The Belgian family of four was on their fourth trip to the United States. They had been dreading the long line at passport control when they entered the country but had heard about a new app they could use to ease their way and decided to give it a shot. Within minutes, they had bypassed the long line at Washington Dulles International Airport and were waiting for their luggage. “It was always a long row,” said Piet De Staercke of the line to go through passport screening. He, his wife and two sons were visiting Washington and Chicago. “We were a bit scared. But now with the app, it’s amazing.” As travel continues to boom following pandemic-related slumps, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is expanding the use of technology like the Mobile Passport Control app the De Staercke family used in an effort to process the ever-growing number of passengers traveling internationally. And with events like a rare solar eclipse, the Olympics in Paris, and summer holidays still driving international travel, those numbers don’t look set to drop any time soon. Story features Customs and Border Protection officials giving a behind-the-scenes look at some of the technologies they’ve been using and what to expect in the months and years ahead.<br/>
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European airlines have cut back on routes to Asia since the pandemic, bowing to tough competition from state-backed Middle Eastern carriers that have convinced passengers to fly via their hub airports with cheaper fares. Airlines flew 22mn seats between Europe and Asia last year, down 26% on 2019 and the lowest number in at least 14 years, other than during the coronavirus pandemic, according to industry data provider Cirium. Travel between Europe and Asia has been complicated by the slow reopening of many Asian economies following the coronavirus pandemic. European airlines are also banned from flying over Russian airspace, resulting in longer journeys to much of east Asia. But the bosses of Lufthansa and Air France-KLM said their airlines have slashed their direct flights to many major Asian economies because of competition from Gulf airlines, which often offer cheaper fares for passengers willing to catch a connecting flight in the Middle East. “We have minimal service now to south-east Asia. We’ve lost all that traffic to Middle Eastern carriers, and in the financial situation we have today and our cost structure, and the advantage those carriers have, we won’t get it back,” Air France-KLM CE Ben Smith told an industry conference last month. Lufthansa’s Carsten Spohr agreed, and added that the German carrier used to fly directly to 14 destinations in Asia, but now only flies to Singapore and Bangkok. “It’s not just talk, we lost connectivity to Asia, because it’s all now going through . . . government-owned hubs,” he said at the conference. Dubai’s Emirates, Qatar Airways and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad are all government owned and have revolutionised intercontinental flying over the past 25 years by turning the Gulf into a main stopover destination. As well as competitive pricing, they have also invested in premium products and services that have set new standards for in-flight hospitality. Abdul Wahab Teffaha, secretary-general of the Arab Air Carriers Organization, said that the Gulf airlines were more competitive than their European rivals because of their “better cost base and better holistic product”.<br/>
If Thailand wants to achieve its goal of becoming a regional aviation hub, international airlines recommend facilities development at key airports, serving more than flight services, in addition to seamless transport between airports and inner cities. The Thai government wants airports in Thailand to transport 150m passengers per year by 2030. Egaluk Ngiwprom, Southeast Asia marketing manager of Spring Airlines, said this is an ambitious target, but many facets need improvement. Before they increase flights, airlines would consider efficient connections between an airport and cities or major destinations, said Mr Egaluk. He said while regional airports such as Chiang Rai and U-tapao have potential to lure international flights, the lack of transport from the airport hamper their appeal. "We are concerned about the readiness of transport facilities, as travel following the pandemic has shifted to independent visitors, who have different demands than tour groups" said Mr Egaluk. As Spring Airlines relocates its operations to the new SAT-1 building at Suvarnabhumi airport, he said this building is inconvenient for tourists looking for shopping and dining options while waiting for flights.<br/>
Thailand welcomed 9,370,297 overseas visitors between Jan 1 and March 31, a 44% jump year-on-year, the Tourism and Sports Ministry has reported. These visitors have generated tourism income of around 454.65b baht for Thai entrepreneurs, it added. China was the top source market for foreign tourists to Thailand, with 1,756,337 arrivals, followed by Malaysia (1,168,574), Russia (622,813), South Korea (558,873), India (472,952), Germany (315,033), Laos (308,097), the United Kingdom (290,486), the United States (280,248) and Japan (271,427). The ministry added that these statistics only include arrivals processed by the Immigration Office, and do not include those who entered Thailand by land through border passes. The ministry said that the main factors contributing to this trend is the permanent visa waiver deal for Thai and Chinese citizens, and increasing flights to Thailand offered by several airlines. Thailand and China have agreed to waive visa requirements for their citizens permanently from March 1, a policy that came into effect almost immediately after the earlier visa-free process expired.<br/>
After three years of scrambling to hire and train pilots, United Airlines is encouraging its aviators to take unpaid time off next month, the latest example of how woes at Boeing - including delays in aircraft delivery - are rippling through the aviation industry. Production limits imposed on Boeing after a piece of the wall blew off an Alaska Airlines plane midflight in January are in part responsible for the delays, which are forcing carriers to halt hiring and rethink schedules even as demand for air travel remains robust. Southwest, which operates an all-Boeing fleet, had anticipated receiving 58 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft but will instead receive 46. Boeing’s continued challenges, Southwest said in a regulatory filing, may require it to reduce the number of seats it offers and rethink its capital spending program, which includes investments in aircraft and technology upgrades. As a result, Southwest said it would pause hiring, including for pilots and flight attendants, as it revamps its schedule for the second half of the year. The carrier said it will offer updated guidance for 2024 operations during its earnings call this month. United has also paused pilot hiring for May and June, though it may resume in July. “As you know, United has hundreds of new planes on order and while we remain on a path to be the fastest growing airline in the industry, we just won’t grow as fast as we thought we would in 2024 due to continued delays at Boeing,” the carrier said in a memo to employees. “For example, we had contractual deliveries for 80 Max 10s this year alone - but those aircraft aren’t even certified yet and it’s impossible to know when they will arrive.” A note sent by union officials to United pilots last week cited “recent changes to our Boeing deliveries” as a reason for the voluntary time off programs. The airline confirmed the offer saying the voluntary time off programs will be used to reduce excess staffing for the month of May.<br/>
Boeing has turned to India as an emerging R&D and supply chain hub as it tries to recover from a series of incidents that have shaken confidence in the U.S. aerospace manufacturer. In January, Boeing opened a new engineering and technology center in the city of Bengaluru, known as India's tech capital. The campus cost 16b rupees ($191m), which Boeing said is the largest investment of its kind outside the US. "Today, the middle class of India has 300m people," said Ryan Weir, Boeing's vice president of commercial sales and marketing for India. "That's over two times [the population] of Japan -- almost the size of the whole United State with just the middle class." Weir said this demographic will fuel the growth of India's aviation industry going forward. Boeing first established a wholly-owned Indian subsidiary in 2003 and has operated a research and development facility there since 2009. The company has added about 1,000 workers annually over the past three years, and now the operation boasts 5,500 engineers, the largest headcount outside the US. The new technology center will coordinate with Boeing's US arm to develop new aircraft models, underscoring India's higher profile within Boeing's umbrella. Boeing plans to form closer relationships with the over-300 suppliers in India. They provide structural components and electronic devices, among other deliverables. The US company is expected to support suppliers by facilitating the adoption of high-efficiency production systems and training engineers. These efforts will help improve production across a wide scope. In India, Boeing is also engaging in local production of critical aircraft components. Last year, a joint venture between Boeing and Indian conglomerate Tata Group started making tail fin structures for the 737. Previously the joint venture mainly made helicopters.<br/>
The US Justice Department plans to meet with the families of the of the victims of two Boeing 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people as the government decides whether to move ahead with a criminal case, relatives of the victims said. Boeing won immunity from criminal prosecution as part of the $2.5b Justice Department agreement struck in January 2021 over a 737 MAX fraud conspiracy charge related to the plane's flawed design. Boeing had to abide by the terms of the agreement for a three-year period that ended on Jan. 7. The Justice Department is deciding whether the Jan. 5, 2024 Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 mid-air emergency and Boeing's conduct breaches the agreement, which could allow the Justice Department to move forward with a criminal case against the company. The Justice Department has until July 7 to make a decision.<br/>The department is holding a meeting with relatives on April 24, said Michael Stumo, whose daughter was killed in the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 crash. "They were bludgeoned into recognizing us as victims," Stumo said, who was invited and plans to attend the meeting. The Seattle Times reported the planned meeting earlier. The Justice Department, which declined to comment on the meeting, in 2022 updated its guidelines for notifying victims of potential crimes after relatives of those killed in Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019. The relatives said their legal rights had been violated after the government had failed to meet with crash victims' relatives before the department struck the Boeing plea deal.<br/>
Airbus SE delivered about 145 aircraft in the first three months of the year as the planemaker works to ramp up output and meet its annual handover goal of 800 jets. The European planemaker delivered about 65 jets to airlines in March, an increase from the 49 shipped in February and more than double those handed over in January, according to a person familiar with the matter. The final tally may still change slightly, the person cautioned asking not to be identified ahead of an official release of data. Airbus is trying to push its strained supply chain to ramp up output at a time when demand for aircraft remains at record levels, even as its main rival Boeing Co. remains mired in crisis following a near-catastrophic accident at the start of the year. An Airbus spokesperson declined to comment on its deliveries ahead of a scheduled release later this month.<br/>