Global airline traffic among the IATA membership in February exceeded pre-Covid levels for the first time since the pandemic, aided by the leap year adding an extra day to the month. Passenger traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) was 5.7% above February 2019 levels during the month, IATA data released on 4 April shows, having been 0.4% down in January and within a few percentage points of pre-Covid traffic since early summer 2023. Capacity was some 5.8% higher, with load factor broadly flat against 2019 at 80.6%. “A strong recovery in all regions and important markets as well as a particularly busy month of February contributed to this outcome,” the airline association says. International RPKs were 0.9% above 2019 levels in February, while domestic traffic was up 13.7%, data shows. On a year-on-year basis, global RPKs were 21.5% higher in February, IATA adds. Asia-Pacific carriers continue to contribute huge year-on-year rises in traffic – 38% in February, including more than 50% growth in international markets – but equally continue to be the only regional grouping that lags 2019 international traffic in terms of absolute RPK figures, notably given the tentative return of China to overseas connectivity since it reopened as 2023 began. In contrast, China’s huge domestic market is a key driver as local and global domestic traffic continues to trend significantly above pre-Covid levels and year-ago figures. The busy lunar new year travel period fell within February this year and in 2019, but was in January in 2023. In other international airline markets where growth has long gone through the post-Covid-restrictions boom, IATA still notes “resilient” figures that suggest “consistent expansion”. IATA separately announced on 3 April that February saw air cargo demand rise by 11.9% year on year, becoming the third consecutive month of double-digit growth.<br/>
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Boeing’s latest 737 Max crisis has worsened an airline shortage of popular narrowbody aircraft, sending the cost of used-jet rentals to the highest level in years. The US planemaker has slowed production of its bestselling model to address quality lapses tied to a near-disaster on a 737 Max 9 in January. With Airbus SE also struggling to lift output, available planes remain scarce. As a result, airlines are searching out leased ones — especially the largest single-aisle jets that carry more passengers. A 3-year-old 737 Max 9, the largest narrowbody in production at Boeing, now commands a higher monthly rent than before the pandemic, according to data from Ishka Global, which tracks aircraft prices. The price of an earlier 737-900ER is approaching January 2020 levels. A similar trend has boosted fees for the Airbus A321neo and the prior A321-200 variant. According to the Ishka figures, the monthly rate for the Max 9 model stood at $315,000 in March, compared with $305,000 at the start of 2020. The Airbus A321-200 costs $335,000 to lease per month, bringing it back to the level of January 2020. Lessors have gained leverage and are now more likely to shift planes from struggling airlines to ones that are willing to pay a premium, said Eddy Pieniazek, head of advisory at Ishka Global. Carriers “are competing with a decreasing pool of available assets,” he said. Rental prices for used aircraft had already surged in 2023, following a shortage that developed when air travel quickly rebounded from the pandemic. While airlines ordered jets in record numbers, Airbus and Boeing have taken longer to rebuild output. While Airbus deliveries are increasing, supplier constraints have slowed its progress toward surpassing pre-Covid production. Airlines are also grappling with engine issues that have grounded hundreds of A320-series planes — further squeezing availability.<br/>
Hundreds of people have bypassed some Transportation Security Administration measures at airports in the past 12 months, the agency told The Washington Post, revealing a vulnerability in air travel that has been reflected in a series of incidents. In November, for instance, two women were arrested at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for breaching a secured exit when they were running late to their flight. Then there was a ticketed traveler at Palm Springs International Airport who walked through an unstaffed body scanner on Feb. 22, leading authorities to evacuate post-security areas as a precaution. Also in February, a woman at the Nashville International Airport bypassed TSA officers who check IDs and sneaked into the bag-screening line. After her belongings passed through the X-ray, she boarded an American Airlines flight without a ticket. She flew to Los Angeles International, where she was detained by the FBI. She has not been charged; the FBI said it could not comment on a pending investigation. “It is a larger number than we realized,” said TSA spokesperson R. Carter Langston. Since March 2023, there have been at least 300 instances of people bypassing parts of airport security, Langston said. He described security lapses as a “trend” that has caught TSA’s attention - and an issue the agency is attempting to mitigate. Security experts say airports and airplanes remain some of the safest public spaces in the United States. But a rise in passengers bypassing security increases the chances, no matter how small, of someone dangerous sneaking through.<br/>
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday urged the nation's largest passenger airlines to improve travel benefits for active-duty military personnel and their families. The department in May plans to begin posting comparative information on travel benefits that airlines guarantee for service members and their families on a customer service dashboard. USDOT plans to detail airlines that will commit to full refunds to service members and their families who cancel travel plans due to military directives as well as allowances for free baggage. Most carriers give military personnel additional free bags and other benefits like priority boarding or discounted fares. There are about 1.3m active-duty US military personnel and around 800,000 reservists. Buttigieg said "benefits are not consistently detailed in carriers’ public-facing Customer Service Plans, resulting in many service members being unaware of them" and added that "airlines’ travel benefits often do not fully address the needs of service members who may need to cancel or change personal travel plans due to military directives." Major carriers including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines did not immediately comment or referred questions to trade group Airlines for America, which did not immediately comment. The Transportation Department previously posted a government dashboard highlighting airline commitments to not charge families to sit together. In September 2022, nearly all major airlines agreed to guarantee passengers meals and overnight stays for lengthy delays within their control after USDOT first announced a dashboard comparing customer protections.<br/>
The authority overseeing the Montreal airport plans to spend nearly $4b in a bid to reduce congestion and ramp up capacity at the country's second-biggest flight hub. The announcement Thursday comes after rising passenger volumes and surging car traffic last summer prompted a wave of frustration among travellers trying to make their planes on time. Gridlock on the road leading to Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport last year routinely prompted car passengers to exit their vehicles and haul their bags along the highway off-ramp to the airport, particularly in late afternoon and early evening. The blueprint for the airport upgrades includes an expanded roadway running past the main entrance, new parking lots and drop-off areas, a satellite terminal and a connection to the REM commuter rail line. In a speech to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, Aéroports de Montréal CEO Yves Beauchamp said Thursday it aims to complete the projects by 2028. "We are engaged in a race. We have four years to be able to welcome 4m more people than today," he told attendees in French at a downtown hotel. "We need to add capacity to our welcome infrastructure, both on the land side and on the air side." Travel has rebounded after the pandemic nosedive, with a record 21m travellers passing through the Montreal airport last year, up 32% from 2022. "After a forced break of two years, we are back on the growth curve from before. But because of this hiatus, we have less time to carry out the absolutely necessary work," Beauchamp said. The CEO also said he was in favour of opening the floodgates to private capital once the work is done in order to finance more construction under consideration for 2035. The additional investments would cost another $3b to $4b, Beauchamp told reporters. "New financial tools will be necessary," he said. The chamber of commerce has also put pressure on the federal government to increase airports' financial flexibility.<br/>
Russia is "very likely" behind a series of disturbances affecting GPS navigation in the Baltic region, the German Defence Ministry said on Thursday, pointing to the Kaliningrad exclave as a source of the problem. "The persistent disruptions to the global navigation satellite system are very likely of Russian origin and are based on disruptions in the electromagnetic spectrum, including those originating in the Kaliningrad Oblast," a spokesperson for the ministry told Reuters, confirming a report by news website t-online. Last month, a government source told Reuters that Russia was believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an aircraft used by British defence minister Grant Shapps when it flew close to Kaliningrad. The aviation industry has voiced concern over a surge in GPS interference linked to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. The jamming of GPS signals can be disruptive to commercial airliners but they can usually navigate by other means.<br/>
Boeing and Airbus are edging towards a potentially coordinated deal to split operations of troubled supplier Spirit AeroSystems, taking on plants needed to support their top jet programs, people familiar with the matter said. If successful, any agreement involving the two aerospace giants would end Boeing’s 20-year effort to farm out key elements of its production process as it grapples with a sprawling crisis that erupted after a January mid-air panel blowout on a 737 MAX plane. But in order for Boeing to regain control of its supply chain, it has to deal with its arch-rival Airbus, which accounts for roughly one-fifth of Spirit’s revenues. The people said the world’s only two large commercial aircraft makers are exploring how to untangle their respective ties with Spirit through a carefully timed "framework" deal. All three companies are talking to each other, one of the people said, though the format of the discussions is unclear. It is rare for Airbus and Boeing to cooperate directly except on environmental or safety issues due to antitrust concerns, and it was not immediately clear if they had met face to face. Until now, Boeing has looked set to buy the whole of Spirit back in one piece and only then tackle how to sell worldwide factories that largely supply its European rival. An Airbus spokesperson said it was considering various options and declined further comment. Boeing declined comment. A Spirit spokesman said, "Organizationally, our focus remains on providing the highest quality product to our customers. That will not change."<br/>
The basic design of commercial airplanes hasn’t changed much in the past 60 years. Modern airliners like the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350 have the same general shape as the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8, which were built in the late 1950s and solidified the “tube and wing” form factor that is still in use today. This is because commercial aviation prioritizes safety, favoring tried-and-tested solutions, and because other developments — in materials and engines, for example — mean the traditional design is still relevant. However, a seismic shake-up is about to take place. An entirely new aircraft shape has been cleared to take off into California skies. At the end of last month, Long Beach-based JetZero announced that Pathfinder, its 1:8 scale “blended wing body” demonstrator plane, has been granted an FAA Airworthiness certificate and test flights are imminent. As the industry desperately looks for ways to reduce carbon emissions, it faces a somewhat tougher challenge than other sectors precisely because its core technologies have proven so hard to move away from. It’s a ripe time to innovate. The “blended wing body” looks similar to the “flying wing” design used by military aircraft such as the iconic B-2 bomber, but the blended wing has more volume in the middle section. Both Boeing and Airbus are tinkering with the idea, and JetZero’s new milestone brings it a little closer to its ambitious goal of putting into service a blended wing aircraft as soon as 2030. “We feel very strongly about a path to zero emissions in big jets, and the blended wing airframe can deliver 50% lower fuel burn and emissions,” Tom O’Leary, co-founder and CEO of JetZero, told CNN in August 2023. “That is a staggering leap forward in comparison to what the industry is used to.”<br/>
Every time a rocket soars into the sky carrying satellites or supplies for the International Space Station, air traffic controllers on the ground must take crucial steps to ensure that commercial and passenger aircraft remain safe. The controllers, hired by the Federal Aviation Administration, close the airspace, provide real-time information on rockets and their debris and then reopen the airspace quickly after a launch is completed. But unlike airlines, which pay federal taxes for air traffic controllers’ work for each time their planes take off, commercial space companies are not required to pay for their launches. That includes companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has launched more than 300 rockets over the past 15 years that often carried satellites for its Starlink internet service. The Biden administration is looking to change that. President Biden’s latest budget proposal, released last month, suggests that for-profit space companies start paying for their use of government resources. Commercial space companies are exempt from aviation excise taxes that fill the coffers of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which pays for the F.A.A.’s work and will get roughly $18b in tax revenues for the current fiscal year. The taxes are paid primarily by commercial airlines, which are charged 7.5% of each ticket price and an additional fee of about $5 to $20 per passenger, depending on the destination of each flight. Biden’s budget proposal vows to work with Congress to overhaul the tax structure and split the cost of operating the nation’s air traffic control system. His promise is based in part on an independent safety review report commissioned by the F.A.A., which advises that the federal government update the excise taxes to charge commercial space companies.<br/>