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A group representing major US airlines forecast record summer travel with carriers expected to transport 271m passengers, up 6.3% from last year. Airlines for America said Tuesday that U.S. carriers plan to fly more than 26,000 daily flights this summer, up nearly 1,400 over 2023, or 5.6%, when they carried 255m passengers. The summer travel season forecast is for June 1 to Aug. 31. American Airlines said it will boost flights by 10% this summer. United Airlines is forecasting a record-setting 3m travelers expected to fly during the May 23-28 Memorial Day travel period, up nearly 10%. Delta Air Lines said it expects a 5% jump in Memorial Day weekend customers to nearly 3m customers between May 23-27. The forecast comes as the FAA is struggling to address a persistent shortage of air traffic controllers. Some airlines voluntarily trimmed New York flights last summer to address congestion issues. The FAA said in March it would relocate control of the Newark, New Jersey, airspace area to Philadelphia to address staffing and congested New York City area traffic by June 30. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and other lawmakers last week urged the FAA to rescind plans to force 17 air traffic controllers to move from New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) to Philadelphia. At several facilities, controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day work weeks to cover shortages. The FAA agency is about 3,000 controllers behind staffing targets and the agency said last autumn it had about 10,700 certified controllers - about the same as a year earlier.<br/>

The Department of Justice said on Tuesday that Boeing was in violation of a 2021 settlement related to problems with the company’s 737 Max model that led to two deadly plane crashes in 2018 and 2019. In a letter to a federal judge, the department said that Boeing had failed to “design, implement and enforce” an ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws in the company’s operations. Creating that program was a condition of Boeing’s settlement, which also carried a $2.5b penalty. The determination by the Justice Department means that it can proceed with a 2021 criminal charge accusing Boeing of conspiracy to defraud the FAA, though Boeing can contest Tuesday’s decision. In a statement, Boeing said that the company believed that it had honored the terms of the settlement, adding that it was looking forward to the opportunity to respond. “As we do so, we will engage with the department with the utmost transparency, as we have throughout the entire term of the agreement,” Boeing said. The Justice Department declined to comment. Paul G. Cassell, a lawyer representing families of victims of the fatal plane crashes, said that his clients were planning to meet with the government on May 31 to discuss next steps in the case. When the government reached its settlement with Boeing in January 2021, many families of the crash victims said that the Trump administration had been too lenient on the aircraft manufacturer. “This is a positive first step and, for the families, a long time coming,” Cassell said. “But we need to see further action from D.O.J. to hold Boeing accountable.” The crashes of the 737 Max 8 planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people, prompting the F.A.A. to ground the entire 737 Max fleet. An investigation found that both crashes involved mistaken triggering of a maneuvering system designed to help avert stalls in flight.<br/>

More than 160 U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday urged the National Mediation Board to take steps to help about 80,000 flight attendants reach new contract deals. Flight attendants at United Airlines, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Frontier are among workers at more than a dozen airlines still working to reach new contract deals. The airlines and the board did not comment or immediately respond to requests for comment on the letter. The bipartisan group of 168 lawmakers led by Democratic Representative Melanie Stansbury said flight attendants have been stuck in prolonged contract negotiations for years and urged the board "to use all of the tools at its disposal to encourage the resolution of these negotiations." Others signing the letter include Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick, Debbie Dingell, Donald Norcross, Steven Horsford and Mark Pocan. “Deadlines are critical for negotiations. Airlines have delayed earned improvements by as much as five years while awarding CEOs and other executives,” said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA representing over 50,000 at 20 airlines. "Clearly, a credible strike threat is needed to settle these disputes." Last month, flight attendants and United management were in the a new round of federally-mediated bargaining after two years of negotiations.<br/>

By late July, 17 air traffic controllers will be expected to trade in their headsets, walk out of their aging workplace on Long Island and report to a new office in Philadelphia, part of a plan to address a long-running problem with recruiting enough controllers to manage the skies around New York. Despite the hefty incentives they have been offered to go along, the workers — unwilling to uproot themselves and their families — are balking at the move, and some powerful members of Congress are helping them fight back. In a blistering letter sent to the Federal Aviation Administration last week, a group of New York lawmakers, including Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat and the majority leader, demanded that the agency abandon plans to force the employees’ relocation this summer. The move places undue hardship on those workers, legislators argued. The “forced reassignments” by the F.A.A., Schumer and his colleagues wrote, are “both confusing and outrageous.” The controllers say their family lives would be disrupted, citing new marriages, disabled children and elderly parents they care for. The fact that the Senate’s most powerful legislator would complain so loudly about a tiny group of workers underscores the power of the controllers’ nerve center in Westbury, N.Y. — an intense workplace whose formidable responsibilities, high-stress environment and strong personalities inspired a magazine story and the 1999 movie “Pushing Tin.” The anger of the controllers and their supporters is clashing with the desperate effort by the F.A.A. to find and train enough employees willing to tackle the demands of ensuring the smooth and safe flow of aircraft in and out of the New York airspace — its most complex, by all accounts. The New York hub has for years struggled with chronic vacancies, placing its recent staffing levels at some of the lowest levels in the nation. The F.A.A. hopes that shifting some of the responsibility for the work out of New York to a more affordable place to live will make it easier over time to recruit more controllers, leading to higher levels of staffing and, with that, increased air safety and efficiency.<br/>

Despite a surge in hiring last year, air traffic control stations nationwide are still about 3,000 controllers short, according to new FAA numbers. The numbers, first reported by CNN, show the challenge of filling the gap that led to flight delays and concerns that fatigue contributed to a series of near collisions on runways last year. The shortage is a concern of airlines, controllers, and watchdogs like the inspector general who last summer concluded the agency “made limited efforts to ensure adequate controller staffing at critical air traffic control facilities.” The FAA has about 11,500 controllers who are either fully certified or have reached the stage in training where they can work independently, known as Certified Professional Controller In Training. The staffing plans developed by the FAA and the union representing air traffic controllers calls for more than 14,600 controllers to fully staff towers and centers. The numbers are for the fiscal year, which was through the end of September. Employees in the developmental stage or at the FAA’s training academy are not included in either count. Last year, the FAA hired 1,512 new controller candidates — just above its goal of 1,500, the numbers indicate. The FAA told CNN it “has taken several actions” to address the shortage and improve safety. But at the same time, its air traffic control organization lost more than 1,300 employees, including controllers who retired or candidates who dropped out of training. About 400 failed out of the FAA’s academy (which averages a pass rate of between 60% and 70%) and another 109 who were further along in the training pipeline also dropped out. The numbers suggest this hiring round netted about 160 workers, which was more successful than the previous hiring cycle. The union president representing air traffic controllers said that after accounting for departures, the agency netted an increase of only six new controllers that year.<br/>

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday confirmed the nomination of Jennifer Homendy by voice vote to serve a new term as chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. Homendy, who was renominated by President Joe Biden in March, was the on-scene board member for the March 26 Baltimore bridge collapse and the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 mid-air emergency prompted by a door panel blowout. Homendy has served on the board since 2018 and has been chair since August 2021. She has urged action by the Federal Aviation Administration to address close-call aviation incidents. "We cannot ignore or avoid the warning signs of strain from all these recent events," Homendy told Congress last November, calling for "more technology for runway and cockpit alerting. ... We cannot wait until a fatal accident forces action." In March, Homendy criticized what she termed Boeing's lack of cooperation in the door plug probe, including failing to disclose the names of 25 workers on the door crew at the 737 factory in Renton, Washington. After Homendy's comments, Boeing provided the 25 names. Boeing denied failing to cooperate. She has urged the FAA to mandate retrofitting all planes with cockpit voice-recorders capturing 25 hours of data from the current two-hour loop.<br/>

Boeing has made the fewest deliveries of its 737 Max since last year, as quality problems at the plane maker force a slowdown in production. Just 16 Maxes were delivered to airlines and lessors last month, the company said on Tuesday, dropping from 24 in March and the fewest since last September. Boeing made 24 deliveries overall. The decline comes as Boeing reels from an accident in January, when a door panel blew out from a 737 Max operated by Alaska Airlines shortly after take-off. While no passengers were seriously injured, it sparked multiple investigations by US authorities. Since January, Boeing has had “quality stand-downs” at more than 20 sites in the US, UK and Australia, including its 737 Max factory in Renton, Washington. The events involve halting production to focus on improving safety and quality. CE Dave Calhoun told investors last month it was working to improve processes including training and inspections. Boeing is also no longer accepting 737 Max fuselages that do not meet specifications from its supplier Spirit AeroSystems. The goal is to eliminate “travelled work”, where jets move through the production line with problems addressed later in the assembly process. Quality problems also led to the slowdown in 737 Max deliveries last September, when only 15 were received by customers after Spirit had incorrectly drilled holes in the rear pressure bulkhead for some fuselages. Deliveries are important to the amount of cash that Boeing takes in, since customers pay the bulk of the price when they receive their planes. Boeing reported that it used $3.9b in free cash during the first quarter, compared with the use of less than $800m a year earlier.<br/>

Former U.S. President Donald Trump's private Boeing 757 clipped another corporate jet while taxiing at West Palm Beach International Airport in Florida on Sunday, a source familiar with the incident said on Tuesday.<br/>The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that a privately owned 757 contacted a parked and unoccupied corporate jet at the south Florida airport. The FAA statement did not identify the plane as belonging to Trump. The incident occurred in an area of the airport where the FAA does not direct aircraft, the agency said, adding that it is investigating.<br/>The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump held a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, on Saturday. The incident occurred after the plane landed at the West Palm Beach airport at about 1:20 a.m. on Sunday. Trump's 757 is a staple of airport presidential campaign rallies and at one rally in Ohio in March a voice announced: "Trump Force One, you are cleared for landing."<br/>

Emirates Group's dnata, which provides airport and travel services in over 30 countries, is looking at merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities across several businesses and geographies, including South America, its CEO said on Tuesday. "We are probably, at any time, talking to 40 different companies" and "plenty" of deals are "at the end of the pipeline", CE Steve Allen told Reuters, noting the company focuses on small to medium size acquisitions. South America is "a huge growth market opportunity" he said, mentioning countries such as Brazil. He added that globally there was significant scope for consolidation in airport ground handling. Founded in 1959, dnata is a sister company to Emirates airline. Its operations include supplying airlines with catering and handling baggage and cargo. It also owns companies that sell holiday packages and provide retail and corporate travel booking services. Dnata's profit in the year ended March 31 more than quadrupled to 1.4b dirhams ($381.2m), according to the Emirates Group annual report released on Monday. Dnata's revenues, which climbed nearly 30% to 19.2b dirhams, were boosted by more flights and travel globally. Allen told reporters the results were also helped by long-terms business contracts that dnata renegotiated recently to factor in higher wage rates and food costs.<br/>