Consumer groups are pushing Congress to uphold automatic refunds for airline passengers whose flights are canceled or delayed for several hours. Just last week, the Transportation Department announced a rule requiring airlines to pay quick and automatic refunds. President Joe Biden touted the rule, posting on X this week, “It’s time airline passengers got the cash refunds they’re owed, without having to jump through hoops.” But eight words in a 1,069-page bill that the Senate began debating Wednesday would keep the burden for refunds on consumers. The bill says airlines must pay refunds only “upon written or electronic request of the passenger.” Consumer advocates say travelers will lose money without automatic refunds. “How many average air travelers know what the (refund) rules are? How many of them know how to go about filing a claim?” said William McGee, a consumer advocate at the American Economic Liberties Project, a group skeptical of large corporations, including airlines. “The percentages are so low that the airlines sit on a tremendous amount of money that is never refunded because nobody asks.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said the bill’s wording around refunds “would be a gift to the airlines, who know many travelers won’t have the time or resources to navigate the bureaucratic process they designed.”<br/>
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A group of Washington area Senate Democrats who oppose adding more longer-distance flights in and out of DC’s Reagan National Airport – which was included in a bipartisan FAA bill released this week – are pressing for an amendment vote to strip it out of the legislation, which is being debated on the floor now. “The proposal flies in the face of known safety concerns and known congestion concerns so we are going to push very hard for this amendment,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland who warned that he and the other local senators may oppose the bill in the end if they don’t get a vote. Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine argued on the floor that the airport is “pressed to the gills” now as it services 25m passengers a year when he said it should accommodate 15m and simply can’t add any more flights. Van Hollen said the move to increase the slots – five daily round trips to destinations beyond the 1,250-mile perimeter limit out of DCA, is being pushed for the “convenience” of lawmakers because the airport is much closer to the Capitol than either Dulles International Airport in Virginia or Baltimore/Washington International Airport in Maryland. Van Hollen and Kaine are joined by Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a group with considerable longevity in the chamber and political clout. Cardin was asked if members are pushing for more flights, so they don’t have to go all the way to Dulles or BWI but declined to directly engage on his colleagues’ motives. “To me, it’s a safety issue,” he said. “There should not be additional slots.” Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas pushed back on the Democrats and said they were cloaking their arguments in safety but were really trying to protect regional interests by keeping the public, including lawmakers, flying out of Dulles and BWI.<br/>
Spirit AeroSystems said it has developed a plan that gives it “a high degree of confidence” to meet U.S. planemaker Boeing's rate and quality demands for parts for the 737 MAX jet, the company told Reuters on Wednesday. Boeing is under pressure to restore slumping production of its strong-selling narrowbody jet to 38 per month in the second half of the year as it grapples with a sprawling safety crisis following a January mid-air panel blowout on a new 737 MAX plane. Boeing is pressing Spirit Aero, its key supplier, to improve the quality of the fuselages it produces for the MAX at a higher rate for the second half of 2024. Boeing is in talks to tie-up with Spirit, which reports earnings on May 7.<br/>"We've developed a plan that we believe affords us a high degree of confidence that we will meet Boeing's demand rate and quality expectations," said Spirit Aero spokesperson Joe Buccino. Boeing declined comment. The planemaker is taking a calculated risk in steadily buying parts from its suppliers to protect its supply chain, despite lower deliveries. The higher spend is pressuring its finances while it is producing well below the US FAA cap of 38 MAX jets a month. Ratings agencies last week slashed the outlook on Boeing's credit to just above "junk" status after it burned $3.9b in free cash during Q1 and as it faces looming bond maturities in 2025 and 2026.<br/>
Canadian Airbus A220 jet assembly workers approved a five-year contract with more than three-quarters of votes in favor, their union said late on Wednesday, ending fears of a lockout at the planemaker's Montreal-area plant. The approval of the deal came after the company's estimated 1,300 Montreal-area A220 workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union (IAM) had agreed to conciliation following the rejection of two earlier offers and a tentative agreement with union leaders that was declined by members. The workers, whose last contract ended in December 2023, will get a 23% salary increase over five years, improvements in group insurance access, and an increase in evening premiums that would encourage work on later shifts. The union had also tried to make gains on work-life balance, with some workers pressing unsuccessfully for a four-day week for afternoon shift employees. The agreement averted a labor disruption that risked leading to delays in deliveries to airlines. A conciliator in the Quebec province's labor ministry had noted Airbus would "exercise its right to lockout on May 2" if a contract was not reached by that date. The European planemaker's Canadian unit is trying to boost production and control costs on the loss-making narrowbody jet, which is smaller than the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX. Airbus said the agreement would facilitate a better balance between shifts and the transfer of knowledge between more experienced employees who generally work day shifts and those who have less seniority and often work on later shifts.<br/>
Russian regulators are instructing carriers to take steps to avoid cabin discomfort when operating to destinations in warm climates, after an incident involving an Aeroflot Airbus A330-300 in Bangkok. The aircraft had been departing the Thai capital for Krasnoyarsk on 26 March. As the jet taxied, its pilots were notified of a fault with the thrust-reverser on the left-hand Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine, and they opted to return to the apron. But congestion at the airport meant the aircraft was directed to a cargo parking bay, and the crew had to wait 40min for an escort vehicle, according to a 23 April bulletin from Russian federal air transport regulator Rosaviatsia. The cabin temperature was 30.5°C. Operational regulations at Bangkok required the auxiliary power unit to be turned off, and ground-support personnel connected air conditioning equipment. The increasing temperature of the cabin started generating complaints from passengers, and the crew restarted the APU with the agreement of ground services. Inspection of the left-hand engine determined that a control unit had failed, and could not be listed as a deferred maintenance item. Story has more.<br/>
Hundreds residents of Indonesia's Tagulandang island were waiting at the island's port to be evacuated on Wednesday, footage from National Search and Rescue Agency showed, while grey smoke continued to erupt from Ruang volcano.<br/>Indonesia's Ruang volcano erupted on Tuesday, spewing lava that prompted authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people from the nearby Tagulandang island. The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) raised the alert status of Ruang to the highest level after yesterday's eruption, and warned the residents of Tagulandang island that a tsunami could be triggered by volcanic material collapsing into the ocean. "Personnel of Manado Search and Rescue Agency are evacuating 109 Tagulandang residents to Munte port, while hundreds are still waiting in Minanga port to be evacuated," the National Search and Rescue agency said in a statement on Wednesday. The residents will be evacuated to North Minahasa Regency on Indonesia's Sulawesi island. Transport authorities extended Manado's Sam Ratulangi airport shutdown until noon (0400 GMT) on Thursday. Meanwhile carrier AirAsia said in an Instagram post on Wednesday that flights to and from several cities in Malaysia's Borneo were affected by the eruption.<br/>
Feasibility studies for two new international airports in Thailand – Andaman Airport in the South and Lanna Airport in the North – should be complete this year with construction set to start by 2027, according to Airports of Thailand (AOT). The new airports will be capable of handling 40m passengers annually. The two feasibility studies cover investment potential, economic gains, financial returns, and environmental impact, AOT CEO Kirati Kitmanawat said on Wednesday. Development of Andaman International Airport in Phang Nga province will cost around 75b baht with potential investment by airlines and private investors, he said. The AOT has earmarked a 6,500-rai (1,040 hectares) plot in Khok Kloi district for the project. About 40% of the plot is already owned by the government, which will save around 2.5b baht in expropriation costs. The AOT will rent the rest of the plot from the Treasury Department, which will be responsible for expropriating the land for the start of construction in 2027, Kirati added. Construction will take around four and a half years, with the airport expected to open in 2032.<br/>
Travelling internationally from Auckland Airport has just become a whole lot quicker and more convenient thanks to new technology accelerating the sometimes lengthy queues at security. From Wednesday, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening. It means Auckland is following the lead of Christchurch and Wellington Airports, which have been able to leave those items in their carry-on baggage since December. It's allowed through Computed Tomography (CT) scanning machines that create higher quality 3D images in real-time that allow aviation security officers to better assess the contents of bags.<br/>
Aircraft lessor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Capital will likely receive around half the number of aircraft from Boeing this year than the planemaker had originally committed to deliver, DAE's CE said on Wednesday. DAE, one of the world's top 10 lessors with a 500-strong fleet of owned, managed or ordered aircraft, said Boeing had delivered just one aircraft in the first quarter with up to four expected in Q2. "The only thing we can reliably expect from Boeing these days is a delivery delay notification as opposed to aircraft so we hope that they get their act together," DAE CEO Firoz Tarapore said on an analyst call.<br/>
Canada's Bombardier said on Wednesday NetJets was the customer for the order of 12 Challenger 3500 business jets announced in December. At list prices, the order was valued at $326.4m at the time of signing, but could amount to more than $6b if NetJets exercises its option for all 232 jets. Ahead of its investor day on Wednesday, Bombardier said it was on track to hit its 2025 goals, which include revenue rising to over $9b. The business jet-maker added it was a year ahead in meeting its objective of growing its services revenue to $2b by 2025. Bombardier also set a goal to improve its revenue share from aftermarket, defense and pre-owned businesses to about 50% of annual revenue by 2030 from 31% in 2023. Bombardier's shares were up 6%, after its investor day presentation.<br/>The planemaker said it would take an approach focused on a return on invested capital in deploying resources beyond 2025. "It is now clear that Bombardier will not be announcing any large, new multi-billion-dollar capital investment programs such as a new clean sheet design, one of investors' main concerns," said Desjardins analyst Benoit Poirier.<br/>
Boeing’s space taxi is finally about to carry its first astronauts to orbit, after years of delays and a botched test flight. Its space capsule, the CST-100 Starliner, is scheduled to head to the International Space Station on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket May 6. It will carry two NASA astronauts, making it the first crewed flight for the vehicle and ULA’s first launch with humans on board. The launch will be a closely watched test of quality control at Boeing, whose 737 Max models have been linked to some of the worst aircraft safety and design failures in recent aviation history. But even if Starliner performs flawlessly, it will be difficult to proclaim the program a success since it may only fly a half dozen more missions for NASA and never do much else. Boeing started developing Starliner in 2014 for NASA’s Commercial Crew program, designed to create new spacecraft to take astronauts to the ISS after the Space Shuttle program was canceled. NASA originally offered contracts worth up to $6.8b to Boeing and Elon Musk’s SpaceX to fly astronauts to the space station. The manufacturers could then use their spacecraft to generate additional profits from other customers, like space tourists.<br/>