a restructure to “rebalance revenue growth driven by international airline operations over 2018”, a spokesperson said. “Airservices is seeking to increase prices to rebalance charges to changes in demand and enable us to continue to fund frontline service delivery and invest in key programs to support the industry’s ongoing recovery and future growth,” a spokesperson said. The fee increase is not good news for travellers expecting cheaper airfares or airlines juggling already inflated fuel bills due to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia have recently moved to partially offset sustained rises to their fuel bills through ticket prices, with Qantas revealing its fuel bill has increased by more than 30% since May. Under the current model, airlines flying a Boeing 737-800 with 174 seats from Melbourne to Brisbane incur a per passenger cost of about $13 for Airservices Australia’s services. Under the first proposed price change, the per passenger cost would increase to about $14 in April 2024. Airlines currently pay Airservices about $35 a passenger to fly an Airbus A380 with 853 seats from Singapore to Sydney. Under the first proposed rise, this would increase to about $37 in April.<br/>