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In a move aimed at lowering the greenhouse gas emissions of air travel, the Biden administration on Tuesday issued new guidelines for how fuel producers — and in particular, makers of ethanol from corn — could qualify for tax credits under a plan to increase the supply of so-called sustainable aviation fuel. It’s especially difficult to transition airplanes away from traditional jet fuel because there are so few affordable alternatives capable of getting a plane off the ground. The global aviation sector accounts for about 3% of the world’s total emissions, and most jet fuel today is made from fossil fuels. The proposed guidelines could have major implications for corn-producing states. The guidelines offer incentives for farmers to use climate-friendly methods to grow the crops, such as corn or soy, that are used in alternative fuels like ethanol. President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act offered federal tax credits for sustainable aviation fuels, industry jargon for jet fuel made without fossil fuels, that cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50%. For months now, federal officials have been evaluating research to decide how to measure whether various biofuel-based alternatives meet that standard.Sustainable aviation fuel is already occasionally blended into traditional jet fuel, albeit at small, single-digit percentages. That scale is well below the government’s target of 3b gallons per year by 2030. Currently, most of it is made out of used cooking oil, and it costs two to four times as much as jet fuel. Nearly 40% of US corn production already goes into the distillation of ethanol fuel, which is blended into gasoline. And while ethanol could feasibly be blended with jet fuel now, uncertainty over how its production could meet stringent carbon-emissions and land-use requirements have prevented its inclusion in the mix. Corn production is also water intensive, and in some places it draws on sensitive aquifers.<br/>

EU regulators have opened an investigation of 20 airlines over their potentially “misleading greenwashing practices”, including the claimed benefits of offsetting emissions from flying. The European Commission said on Tuesday that it had written to the airlines and to national consumer protection authorities “identifying several types of potentially misleading green claims”. The airlines were not named, but the national regulators involved are Belgian, Dutch, Norwegian and Spanish. The regulators’ concerns centre on claims that the carbon emissions from flying can be offset either through investments in environmental projects or the use of more sustainable jet fuels, which still emit carbon when they are burnt but are less polluting than the kerosene that is currently used. “The airlines are yet to clarify whether such claims can be substantiated based on sound scientific evidence,” the commission said. Industry body Airlines for Europe said its members “recognise the importance of clear, transparent information about sustainability and our efforts towards achieving net zero carbon emissions”. It said it was “particularly concerned” about the questions over sustainable aviation fuels, which it said have been “supported and endorsed” by the EU. “The science supports that this is a more sustainable alternative to regular jet fuel,” it added. Airlines are facing growing regulatory scrutiny about their environmental impact and the EU has started a wider crackdown on green claims in corporate marketing. Last month, a Dutch court ruled that flag carrier KLM had acted illegally when it claimed customers could “fly sustainably”, while the UK advertising watchdog in December banned adverts by three airlines. Flying accounts for around 4% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions and, despite an industry-wide pledge to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, it is seen as one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise because of the lack of alternatives to jet fuel.<br/>

Spanish airport operator Aena beat forecasts on Tuesday with a near doubling in first-quarter net profit as passenger traffic to and from one of the world's most-visited countries was on course to top last year's record level. The company, which operates all of Spain's airports as well as some in Latin America and Britain, said it made a net profit of E261m, topping analysts' average forecast of E196m, according to an LSEG survey. Net profit was E133.6m in the same period last year. The number of passengers that arrived at Aena's Spanish terminals rose 13% year-on-year in the quarter to more than 60m. Passenger traffic across all its terminals, including London-Luton and airports in Brazil, increased 12% to 74.6m. Earlier this year, Aena estimated traffic would increase 7.1% in 2024, but Financial Director Ignacio Castejon said on Tuesday it would now review that guidance at the end of the second quarter. "In April we have also seen very healthy growth, although smaller than in the first months" due to Easter falling in March, Castejon told a conference call with analysts. Spanish airlines expect a record summer and are adding 13% more seats than a year ago, confident consumers will continue to travel despite higher ticket prices and wider inflation. Aena's passenger growth is outpacing that of other European airport operators, and the company expects to manage around 1m people per day by 2026 in all its terminals.<br/>

Cutting-edge aviation technology from AI to electric aircraft will help to reimagine passengers' journeys through Dubai's new $35bn passenger terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport. A “massive leap” in aviation technology at the new terminal will dismantle the old ways of processing passengers through airports and get rid of choke-points through the hub for faster travel, Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, told The National on Monday. “Airports have a habit of legacy processes but we're determined to engineer this out. There will be huge investments in automation to make the customer service ethos better and to improve the quality of what we deliver. We've only scratched the service of what AI will deliver in this,” he said. “Watch this space. The operating model of the airport will be very different from what we have seen.” A surge in demand for air travel is placing “extraordinary pressure” on existing and new airports, national borders and airline resources, according to an April white paper on biometrics by Sita, an IT provider for the air transport industry. The existing paper-based and manual travel infrastructure and legacy processes “simply won’t be able to cope”, according to the paper. The solution is to leverage the power of facial and fingerprint biometrics to create a smoother and safer air travel experience, it said. Advanced technology will also help to solve other aviation industry challenges such as space constraints, specialist staff shortages and evolving passenger wants. The global demand for travel is rising and biometrics is at the “forefront of this transformation” as the number of air travellers is set to double to 8b annually by 2040, up from 4b in 2019, according to projections by the International Air Transport Association (Iata). Dubai Airports has already made investments in biometric technology to funnel more people through Dubai International Airport faster, with the aim of increasing its capacity to 120m passengers annually.<br/>

Thousands of people have been evacuated and flights disrupted after Indonesia’s Mount Ruang erupted again, sending thick clouds of ash more than 5km (3 miles) into the sky. Officials said the volcano in the archipelago’s North Sulawesi province erupted at least three times on Tuesday, prompting fears debris might fall into the sea and cause a tsunami. Footage shared by Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) showed strikes of lightning flashing above Ruang’s crater as fiery red clouds of lava and rocks were thrown into the air. The agency said that all 843 residents living on Ruang Island, where the volcano is located, had been moved to Manado, the provincial capital about 100km (62 miles) away. Some 12,000 people from the neighbouring Tagulandang Island are being evacuated to Siau Island further north with two ships deployed to help with the process. Indonesia’s meteorological agency (BMKG) shared a map on Wednesday morning that showed volcanic ash had reached as far as Borneo, the island Indonesia shares with Brunei and Malaysia. Indonesian air traffic control agency AirNav Indonesia said seven airports had been forced to close including in Manado and the city of Gorontalo. Malaysia Airlines said the ash led to the cancellation of some flights to and from airports in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, with travel dependent on the weather conditions. North Sulawesi is in the central part of the Indonesian archipelago. Julius Ramopolii, the head of the Mount Ruang monitoring post, said the volcano was still billowing ash and smoke above the crater on Wednesday morning. “The volcano is visibly seen, the plume of smoke is visible, grey and thick, and reached 500-700 metres (2,300 feet) above the crater,” he said in a statement.<br/>

The operator of Bangkok’s two main airports plans to spend about $4.8b to more than double capacity by the end of the decade to cope with a surge in post-pandemic tourism. In the biggest expansion of Suvarnabhumi airport since it opened in 2006, two new runways, a new terminal and the expansion of the existing passenger terminal will increase annual capacity to 135m travelers from about 60m now, Airports of Thailand Pcl President Kerati Kijmanawat said in an interview. The project will cost about 140b baht ($3.8b), he said. A new international terminal to be built at Don Mueang airport and renovation of the existing building, at a cost of 36b baht, will lift capacity to 50m passengers a year by 2030 from 30m now, he said. The older Don Mueang mostly handles regional and budget carriers. AOT, as the state-controlled company is known, will use internal revenue for the projects and consider bank loans only if necessary, Kerati said. AOT is on course to more than double net income to 21b baht in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company is also keen to bid to build two new airports announced by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin that may cost 70b baht each, either alone or in partnership, Kerati said. Srettha has proposed new gateways in Chiang Mai, a popular tourist destination in northern Thailand, and in the Andamans, near the resort island of Phuket — where the existing airports are struggling to cope. Srettha, a former property mogul, has vowed to turn Thailand into a regional aviation and logistics hub, building on the nation’s reputation as a tourist hotspot. He is also steering an initiative for a Schengen-type single visa for six Southeast Asian countries. Central to that plan will be AOT’s ability to increase passenger capacity and ensure a hassle-free experience for tens of millions of visitors to Thailand, whose spending make up about 12% of the country’s gross domestic product. But it faces challenges from regional airports like Singapore’s Changi — ranked the world’s second-best — and the need to improve Suvarnabhumi’s position from a low of 58.<br/>

Proxy advisor Glass Lewis has recommended shareholders vote against the reelection of three directors to Boeing’s board, including outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun, citing dissatisfaction over the efforts to transform the safety culture at the planemaker. Boeing was not immediately available to comment on the influential advisor’s recommendations. Calhoun, who has been a Boeing director since 2009, has said he will step down as CEO of the embattled planemaker at the end of the year. Johri and Joyce serve as chairs of the board’s audit and aerospace safety committees, respectively. Boeing is facing heavy scrutiny from airlines, regulators and lawmakers following a Jan. 5 accident when a door plug blew off a brand new 737 MAX 9 jet. The incident has also led to the regulator imposing a cap on production of the MAX jets. In February this year, the head of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration gave Boeing 90 days to develop a comprehensive plan to address “systemic quality-control issues” after an all-day meeting with Calhoun. “We believe that the board, and in particular the aerospace safety and audit committees, has not appropriately addressed potential shareholder concerns regarding safety, legal and regulatory risks and could do more to mitigate the company’s reputational damage,” Glass Lewis said. The advisor recommended Boeing shareholders vote against the reelection of the three directors “to strongly signal dissatisfaction with the company’s oversight of its safety culture and its efforts to transform” it. Johri has been an independent director at Boeing since 2020, having previously served in various capacities at the erstwhile United Technologies Corporation. Joyce has been on the Boeing board as an independent director since 2021. He was president and CEO of GE Aviation from 2008 to 2020.<br/>

Spirit AeroSystems and Airbus are dispatching senior executives to a meeting in New York in the coming days to chart a path forward for a takeover of key aircraft-manufacturing assets, according to people familiar with the matter. The face-to-face session is set to involve Spirit CEO Pat Shanahan, while Airbus may send Christian Scherer, the head of its commercial aircraft business, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The date and the participants are not final, and the contours of the meeting may change, the people said. Spirit, which was spun out of Boeing in 2005, is in an increasingly stretched financial position as the US planemaker slows output of its key 737 aircraft, the main source of revenue for both manufacturers. Earlier this month, Boeing agreed to inject an additional $425m into the supplier. That came after the companies confirmed they were in merger talks to bolster their factory operations in the wake of a near-catastrophe involving a 737 Max earlier this year. The full extent of Spirit’s financial woes will be laid bare when the Wichita, Kansas-based company reports earnings on May 7. With financial pressure building, the company will need to consider other options if doesn’t soon see progress with Airbus. Those include selling the entire business to Boeing before the European company pries loose the parts that make components for its A350 and A220 jets, two of the people said. “As commercial negotiations with Airbus continue, many options remain viable. We value our partnership with Airbus and are committed to acting in the best interests of the customer, our employees and our shareholders,” said Joe Buccino, a Spirit spokesman. Airbus said the early-stage discussions with Spirit “cover a variety of options, including acquiring from Spirit AeroSystems some of the activities that they carry out for Airbus.” Boeing declined to comment. <br/>

Australian researchers have developed a chemical process that could produce sustainable aviation fuel from landfill gases as a way of cutting carbon emissions, they said on Wednesday. The global aviation industry seeks more sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to meet a net-zero target on carbon emissions by 2050, but airlines lament lack of supply and a price that is three to five times more expensive than traditional jet fuel. The Sydney University scientists used non-thermal plasma technology that fires high-energy electrons in normal atmospheric conditions into methane and carbon dioxide emitted from landfills, causing carbon and hydrogen to bond. That process leads to production of sustainable aviation fuel, holding out hope for a net-zero aviation industry. "It redefines what we think of in terms of chemistry ... I think the impact is very significant," P.J. Cullen, of the university's school of chemical and biomolecular engineering, told Reuters. "In one sense, we have this idea that we're going to be capturing emissions that are coming from landfill. On the other, we have a sector that really needs a new technology in order to become more sustainable." All waste produced in Australia could be converted into energy, said Richard Kirkman, the Australia and New Zealand chief executive of waste management company Veolia. "That can supplement about 10% of Australia's energy supply," Kirkman told Reuters.<br/>