The Senate on Thursday passed legislation to reauthorize federal aviation programs for the next five years and put in place new safety measures and consumer protections for passengers, at a moment of intense uncertainty and disruption in the air travel system. The bill, which still must win final approval in the House before becoming law, would provide more than $105b to the FAA and another $738m to the National Transportation Safety Board for airport modernization, technology programs and safety. It would also bolster the hiring and training of air traffic controllers, codify airlines’ refund obligations to passengers, ensure fee-free family seating and strengthen protections for passengers with disabilities. “Aviation safety has been front of mind for millions of Americans recently, and this F.A.A. bill is the best thing Congress can do to give Americans the peace of mind they deserve,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said on the Senate floor on Thursday evening. It passed in an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 88 to 4, just one day before the current law is scheduled to lapse, and it was not clear whether senators could reach agreement to briefly extend it until next week to allow time for the House to consider the bill.<br/>
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Passengers who say they've been mistreated by Canadian airlines had the national stage today as federal ministers, airline executives and accessibility advocates gathered for the first-ever Canadian Air Accessibility Summit. “We can’t treat a wheelchair like luggage. It simply isn’t luggage. That is why we are here today,” said Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez in his opening remarks on Thursday morning. Rodriguez and Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities Kamal Khera co-hosted the Ottawa summit. “We know that the instances we do hear about only represent a small number of the instances that do occur,” Khera said. “We can, and we must, do better.” In recent months, stories of passengers whose wheelchairs have been broken while flying(opens in a new tab), and passengers who were left behind or forced to deplane without assistance, have made headlines. The stories prompted a parliamentary committee to launch a study on accessibility(opens in a new tab) in the airline industry, with executives brought before it(opens in a new tab). Many of those stories were relayed again Thursday at the summit. Lawyer and Paralympic athlete Josh Vander Vies told the audience about the times he has arrived at his destination without a functioning wheelchair or with his equipment left behind. While he called on the airlines to do better at ensuring accessibility equipment is handled properly, he also called on airline manufacturers and designers of accessibility equipment to modify their designs to help accommodate people with disabilities. In 2019, the federal government passed the Accessible Canada Act with the aim of trying to make travel more accessible. In 2022, it took another step towards that goal by introducing the Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations.<br/>
Atlantic Canada’s largest airport says it has returned to financial sustainability after recording a net profit of $16m in 2023. The figure announced today at the annual public meeting of the Halifax International Airport Authority follows a loss of $7.4m in 2022. The authority attributed the Halifax Stanfield International Airport's return to financial health to a substantial increase in passenger volumes and revenue growth after three years of limited travel demand, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It says passenger volumes were up by 15%, while non-aeronautical revenue rose by 26% to help the airport’s overall revenue outpace a $4.7m jump in expenses compared to 2022. Total revenue in 2023 was $139.5m, up 25% from 2022, while capital expenditures totalled $30.1m, a 23% increase over the previous year. The authority said the increase in overall airport activity levels required more upfront spending, while the effects of inflation drove up the cost of many services and supplies.<br/>
Contract negotiations between Boeing and a union representing firefighters at some of the company’s commercial plane factories broke down last week. On Thursday, President Biden called on both sides to return to the negotiating table. The company locked out about 125 workers represented by a chapter of the International Association of Firefighters union on Saturday after failing to reach an agreement on a new contract, said Casey Yeager, the president of the union chapter, I-66. The previous contract expired on March 1, but the firefighters, who work at Boeing’s plants in the Seattle area, continued to work under its provisions. The talks, conducted with the help of a federal mediator, stalled after the firefighters rejected what the company had said was its final offer. The two sides met as recently as Friday night, minutes before the lockout began, Yeager said. “When we left our negotiating room the other day, we had a very firm discussion that we were willing to continue to bargain,” he said. “They can call us at any point and we will bargain, but at this time they have not sent any information to us at all.” On Thursday, Biden expressed support for the firefighters, saying he was “concerned” that Boeing had locked them out. “Collective bargaining is a right that helps employers and employees,” he said on X, adding, “I encourage folks to return to the table to secure a deal that benefits Boeing and gets these firefighters the pay and benefits they deserve.”<br/>
A former employee of Boeing’s largest supplier has alleged that key aircraft parts regularly left the factory with serious defects. Santiago Paredes, who worked for Spirit AeroSystems in Kansas between 2010 and 2022, said he was used to finding “anywhere from 50 to 100, 200” defects on fuselages – the main body of the plane – that were being shipped to Boeing, and he felt threatened for raising his concerns. “I was finding a lot of missing fasteners, a lot of bent parts, sometimes even missing parts,” Paredes, who led a team of inspectors based at the end of the 737 Max production line, said in an interview with the BBC and theUS network CBS. “They just wanted the product shipped out. They weren’t focused on the consequences of shipping bad fuselages. They were just focused on meeting the quotas, meeting the schedule, meeting the budget … If the numbers looked good, the state of the fuselages didn’t really matter,” he alleged. Paredes said he regularly felt under pressure to be less rigorous during inspections, and was nicknamed “showstopper” for slowing down the production process by trying to tackle his concerns. “They always made a fuss about why I was finding it, why I was looking at it,” he said. Eventually a manager ordered him to change the way defects were reported in order to cut the number of concerns being logged.<br/>
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing statements that Boeing Co. made about its safety practices following a near-tragic January accident aboard one of its 737 Max 9 planes. The SEC investigation is focused on whether comments by the company or its executives misled investors in violation of the Wall Street regulator’s rules, according to three people with knowledge of the probe. The probe is examining statements before and after a panel blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff on Jan. 5., leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the confidential investigation. SEC reviews don’t always lead to enforcement actions by the regulator, but they can lead to fines for companies or corporate officials if the agency finds they made false or misleading statements. The regulator hasn’t accused the company or its officials of wrongdoing. The SEC and Boeing declined to comment. The probe adds to legal headaches for Boeing, whose stock has lost about one third of its value in 2024. US prosecutors in Seattle have already sent subpoenas seeking documents and communications from Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc., which made the door plug. The supplier said earlier this week it had received information requests from the SEC. <br/>
One man’s loss is another man’s gain, goes the saying – and as Boeing seems caught in a spiral of bad news, one aircraft manufacturer is quietly powering ahead. Brazilian manufacturer Embraer, which specializes in smaller narrow-body passenger jets, has been clocking up major announcements, and will soon comprise the entire regional fleet of American Airlines. And now, rumor has it that the company might be setting its sights even higher. A Wall Street Journal report last week suggested that Embraer – currently the world’s third largest aircraft manufacturer – was planning a new narrow-body jet that could “compete head-on” with the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max, which have cornered the global market. Embraer has denied the reports. Yet the company’s star is certainly on the rise. On May 2, Embraer delivered its 1,800th E-Jet aircraft: an E190-E2, to Royal Jordanian Airlines. Five days later, Singapore-based Scoot Airlines took delivery of its first Embraer: another E190-E2, the quietest and most fuel-efficient single-aisle jet on the market. Even in the US, where Boeing has traditionally ruled the roost, Embraer has been making waves. On March 26, United announced a refurb of its Embraer E175 fleet to add larger overhead bins on its Skywest-operated planes. The move will increase storage space by 80%. Skywest is the world’s largest operator of Embraer’s E175 aircraft. Then there’s American Airlines, which announced the purchase of 90 E175 aircraft in March, making AA’s entire regional fleet Embraer by the end of the decade. The love-in continued in April, when CEO Robert Isom praised the Brazilian company during a quarterly call. “The rest of the industry… can learn a lot from them,” he said, while also delivering a public rebuke to Boeing to, “Get your act together.”<br/>