Additional aircraft may be at risk of containing components sold by a London-based parts distributor accused of forging airworthiness records, according to US aviation safety regulators. Regulators in the US and Europe have accused AOG Technics Ltd. of selling parts for certain engine models made by General Electric Co. and CFM International Inc. that were accompanied by forged records stating they were appropriate for installation. In a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin issued Tuesday, the FAA said parts from other manufacturers “have been confirmed to have been handled by AOG Technics and therefore, we cannot isolate this concern to just the engines” identified earlier this year. The agency didn’t identify any other manufacturers in the bulletin. An FAA representative on Wednesday declined to comment beyond the bulletin. The agency’s notice represents a potential widening of a scandal, first reported by Bloomberg, that has forced airlines, manufacturers and maintenance shops around the globe to scour their records for parts sold by AOG Technics. The suspect parts, which were backed by forged airworthiness records, have turned up in about 145 engines in the fleets of some of the biggest airlines in the world, including Delta and Southwest. In the bulletin, the FAA said it does not consider the issue to be an “unsafe condition” that would warrant a rule requiring repairs. However, the agency said its investigation is ongoing and it may change that assessment in the future. The FAA also said that to date, no “critical parts” have been found with forged or tampered airworthiness documentation, which the agency would consider to be a potential safety issue. <br/>
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The private security screening company Clear is rolling out facial recognition technology at its expedited airport checkpoints in 2024, replacing the company’s iris-scanning and fingerprint-checking measures. With a presence at more than 50 U.S. airports, Clear’s update is the latest sign in a broader shift toward biometrics in air travel that is raising concerns from some privacy experts and advocates. Clear’s shift to its new screening technology, which the company is calling NextGen Identity Plus, also includes stronger verification of identity documents by comparing them “back to the issuing source,” the company told The Washington Post. Clear said it has been collaborating with the Department of Homeland Security and TSA since 2020 to make these changes. Members who pay $189 a year for a Clear Plus subscription will be moved to the new technology free of charge. Just last year, the Transportation Security Administration also announced it would begin using facial recognition technology in its airport checkpoints. Other face recognition systems, like those used by law enforcement agencies, use photos taken of unidentified people (sometimes without explicit consent) and compares them to a large database in order to find a match. Clear’s system differs, the company told The Post, in that it only compares live snapshots taken of travelers using the designated Clear airport lane to data from their enrollment in NextGen Identity Plus. Moving from iris and fingerprint scanning to facial scanning should help customers get through Clear’s checkpoints faster.<br/>
Incheon International Airport, the country’s largest and busiest international air transport hub, expects to see a full-scale recovery in the number of air passengers to pre-pandemic levels next year, Incheon International Airport Corp. said, Wednesday. “The airport has gone through difficult times during the COVID-19 pandemic, but airport operations are back to normal … The number of air passengers has recovered at around 80% of 2019's number and we expect a complete recovery next year, which is a year earlier than the initial forecast,” IIAC President Lee Hag-jae said during a press conference at the company headquarters in Incheon. By the end of the year, the company predicts around 56m air passengers will use the airport, which is a 213.1% jump from last year and a recovery of 78.6% of the 2019 figure. The increase is due to soaring air travel demand from and to neighboring Japan and Southeast Asian countries followed by an international rebound in overseas travel, the company explained. Next year, the airport expects to receive 67.5m to 71m air passengers, which is nearly equivalent to or slightly over pre-pandemic levels. Amid the global economic recession and worsening semiconductor industry, the airport expects a 6.9% decrease in cargo transport at 2.7m tons this year. However, the figure was on a gradual upswing in the latter half of the year, according to IIAC. Following this momentum, the company is optimistic about a turnaround in net profit for the first time in three years — by the end of the year. The company expects its annual turnover will reach 2.1t won ($1.6b) with a net profit of around 380b won, which is a 132% and 72% increase from last year, respectively.<br/>
A new hotel with at least 220 rooms will be built at Changi Airport Terminal 2 by 2027 to cater to an expected growth in passenger traffic. This will be the third landside hotel at the airport, and it will be built above the coach stand at the southern end of the newly reopened T2. Landside refers to the areas of the airport that are before immigration clearance and accessible to the public. The two current landside hotels there are the 130-room Yotelair Singapore Changi Airport in Jewel, which opened in 2019, and Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, which is next to T3 and has 563 rooms. It opened in 2008. There are four airside hotels catering to transit passengers at T1, T2, T3 and the JetQuay terminal, which serves commercially important passengers. Airport operator Changi Airport Group (CAG) had called a tender in August to develop the new landside hotel at T2, and is slated to award the contract by April 2024. In a tender document seen by The Straits Times, CAG said adding a third landside hotel will serve increased tourist flows around the Changi precinct, for which it is working with the relevant government agencies to develop tourism products.<br/>
Boeing has won a key clearance from China’s aviation regulator, moving it a step closer to resuming deliveries of 737 Max aircraft to the country after a more than four-year freeze, trade publication The Air Current said on Wednesday. Individual aircraft deliveries to China that were suspended in 2019 after two deadly crashes still need approval from China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the report said. “We continue to support our customers in China and will be ready to deliver for our customers when that time comes,” Boeing said in a statement. China’s aviation regulator’s deputy head on Dec. 8 told a Boeing executive in Beijing the airplane maker was welcome to deepen its development in the Chinese market, Reuters reported. The Air Current, citing unnamed sources, said the regulator’s clearance was granted that day. Chinese imports of the Max, Boeing’s most profitable product, have been suspended since it was grounded worldwide in 2019. Safety bans have been lifted, with Max aircraft delivered before the grounding already flying inside China, but new deliveries have remained on hold. A 737 Max designated for China Southern Airlines flew from Boeing Field in Seattle to Boeing’s nearby facility in Moses Lake, Washington, and back on Wednesday afternoon, according to data from flight tracking website FlightRadar24. Analysts from Jefferies and Deutsche Bank said in investor notes that it appeared to be a customer acceptance flight - a test flight operated by an airline pilot that occurs before delivery. For Boeing, restarting deliveries would symbolize the re-opening of doors to one of the world’s most important aerospace markets, which Boeing projects will compose 20% of the world’s aircraft demand through 2042.<br/>
In-flight internet connectivity has come a long way since 2003, when Connexion by Boeing launched and Lufthansa and British Airways became the first airlines to test it out. Airlines depended on ground stations that would relay signals when flying over land, switching to satellite connectivity when flying oceanic. It was slow. But over the past 20 years, in-flight internet service has been one of the fastest changing aspects of passenger experience. Now, we have a real possibility of getting blazing-fast internet on board. SpaceX started to launch Starlink satellites in 2019 and now has over 5,500 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and an ability to bring online any part of the Earth that has an unobstructed line of sight to the sky. In October 2022, SpaceX rolled out Starlink products that could provide satellite internet connectivity to aircraft and branded them Starlink Aviation. At the time, SpaceX advertised global internet coverage, which would be possible by installing a small antenna atop the aircraft. It said that passengers could expect speeds of up to 350 megabits per second, making video streaming possible on board. Starlink’s website lists a monthly price of $25,000 to provide the service and an additional $150,000 for the hardware per aircraft. JSX, which operates over 40 Embraer Regional Jet aircraft in the United States with only 30 passenger seats, became the first airline to roll out connectivity using the Starlink Ku-band Low Earth Orbit connectivity solution in late 2022. Story has more.<br/>