Major US carriers expect a busy end-of-year holiday travel season and record passenger figures, topping last year as well as last month’s Thanksgiving holiday period. Delta said on 13 December that it expects to carry “nearly 9m” customers during the period beginning on 21 December through 7 January. Peak travel days will be 21-22 December and 26-30 December, the airline says. For comparison, during the 10 days around Thanksgiving long holiday weekend at the end of November, the airline carried 6.4m passengers, it says. United Airlines, meantime, is expecting around 9m passengers, up 12% from the same holiday travel period – which it defines as 17 December through 8 January - last year. On average, the Chicago-headquartered airline will operate nearly 4,000 flights daily, it said on 12 December. “United expects more people will travel for the Christmas holiday than did for Thanksgiving, the carrier says. “On average, more than 455,000 people will fly United per day between Dec. 22-28, which is about 4% more travelers than what we saw between Nov. 20-26.” During the end-of-year holidays a year ago, a series of storms caused major headaches for air traffic across the country. Most airlines recovered quickly but Southwest Airlines – the nation’s fourth-largest carrier – was hamstrung for days by its ageing IT infrastructure an systems which, at one point, had lost track of crews and aircraft.<br/>
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French air navigation service DSNA’s chief, Florian Guillermet, has been chosen as the next leader of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. Guillermet will succeed interim head Luc Tytgat, who took over from former executive director Patrick Ky in September. EASA says that, following his selection, Guillermet will make a presentation to the European Parliament’s transport and tourism committee in January, which will be followed by a notice of formal appointment on 15 February. The date on which Guillermet will take over as executive director has yet to be fixed. He was formerly with pan-European air navigation organisation Eurocontrol, and became executive director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking – which oversees research programmes for the Single European Sky initiative – in 2014. “EASA will have an instrumental role in accompanying the transition to greener aviation while maintaining the sector’s strong safety record,” says Guillermet. “I look forward to steering the agency through these challenges and to building a positive, multicultural working environment on a basis of trust and transparency.” Guillermet’s selection from a shortlist of candidates was concluded by the EASA management board in Cologne on 13 December.<br/>
European regulators remain dissatisfied with Nepalese authorities’ efforts to bring the country’s civil aviation safety and oversight into line with international standards, following an on-site assessment conducted in September. Nepal has been the subject of a blanket blacklisting by the EC for a decade. While the on-site assessment – carried out by the Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency – was intended to explore whether the restriction could be eased, air safety specialists have disclosed multiple issues which are yet to be resolved. The assessment covered not only the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal but also flag-carrier Nepal Airlines and regional operator Shree Airlines. According to the Commission, the assessment of the CAAN found “discrepancies” between the approved organisational structure and the actual distribution of sections and personnel, and revision is “critical” to ensure “robust” oversight. Practices in personnel licensing and flight-examiner systems show “non-compliance” with international standards, it says, and there is an “absence” of a “robust framework” for designating and monitoring flight examiners and instructors – particularly in helicopter operations. There are also “significant gaps” in the flight operations division, it adds, notably regarding fatigue oversight in relation to duty-period limitation as well as compliance checks during approval processes. “These failures indicate an urgent need for CAAN to implement robust fatigue-management protocols and strengthen their technical evaluation and approval processes,” says the Commission.<br/>
Tighter rules are needed to ensure that the imported “used” cooking oil that airlines hope will power cleaner flights is not in fact virgin palm oil, campaigners have warned. About 80% of waste oil is imported to create biofuels that are mostly still used in cars, vans and lorries despite growing demand from aviation. About 60% of those imports come from China. However, cases of fraud uncovered by investigations suggest a large share of imports could be wrongly labelled as waste instead of repurposed palm oil products. Crop-based biofuels, which were once seen as renewable, are now contributing to deforestation and worsening emissions.<br/>A report for the Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) found that while European countries were trying to clamp down on crop-based biofuels, the resultant shift in demand for waste oil was outpacing supply. Europe’s consumption of used cooking oils has more than doubled since 2015, largely to fuel ground transport, and demand is expected to grow as airlines push for sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. Waste cooking oil was the main ingredient in the SAF that solely poweed a UK government-sponsored transatlantic flight by Virgin Atlantic last month. T&E said there were serious concerns about the imports. Barbara Smailagic, a biofuels expert at the NGO, said: “Europe is being flooded with dodgy used cooking oil. European governments say it’s almost impossible to stop virgin oils like palm being labelled as waste. We need greater transparency and a limit on imports to avoid used cooking oil simply becoming a backdoor for deforestation-driving palm oil.” Countries including Germany and Ireland are launching official investigations into fraud risks, while the European Commission has promised to investigate fraudulent Indonesian biodiesel. While imports of palm oil biodiesel have dropped by almost 30%, derivatives of the oil labelled as “waste” or “residues” have increased, which T&E said still had significant environmental impacts.<br/>
Iranian pilgrims will for the first time in eight years begin regular travel to Saudi Arabia from Dec. 19, Iranian media reported on Wednesday in the latest sign of thawing relations between the two oil-producing rivals in the Gulf. Flights will take off from 10 airports around Iran carrying Iranians travelling on the year-round Umrah pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the semi-official Fars news agency said. The first dispatch of Iranian Umrah pilgrims will occur from Dec. 19, Fars added. China mediated an agreement in March under which Iran and Saudi Arabia resumed full diplomatic relations that were cut in 2016 over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric and the subsequent storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Since 2016, Iranian pilgrims have only been able to complete the haj pilgrimage, a religious duty deemed compulsory for Muslims who aim to carry it out once in their lifetime and which is subject to strict annual quotas and timings.<br/>
Chinese aerospace company COMAC has showcased its domestically-developed C919 passenger jet in Hong Kong, giving officials and media a close-up look at the narrow-bodied aircraft. A welcome ceremony for the C919 and an ARJ21, another Chinese-made jet made by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, was held at the Hong Kong international airport on Wednesday, a day after both flew into Hong Kong for the first time. At the event, Hong Kong’s leader John Lee said China’s successful development of the large passenger jet indicates its “leading position in the transportation manufacturing industry.” He added that the two airplanes’ visit to Hong Kong demonstrates the importance that China places on Hong Kong’s aviation industry. More than 1,000 orders have been placed for the C919, Lee said, and Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department has participated in certifying the aircraft and training pilots to fly it. COMAC is preparing to take on Airbus and Boeing in the market for single-aisle commercial aircraft. But while it designed many of the C919’s parts, some key components are still sourced from the West, including its engine. The C919 is due to perform a flyby over the city’s scenic Victoria Harbor on Saturday, giving people on the waterfront a glimpse of the new aircraft, weather permitting. Both planes will be on display at Hong Kong’s international airport until Sunday and can be visited by officials and lawmakers, representatives from the aviation industry and youth groups, among others, it said.<br/>