Global air travel volume is expected to finally exceed pre-Covid-19 levels in 2024 as the Asia-Pacific region makes a full recovery, said industry observers. Driven by sustained demand, this could make 2024 a banner year for airline profits. The industry made a dramatic recovery in 2022 and 2023, bouncing back from record pandemic-era losses to near-2019 levels. However, persistent supply issues and thin profit margins are among the obstacles to aviation’s strong showing. Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (Aapa) director-general Subhas Menon said: “In 2024, air travel recovery will be complete.” The IATA forecasts that in 2024, airlines will make US$25.7b in profits, on the back of a record US$964b in revenue. It expects all regions to hit pre-pandemic passenger levels by end-2023 – except for the Asia-Pacific, where full recovery is anticipated in early 2024. For 2023, global revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) are expected to be 38.4% higher than 2022, but still 4.8% short compared to 2019. Iata expects RPK to grow 9.8% in 2024, rising to 4.5% above 2019 levels. All this is based on a projected 4.7b air passengers in 2024, 9% more than the 4.5b in 2019.<br/>
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Conditions were mostly nice this year for travelers flying ahead of and on Christmas, but some naughty disruptions again plagued those flying with Southwest Airlines. For millions of people traveling over the holiday, this year was much better than last. Christmas morning put a bow on a relatively smooth weekend. Only 157 flights within, into or out of the U.S. had been canceled and 2,111 were delayed as of late afternoon on Monday, according to the tracking website FlightAware. For this holiday season, U.S. airlines prepared for massive waves of travelers by hiring thousands of pilots, flight attendants and other workers — in an effort to avoid the delays and cancellations that marred travel in 2022, culminating with the Southwest Airlines debacle that stranded more than 2m people. Still, Southwest experienced hiccups again over the weekend that the airline was looking to clear by Monday. Just 2% of the airline’s flights were canceled Monday, though 16% were delayed, which is 693 flights total, according to FlightAware. On Saturday and Sunday, Southwest canceled 426 flights and delayed 2,689 flights, FlightAware data showed. A Southwest spokesperson blamed the issues on dense fog in Chicago on Saturday and Sunday that prevented planes from landing and said some additional cancellations may be necessary Monday ahead of what was expected to be a full recovery on Tuesday. Auto club AAA predicted that between Saturday and New Year’s Day, 115m people in the U.S. would travel at least 50 miles from home by air or car. That’s up 2% from last year. More than 2.6m people were screened by the TSA on Thursday, according to TSA records. Data from the weekend is yet to be released.<br/>
The Airbus A340 initially had been bound for Nicaragua when it was detained last Thursday at Vatry airport, east of Paris, where it had stopped for refuelling. It had arrived from Dubai and there was an anonymous tip-off that it was carrying potential victims of human trafficking. Of the original 303 people on the passenger list, 276 were on the plane that took off just before 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) Monday. It landed at Mumbai's international airport after a nearly nine-hour flight, just after 4:00 am local time Tuesday (2230 GMT Monday), aviation tracking website Flightradar24 showed. Among the passengers staying behind were two people questioned by French police over suspected people trafficking, but a judicial source said police released them after establishing that the 303 passengers had boarded the plane of their own free will. The French authorities are continuing to investigate the case for violation of immigration laws, but no longer for potential people trafficking, judicial sources said. The suspects' release came because "the investigating judge was able to resist media pressure in this case", said their lawyer, Salome Cohen. The pair have received an expulsion order from France, their lawyers said. The other 25 people have sought asylum in France, the prefecture said. Five of them are minors, it said, updating an earlier figure of two. Their applications would be processed at Charles de Gaulle airport. After questioning the passengers for two days, French prosecutors on Sunday gave the go-ahead for the plane to leave. A source close to the inquiry told AFP that the Indians were likely workers in the United Arab Emirates who had been bound for Nicaragua as a jumping off spot for the United States or Canada. The passengers of the flight, operated by Romanian company Legend Airlines, were put up at the airport during the investigation.<br/>
Türkiye on Monday inaugurated a new runway of its second-biggest airport, seeking to expand the capacity at the facility that has been facing challenges in coping with the growing air and passenger traffic. The new runway, the second biggest in the country, is estimated to more than double the traffic capacity at Sabiha Gökçen, the third busiest airport in Türkiye after the landmark Istanbul Airport and Antalya Airport in the southern resort town. “Sabiha Gökçen Airport plays critical roles in terms of development in business and tourism. We have observed that the airport has been having difficulty meeting the increasing passenger and air traffic,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, indicating the need for infrastructural upgrades. The airport on Istanbul’s Anatolian side managed some 181,000 flights and served about 25m passengers in 2021. This figure rose to 31m in 2022. The January-November arrivals this year left the whole of 2022 behind, as Sabiha Gökçen reached a record passenger count of 34m and managed some 208,000 flights. “We anticipate surpassing 37m passengers by the end of the year,” Erdoğan told the opening ceremony. Sabiha Gökçen Airport noted that it will reach a capacity to serve more than 85m passengers a year.<br/>
Dubai is well-positioned to take advantage of the solid growth in global air travel and the emirate's aviation sector is expected to continue to fuel its economic expansion over the coming years, a report said. Dubai's aviation growth is not only through its geographical location at the meeting point of three continents, but also the government’s determination to invest in the sector, highlights the Emirates NBD Research report written by Daniel Richards, Senior Economist. The aviation sector has become an increasingly important component of Dubai’s economy over recent decades, bolstered by the development of the emirate’s airports, and by the rapid growth of the national carriers, the report says. Indeed, in recent quarters aviation has been the key driver of GDP growth in Dubai. With global air travel set to maintain a solid pace of growth over the decades to come. "With the expected ongoing growth in global air travel, and heavy investment planned into Dubai’s airlines and airports, we anticipate that the sector will continue to be a major contributor to the emirate’s economic growth over the coming years. This will be supported by growth in the domestic population: there are plans to grow the population of Dubai to 5.8m by 2040, from around 3.6m presently. Given that this will largely entail people moving here from abroad, this will in and of itself generate growth in aviation numbers as the new inhabitants travel home or on holidays. "The ongoing growth in Dubai’s tourism sector will also underpin aviation: there were 13.9m overnight visitors to Dubai over January to October 2023, exceeding the pre-pandemic record of 13.5m set in 2019. The aim is to hit 40m visitors by 2040, with the vast majority of these visitors set to come by air," says the report.<br/>
Flight operations at the Delhi airport have been adversely affected due to a thick layer of fog that enveloped the national capital, bringing down the visibility to zero in some parts of the city. The airport issued an advisory urging passengers to contact their concerned airline for flight information. “While landing and take-offs continue at Delhi airport, flights that are not CAT III compliant may get affected. Passengers requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted,” the Delhi airport wrote. Notably, the CAT III instrument landing system is an anti-fog landing system initiated during poor visibility. While the CAT III helps with a precision approach for landing, it will not be helpful if the visibility level is below 50 feet. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a very dense fog with zero visibility is prevailing at the Delhi airport since 5:30 am on Monday. The weather agency added that the visibility in various parts of the national capital dropped to a mere 125 meters. “Very Dense fog with zero Visibility prevailing at Delhi IGI Airport since 0530 hrs IST today. RVR at all RWYs 125 to 175m and Operations are under CAT IIIB,” the IMD wrote in its bulletin.<br/>
Bombardier has secured an order for 12 Challenger 3500 super-midsize business jets from an undisclosed customer. The deal is valued at $326m according to list prices, and deliveries will commence in the second half 2025, says Bombardier. “Bombardier is proud that the Challenger 3500 jet sparks such confidence as the aircraft of choice for a vast majority of operators around the world and continues to meet and exceed the expectations of its discerning clientele,” says Éric Martel, Bombardier’s president and CE. “The Challenger 3500 jet is truly a force to be reckoned with, and this order is a clear demonstration that this platform offers the exceptional experience that clients are seeking.” Cirium fleets data indicates that there are 58 Challenger 3500s in service, with 39 on order excluding the recent 12 aircraft commitment. While most operators have a single aircraft, fractional ownership firm Flexjet operates 13 examples and is not listed as having any orders. Another fractional ownership firm, AirShare, has four examples in service with 30 on order.<br/>