A shortage of aircraft seats is adding to bottlenecks in the industry’s supply chains, hampering plans by airlines to refurbish cabin interiors and unveil new upgraded planes. Aircraft seats, in particular those for first and business class cabins, are among the most important differentiators for airlines in their bid to draw passengers. A combination of factors, including tighter certification rules and shortages of labour stemming from the pandemic, is continuing to hold up their production. The supply chain wobbles have come as airlines race to unveil new cabins as the industry recovers from the impact of the pandemic. Lufthansa in Germany this month unveiled a new set of long-haul cabins as part of a €2.5bn investment, which was significantly delayed because of supply chain problems. Extensive refurbishment programmes by several airlines, including the biggest ever $2bn retrofit programme from Emirates, have added to the demands on suppliers. French jet engine maker Safran, which is also one of the biggest suppliers of aircraft seats, said on Friday that business-class seat deliveries fell 25% in the first quarter as some shipments slipped into the second quarter. Olivier Andriès, CE, said certification rules by regulators had become “much more demanding” and were impacting the “entire interior industry”. Premium seats are “really important to airlines, they are part of the differentiation for passengers but are also really complicated to engineer, to manufacture and to certify”, said Nick Cunningham, analyst at Agency Partners. Executives from Boeing and Airbus said this week that the industry’s supply chain remains constrained, including supplies of cabin equipment. Guillaume Faury, Airbus CE, said the company was still struggling with supplies of cabin equipment, not just limited to seats, as well as with supplies of aerostructures. “It reflects the diversity of the difficulties and challenges in the supply chain.” Boeing, which is struggling to contain its latest crisis following the mid-air blowout of a section of one of its 737 Max aircraft in January, identified seats as a specific reason for constrained production of its 787 wide-body plane.<br/>
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Global airlines have privately lobbied the EU to weaken plans to require the industry to monitor and disclose its impact on global warming from non-carbon dioxide emissions, including the vapour trails that criss-cross the skies, in a letter seen by the Financial Times. Airlines have faced years of scrutiny over their contribution to climate change through CO₂, but the impact of other emissions, including aircraft condensation trails, or contrails, nitrogen oxides and sulphur, is less understood or monitored. In response, the EU is introducing landmark rules to require all airlines to quantify and report the non-CO₂ emissions of flights taking off from within the bloc from January 2025, sparking a backlash from within the industry. Willie Walsh, the director-general of the International Air Transport Association, the airline lobby group, wrote to EU politicians this month to warn of “growing concern across the airline community”, in the letter seen by the FT. The former boss of British Airways called on Brussels to make participation in the scheme voluntary, and to significantly lessen its scope by only applying the rules to flights within the EU. In particular, Walsh said airlines were concerned that non-CO₂ emissions cannot be calculated with the same “high certainty” as CO₂, and the proposed methodology “is feared insufficiently mature to measure non-CO₂ emissions accurately, or to help address their mitigation effectively”. “The proposal risks creating a regulatory burden that will require airlines to provide large amounts of data for all flights, with an insufficient potential for positive environmental impact,” he said. The EU already requires airlines to disclose their CO₂ impact and levies a charge on intra-European emissions. Environmental group Transport & Environment said Iata is using scientific uncertainty as a way to stop the full climate impact of flying from being disclosed.<br/>
Border Force staff at Britain's busiest airport, Heathrow, will go on strike for four days from Monday, in protest over changes to their working conditions. The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said more than 300 members of staff would stop working early on Monday in terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5. A separate union, Unite, has said its workers will go on strike at Heathrow from May 7 to May 13 over plans to outsource hundreds of roles. Surging inflation and a tough cost of living crisis has led to repeated bouts of strike action in Britain in recent years, with teachers, nurses, train workers and airport staff walking out to protest against low pay and conditions. Heathrow has previously said it has contingency plans in place for any strike action, and can avoid any impact to passenger journeys.<br/>
French airport group ADP reported on Friday a better-than-expected rise in Q1 revenue, benefiting from the post-pandemic holiday boom and as travellers splashed more cash on food and drink at its airports. "All segments of activities are growing, especially the contribution of international activities, driven by the strong traffic momentum at (Turkish airport operator) TAV Airports," CEO Augustin de Romanet said. The group, which runs the French capital's Orly and Roissy Charles de Gaulle airports, posted consolidated revenue of E1.32b, up 10% and slightly better than the E1.29b expected in a company-compiled consensus. Revenue at its Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan fell by 7.1%, which ADP's deputy finance chief Phillippe Pascal said in a call with analysts was due to the Middle East crisis. It saw a drop in passenger traffic of 4.6%. It was one of only two airports out of more than two dozen that ADP runs to report a drop. Global airlines have faced disruptions in the past six months due to security concerns in the Middle East. ADP confirmed its targets for 2024 and 2025. The retail and services segment, which includes shops, bars, restaurants as well as car rental companies, saw revenue increase by 11.1% to E426m.<br/>
Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, will move its operations to the city-state’s second, sprawling airfield in its southern desert reaches “within the next 10 years” in a project worth nearly US$35b, its ruler said Sunday. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s announcement marks the latest chapter in the rebound of its long-haul carrier Emirates after the coronavirus pandemic grounded international travel. Plans have been on the books for years to move the operations of the airport known as DXB to Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central which had also been delayed by the repercussions of the sheikhdom’s 2009 economic crisis. “We are building a new project for future generations, ensuring continuous and stable development for our children and their children in turn,” Sheikh Mohammed said in an online statement. “Dubai will be the world’s airport, its port, its urban hub and its new global centre.” The announcement included computer-rendered images of curving, white terminal reminiscent of the traditional Bedouin tents of the Arabian Peninsula. The airport will include five parallel runways and 400 aircraft gates, the announcement said. The airport now has just two runways, like Dubai International Airport.<br/>
Airbus is ramping up production of its A350 aircraft because of consumer demand and not the ongoing crisis at U.S. rival Boeing, according to the French plane maker’s CFO. Toulouse-based Airbus on Thursday announced plans to increase its production rate for the long-range aircraft to 12 units per month in 2028. “I would say it’s clearly a reflection of the very strong commercial momentum that we see for the A350,” Airbus CFO Thomas Toepfer told CNBC’s Charlotte Reed on Thursday, when asked if the company was benefiting from the instability at Boeing. Airbus reported gross commercial aircraft orders of 170 in the quarter, almost half of which were variants of the A350. “So [we experience] very, very strong order intake,” Toepfer said, adding he anticipates that momentum will continue. Aviation firms globally say they are facing supply chain and production issues and contend they are struggling to meet red-hot demand from airlines for new planes quickly. Airbus’ gross commercial aircraft orders jumped to 2,319 in full-year 2023, up from 1,078 in 2022. Boeing has lowered output of its bestselling 737 Max, the model at the core of its crisis after its involvement in two fatal crashes and a midflight incident in which a door plug blew out. Toepfer said the supply chain environment had not improved in recent months and remained “broad-based” across materials, which complicates Airbus’ efforts to increase production. He reiterated his comment that the issues at Boeing are not helpful for the industry generally or for Airbus specifically.<br/>
A former Boeing employee, who was found dead in March, accused the company of "countless" violations of US law in testimony given just before his death. John Barnett claimed the firm tried to "eliminate" quality inspections at a plant that makes 787 planes. The former quality control manager had been giving a formal legal deposition against the plane manufacturer. The 62-year-old's death after two days of testimony was from a "self-inflicted gunshot wound", officials said. Boeing says it was "saddened" by Barnett's death, but said the issues he raised had been reviewed and addressed. The aerospace giant's safety standards are currently under the spotlight, in part due to an incident in January when a disused door fell off a brand new 737 Max shortly after take-off. The transcript of Barnett's deposition has now been released by his lawyers. The lengthy document runs to more than 140 pages. Barnett had worked for Boeing for more than 30 years before his retirement on health grounds in 2017. He subsequently filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming he had suffered retaliation from managers after raising a number of serious safety concerns, a charge the company denies.<br/>
Fitch Ratings downgraded outlook on Boeing to "negative" from "stable" on Friday, amid the fallout from a safety crisis impacting the U.S. planemaker's production and cashflow. The ratings agency, which reaffirmed its "BBB-" long-term issuer default rating, said it could stabilize the outlook if Boeing liquidates over 100 of its pre-2023 built 737 Max and half of its 787 inventories by early 2025, along with increasing production of its Max jets towards 38 per month. Fitch's downgrade follows similar moves by S&P and Moody's earlier in the week on its bumpy cashflow. Boeing has been under heavy regulatory scrutiny and lowered production of its 787 widebody jets, along with 737 Max, after the cabin panel blew off an Alaska Airlines-operated 737 Max 9 flight mid-air, forcing an emergency landing.<br/>
The CE of Brazil's Embraer said Friday that supply chain issues impacting planemakers have been improving but some challenges remain. Francisco Gomes Neto told reporters at an event in Sao Jose dos Campos, where the company is based at, that Embraer is in a "very good place" right now after overcoming some difficult years. Last month, Neto said the company's estimate for 2024 aircraft deliveries would be higher if not for supply chain bottlenecks frustrating planemakers. Embraer intends to invest some 2b reais ($390.9m) in the country this year and hire over 900 people, Neto said at Friday's event alongside Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Embraer said after the event that the investment plan includes the development of technologies to be used in the "flying car" which has been in production by its subsidiary Eve. Embraer added it intends to invest further in its service and defense segments, as well as in projects aimed to increase efficiency and industrial activity. The world's third-largest planemaker behind Boeing and Airbus, Embraer currently estimates deliveries of executive jets between 125 and 135 this year, compared with 115 in 2023. Deliveries from its commercial aviation segment are expected to be between 72 and 80 planes, up from 64 aircraft it delivered last year.<br/>