Heathrow airport’s new boss is working on a plan to expand the airport’s capacity regardless of whether it builds a third runway, after returning to profit for the first time since the pandemic. Thomas Woldbye, who joined in October from Copenhagen airport, has launched a sweeping review of the airport’s strategy, including whether the controversial megaproject to build a third runway in west London is affordable. “The third runway is a huge issue, both for the UK and for the airport and also for the society around us. And we have to make sure we get it right,“ he told the Financial Times. But Heathrow is forecasting record passenger numbers this year, and Woldbye said the airport would prioritise smaller infrastructure improvements to increase passenger capacity and free up “bottlenecks”, from parking to baggage systems. The airport is limited to 480,000 flights a year, but better infrastructure would allow airlines to cram more passengers through the airport, either through larger planes or filling up their current flights, which are on average 20% empty when flying into Heathrow. “If we can improve every little point just a little bit it’s actually quite a significant additional effect,” Woldbye said. Heathrow is in the midst of the biggest shake-up of its ownership since its privatisation in the 1990s, after Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial in November said it would sell its 25% stake to Saudi Arabia’s PIF and French buyout group Ardian for GBP2.4b. Three other shareholders — the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme, Canada’s Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Singapore’s GIC — have also exercised a right to try to sell their stakes alongside Ferrovial, leading to a scramble to fund buyers for the 60% of the airport which is set to change hands. The airport said it could “plausibly” pay its owners a dividend this year, depending on its financial performance, but said one is not currently planned. “I think successful businesses should pay dividends . . . to get a healthy Heathrow we need investors that want to invest, and to get investors who want to invest they need to get returns,“ Woldbye said.<br/>
general
Airbus and Boeing are snapping up fresh orders from Asian airlines at the Singapore Airshow this week, even as concerns over the planemakers' struggles to ramp up production loom large at the region's largest aviation expo. Airbus and Boeing have been plagued by delivery delays due to supply chain turbulence at a time when many global airlines are rushing to bolster their fleets, with some industry players expecting the disruption to last a few more years. Boeing is also facing a series of serious safety and quality control issues following a cabin panel blowout on one of its aircraft last month. On Wednesday, Taiwan's Starlux Airlines announced it had placed a firm order with Airbus for five A350 freighters and three A330neo wide-body passenger jets, in which the latter will be delivered across 2025 and 2026. That marks the first time Starlux has ordered its own freighter jets. Launched in 2020, Starlux is the island's newest full-service airline, competing against long-established carriers such as China Airlines and Eva Airways. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Starlux Chairman Chang Kuo-wei said the company is looking to take advantage of cargo flows from Asian markets to North America. "Taiwan is becoming a big IT cargo hub," Chang said on the sidelines of the airshow. Chang added that the company is seeking to have the option to order five more freighters. For passenger jets, Chang said the carrier is looking to become a transit airline for travelers from Southeast Asia to North America as it plans to expand its routes beyond Asia, including a new Seattle flight to begin in the middle of the year. The new deals came after Airbus' American rival Boeing on Tuesday said that Thai Airways had placed a firm order of 45 wide-body 787-9 aircraft, the largest-ever airplane deal from Thailand. With deliveries starting in 2027, the airline is looking to open new routes to support high demand for air travel across Southeast Asia. <br/>
Airlines from Singapore and Saudi Arabia will be allowed to mount more flights between the two countries under an upgraded air services agreement that took effect on Feb 19. Carriers from the two countries will also be able to operate more fifth-freedom flights without any restrictions on routing, capacity or aircraft type, said the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) in a statement on Feb 21. Fifth-freedom traffic rights allow an airline to fly from its home country to another country and offload passengers and freight, before picking up passengers and cargo and proceeding to a third country. This means a Saudi Arabia-based airline, for instance, can fly to a destination in South-east Asia with a stop in Singapore using these rights. In response to queries, CAAS said the upgraded agreement allows airlines from both countries to exercise fifth-freedom traffic rights to fly between Singapore and Saudi Arabia via points anywhere in the world, or beyond either country to anywhere in the world. Previously, the fifth-freedom traffic rights under the agreement could be exercised only via specific points, or beyond to specific points.<br/>
Demand for SAF should see a long-sought boost after regional airline hub Singapore said it would require SAF on flights from 2026, but high costs and uncertain raw material supply will mean barriers to wider adoption remain. The city-state will initially require flights to use 1% SAF, possibly rising to 3%-5% by 2030 depending on wider availability and adoption, which will be paid for by a levy on tickets, its transport minister said on Monday ahead of the Singapore Airshow this week. Aviation produces about 2% of the world's emissions and is considered one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise because of the high costs and lack of SAF supply and the long life of aircraft limits the introduction of newer technologies to lower emissions. SAF, which can be made synthetically from hydrogen or from biological materials such as used cooking oil or wood chips, can cost five times as much as conventional fuel and accounts for just 0.2% of the jet fuel market. Based on Singapore's targets, consultants Wood Mackenzie forecast that its SAF demand will rise to about 2,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2026, increasing up to 10,000 bpd in 2030. "More investments are required to bring down the price of SAF such that it can be more widely adopted, especially outside of Singapore where markets can be more price sensitive," said Sushant Gupta, research director for Asia Pacific, refining and oils market, at Wood Mackenzie.<br/>
Six Thai airlines have asked permission to operate more domestic flights during holiday periods following a public outcry over soaring airfares. Representatives of Thai Airways International, Bangkok Airways, Thai AirAsia, Thai Lion Air, Nok Air and Thai Vietjet met with the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) on Tuesday to discuss ways of reducing fares. The meeting was called after social media uproar over domestic flight prices that have soared as high as 10,000 baht for a one-way trip from Bangkok to Phuket. At the meeting, which was called by Transport Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit, the CAAT asked the airlines to explain why ticket prices were so high during long weekends and holidays. Suriya said the meeting resulted in both short-term and long-term measures to bring down domestic airfares. For the short term, airlines asked for permission to operate more flights during the holiday season, especially in the morning and evening, so they could offer alternative tickets at cheaper prices.<br/>
Boeing said Wednesday that the head of its 737 jetliner program is leaving the company in an executive shake-up weeks after a door panel blew out on a flight over Oregon, renewing questions about safety at the company. Boeing announced that Ed Clark, who had been with the company for nearly 18 years and led the 737 program since early 2021, was leaving immediately. Clark oversaw the factory in Renton, Washington, where final assembly took place on the Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 involved in last month’s accident. Federal investigators said bolts needed to help keep a panel called a door plug in place were missing after repair work on the plane. Katie Ringgold, a vice president in charge of delivering 737s to airlines, will succeed Clark as vice president and general manager of the 737 program and the Renton factory, according to an email to employees from Stan Deal, the CEO of Boeing’s commercial airplanes division. The company announced several other appointments, including naming longtime executive Elizabeth Lund to the new position of senior vice president for commercial airplanes quality. The moves are part of the company’s “enhanced focus on ensuring that every airplane we deliver meets or exceeds all quality and safety requirements,” Deal said in his email to staff. “Our customers demand, and deserve, nothing less.” The blowout of a panel on the Alaska Airlines Max 9 has led to more scrutiny of Boeing by regulators, Congress and airlines. The FAA grounded all Max 9s in the U.S. for about three weeks for inspections of the emergency door panels, and the agency is limiting Boeing production until other quality concerns are resolved. FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said Boeing is not paying enough attention to safety as it tries to build more planes to meet demand from airlines.<br/>
Boeing accused the world’s biggest oil companies of doing too little to produce sustainable jet fuel as frustration inside the aviation industry grows about the lack of supply. Sustainable aviation fuel, made from waste oils and agricultural feedstock, can cut carbon emissions from air travel by as much as 80%, according to the airline sector. An enormous ramp-up in production is essential to give the industry a chance of reaching its target of carbon neutrality by 2050. Global supply of SAF, as the sustainable fuel is commonly called, meets barely 1% of the aviation industry’s requirements. Major oil producers “need to lean in harder” and crank up production, Robert Boyd, Boeing’s head of sustainability for the Asia-Pacific region, said in an interview at the Singapore Airshow on Tuesday. Smaller and less-established green fuel producers such as Neste Oyj and SkyNRG BV are doing a better job of building out a sustainable aviation fuel industry than well-resourced giants like Exxon Mobil Corp., according to Boyd. “I don’t think they’re doing enough,” he said of the traditional energy sector. The inadequate flow of SAF has been a major talking point at the air show. Lifting supply is also essential to making SAF more affordable for airlines. Conventional jet fuel is already one of the biggest costs for carriers, and SAF can be three to five times more expensive. Aviation’s transition to net zero will require an investment of as much as $5t through 2050, much of it needed to increase sustainable fuel production, according to the IATA. IATA chief Willie Walsh on Monday implored oil producers to make more low-emissions aviation fuel. Every drop that’s made will be bought, even at the current high price, Walsh said. Speaking at an aviation summit in Singapore, he described the airline industry’s struggle to decarbonize as an “existential issue.”<br/>
Business executives have been using corporate planes for personal vacation travel and illegally writing off the flights as business expenses, the IRS alleged Wednesday as agency leaders vowed to crack down on the deductions. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said that U.S. companies own more than 10,000 private planes. The IRS will start auditing a few dozen of their corporate owners, selected with the help of technology that combs businesses’ deductions for suspicious patterns. The audit campaign, the IRS said, may expand eventually to more companies or to individuals who took the free vacation travel. Companies can write off the upfront cost of purchasing planes, but when it comes to flights on those aircraft, the law limits write-offs to business trips. When executives use a plane for personal purposes, the company can’t deduct that — and the executives are supposed to report the trips on their own tax returns as income received. “If a personal vacation trip was taken on that corporate jet, the company should avoid taking the business deduction,” Werfel said in a news conference Wednesday. “What we believe is happening is there’s not enough robust record-keeping going on, and there is systemic overstating of these business deductions, and that’s what we’re looking to tackle.” The new audit campaign focused on airplanes is just one of many steps Werfel has taken as commissioner to increase scrutiny on high-wealth taxpayers and large corporations. Agency officials have said that they can collect hundreds of billions from tax cheats as long as lawmakers don’t strip the IRS of previously approved funds.<br/>
Imagine it’s the year 2030 and you’re heading to the airport to catch a flight. At the curb, you hop onto a Segway-like scooter that will serve as your personal airport vehicle. It scans data from your phone to determine your gate number and glides in and out of massive elevator banks—no escalators—to move between check-in and security floors. Along the way, a machine scans your face to verify your identity and directs you to an individual security tunnel where you self-screen your luggage. None of this is science fiction. Within six years, architecture firm Gensler says it will install such a prototype at a major North American airport, including all of the above features. “Airports are starting to shift toward autonomy,” says Ty Osbaugh, who is heading up the project as Gensler’s global cities sector leader. Airport innovation is happening faster than we think, he says, foreseeing a focus on self-service in keeping with an already dominant lifestyle that prefers digitization to real-life interactions. This is not a novel idea. Use of biometric technologies has grown steadily at airports for years, and self-serve security checkpoints have already begun use in experimental pilot programs (typically for pre-screened travelers) in such major cities as New York, Dubai and Tokyo. There’s business justification for all this that goes well beyond convenience and modernization. As airport terminals lengthen to accommodate larger airplanes—which need wider spaces between gates to be able to maneuver in and out of parking spaces—airlines have noticed that passengers are struggling to get to their gates on time, resulting in missed flights and connections. Technological enhancements can help passengers reach gates on time—and make quick connections—making airline operations smoother and more efficient. Osbaugh says these changes will eventually become standard practice in the industry. Updating an existing airport terminal is time-consuming, expensive work that often costs hundreds of millions of dollars—and sometimes billions, as with New York-area airports Newark International (EWR) and LaGuardia (LGA), which both debuted facilities last year after massive, 10-figure renovations. <br/>