general

The US TSA said it screened 2.95m airline passengers on Friday, the highest number ever on a single day. The record travel coincides with the Memorial Day weekend that marks the beginning of the U.S. summer travel season. Last week, a group representing major U.S. airlines forecast record summer travel with airlines expected to transport 271m passengers, up 6.3% from last year. The TSA said Friday’s travel broke a record set in November of nearly 2.91m air passengers screened. Five of the 10 busiest ever travel days have been since May 16, the agency said. Airlines for America said 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 expects 10% higher passengers over the May 23-May 28 Memorial Day travel period -- nearly 3.9m passengers on 36,000 flights. United Airlines is forecasting it will handle 3m travelers during the Memorial Day travel period, up nearly 10% and its highest number ever during the period. Delta 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 and have raised new concerns about the lack of controllers. Airlines can lose their takeoff and landing slots at congested airports if they do not use them enough. The FAA extended cuts to these minimum flight requirements at New York City-area airports through October because of staffing issues, and major airlines last month asked for those cuts to be extended through October 2025.<br/>

Brazil’s civil aviation regulator has granted authorisation for a Porto Alegre military air base to handle commercial flights, after flooding put the city’s international airport out of action for an indefinite period. Porto Alegre’s Salgado Filho airport was flooded after storms struck the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul at the end of April. Brazilian regulator ANAC says the military Canoas air base – about 6km north of Salgado Filho airport – has been granted approval to receive commercial passenger and cargo flights. Fraport Brasil, the concessionaire for Salgado Filho airport, will manage the civil operation at Canoas. ANAC states that Fraport Brasil must provide safe and adequate conditions for passengers, during departure and arrival, with such services as check-in, baggage-handling, and security inspection – all with the consideration of restrictions associated with a military facility. Fraport Brasil will also need to ensure sufficient information, such as fare structures, is given to passengers and that signage is placed to assist. Restrictions will be put in place, including a prohibition on contracting to third parties. Use of Canoas as an alternative is part of a Brazilian government emergency plan to address the flooding crisis. “Civil air operations at the air base will continue while operations at Salgado Filho international airport, in Porto Alegre, are suspended,” says ANAC in a 20 May resolution.<br/>

The Dutch government wants fewer night flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport and to ban the loudest night flights by 2025 to reduce noise pollution, Infrastructure Minister Mark Harbers said in a letter to parliament on Friday. The move, which will limit traffic at one of Europe's busiest hubs, comes after a local court in March ordered the government to do more to cut noise pollution. Harbers added that the number of night flights would reduce from 32,000 to 27,000 in 2025, that the loudest aircraft, such as the Boeing 747-400, would be banned between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m and that the aviation sector is asked to replace part of its aircraft by less noisy aircraft. He also said that the government is considering a complete or partial night closure of Schiphol as of November 2026, a plan Schiphol CEO last year endorsed in local media. Schiphol agreed to increase the costs for using noisy aircraft with the goal of encouraging companies to opt for quieter planes. The Dutch government last year tried to limit flights with the support of Schiphol to around 450,000, or 10% below 2019 levels, in an effort to limit noise. But it bowed to industry pressure and objections from the European Union, which said it should first look at other possibilities to cut noise. In December Schiphol said it would have the capacity for 483,000 flights this year.<br/>

The French civil aviation authority has ordered airlines to cancel 70% of flights at Paris Orly airport on Saturday and Sunday because of a strike by air traffic controllers over staff shortages. The cancellations will affect commercial flights from 0600 local time Saturday through to late Sunday, the DGAC authority said. The strike comes as France's second busiest airport prepares for a massive influx for the Paris Olympics, that start 26 July. It is the second major air traffic controllers strike in a month. The last one caused the cancellation of thousands of flights across Europe. That dispute ended with an accord between airport authorities and the main union, the SNCTA. But the second biggest labour group, UNSA-ICNA, ordered the latest stoppage saying that staffing levels were inadequate. "The managers at Orly continue their penny-pinching and shopkeeper accounts which will quickly lead to our teams being understaffed" by 2027, it said in a statement. The government condemned the strike. "I deplore the behavior of some local level agents who refuse to recognise the legitimacy of a majority accord and are making passengers pay the price," deputy transport minister Patrice Vergriete told AFP.<br/>

Oman has announced that the plan for building six new airports across the country is gathering pace with the work on the consulting designs currently under way, reported Muscat Daily. These new airports are set to begin operations between 2028 and 2029, stated the report, citing a senior official. "Through this planned expansion, Oman aims to increase the number of airports in the country to 13, facilitating domestic aviation and bolstering tourism," stated Naif bin Ali al Abri, the Chairman of Civil Aviation Authority, while addressing the media on the sidelines of the Future Aviation Forum in Riyadh. "With the completion of these projects, we are expecting a significant surge in airport passenger traffic, projected to reach 50m by 2040 from the current 17m," he noted. The upcoming airports are strategically planned to attract more international traffic and bolster logistics and tourism in specific regions, stated the top official. These new facilities will connect passengers with Oman’s industrial areas in Sohar, Salalah and Duqm, he added.<br/>

Strong winds and heavy rain pounded the coastal regions of Bangladesh and India as severe cyclone Remal made landfall late on Sunday, leaving millions without electricity after power poles fell and some trees were uprooted by gusty winds. The storm crossed the coastal regions of Bangladesh's Mongla port and the adjoining Sagar Islands in India's West Bengal state with wind speed measuring up to 135 kmph (about 84 mph), the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The storm will gradually weaken into a cyclone during the morning on Monday and then move northeast and gradually weaken further, the IMD said in its latest weather update.<br/>The landfall process began around 9 pm local time in India on Sunday and continued for about five hours, the regional meteorological office in Kolkata said. One person was killed in the major metropolitan city of Kolkata when concrete chunks fell on him during the peak of the storm, police said. Roofs of thatched huts were blown away while mud houses were flattened in the coastal areas of both countries as authorities waited to ascertain the full scale of losses. More than 50 international and domestic flights had to be cancelled in Kolkata city as operations were suspended from Sunday noon. Bangladesh also suspended operations at Mongla and Chittagong ports. "Normal airport operations will resume from 9 am," said C Pattavi, the director of the Kolkata airport, adding that the airport's operational areas were clear from waterlogging.<br/>

New Caledonia's international airport will remain closed until at least next Sunday, its operator said, nearly two weeks after rioting erupted on the French-ruled Pacific island over a contested electoral reform.<br/>Seven people have died in the riots, in which cars and businesses have been torched and shops looted. French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited the island on Thursday to try and ease tensions, has hit pause on the reform, but fallen short of pro-independence parties' demands that it be shelved altogether. Hitting pause was "a gesture of appeasement", Macron said in an interview published by Le Parisien newspaper. "But I will never make a decision to postpone or suspend under the pressure of violence," he said. If pro and anti-independence parties on the island fail to reach a broad deal on the island's future, Macron would either call a special congress of the two houses of parliament, as planned, to ratify the electoral reform. Or, he said, he could call a referendum.<br/>

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says that climate change is one of the culprits behind an increase in flight turbulence. “The reality is, the effects of climate change are already upon us in terms of our transportation,” Buttigieg said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, forecasting that turbulence is something that will continue to “affect American travelers, whether here or abroad.” “We’ve seen that in the form of everything from heat waves that shouldn’t statistically even be possible threatening to melt the cables of transit systems in the Pacific Northwest, to, as you mentioned, hurricane seasons becoming more and more extreme and indications that turbulence is up by about 15%,” he continued. “That means assessing anything and everything that we can do about it.” A study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters last year found that there have been increases in clear-air turbulence (CAT) between 1979 and 2020, with “severe-or-greater” turbulence – the strongest category of CAT – becoming 55% more frequent over the North Atlantic over the course of that time period. “Our climate is evolving,” Buttigieg said. “Our policies and our technology and our infrastructure have to evolve accordingly, too.” His comments come as turbulence has wreaked havoc on a number of flights so far this year. While Buttigieg called the deadly turbulence on the Singapore Airlines flight “very rare,” he added that “turbulence can happen and sometimes it can happen unexpectedly.” “Now, there are protocols and patterns for things like how pilots who encounter turbulence can notify those who might be coming in the path,” he said. “But I do think we need to continually re-evaluate that in the face of the reality that these things are more frequent and more severe than before.”<br/>

The death of a passenger on board a Singapore Airlines flight caught in extreme turbulence this week is a stark illustration of why the industry is racing to find new ways to counter the rising threat as the climate changes. Geoff Kitchen, a 73-year old British man, died after flight SQ321 hit turbulence at 37,000 feet over the Myanmar-Thai border, 10 hours into its flight between London Heathrow Airport and Singapore. Twenty people remained in intensive care on Thursday, with some requiring spinal operations, according to authorities in Bangkok, where the flight made an emergency landing. Such fatalities and serious injuries are rare, with aircraft designed to handle significant turbulence without structural damage. But as investigators were dispatched to Bangkok to begin a formal probe, airlines are facing up to the fact that turbulence, already the leading cause of non-fatal injuries in on-board accidents, is becoming more common and more severe as global warming affects weather patterns and the earth’s atmosphere. “At flight cruising levels of 35-40,000 feet, pretty much the entire planet is a turbulent zone . . . you cannot escape it,” said Paul Williams, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Reading. There are two common types of turbulence, or sudden, sharp changes to air flow, in the atmosphere. Storms cause major changes in wind strength and air flow, and thunderstorms in particular can endanger aircraft. But these show up on weather radars, and can be avoided in flight. The other common type, “clear air turbulence”, is invisible and therefore seen as more dangerous. It does not show up on cockpit instruments and the only warnings are from aircraft that have already been through it. Story has more.<br/>

Boeing saw a six-fold increase in submissions from its employees raising concerns related to the safety of products and services during the first two months of 2024, compared with the same period last year, the planemaker said on Friday. The dramatic rise in these reports occurred after an incident on Jan. 5 involving a mid-air cabin panel blowout on a newly minted Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 jet, Boeing said in its annual safety report. In February, an expert panel reviewing Boeing's safety management processes had found a "disconnect" between the planemaker's senior management and employees involved in its safety culture. "Our actions are focused on making further improvements to ensure safety, compliance and conformance of our products and services, without compromise," said Mike Delaney, Boeing's chief aerospace safety officer. The Jan. 5 incident has put Boeing under heightened scrutiny and has prompted U.S. regulators to curb production levels of the company's bestselling 737 MAX jets until it starts to address safety issues.<br/>

Lobbying groups representing airlines, hotels and retailers have urged European Union tech regulators to ensure that Google takes their views into account, and not just large intermediaries, when making changes to comply with landmark tech rules. Airlines for Europe group, hotel group Hotrec, European Hotel Forum, EuroCommerce, Ecommerce Europe and Independent Retail Europe had in March expressed their concerns about the impact of the new rules. EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) imposes a list of dos and don'ts on Google and five other tech giants aimed at giving users more choice and rivals a better chance to compete, but the groups voiced concerns the the adjustments could hurt their revenues. In a joint letter to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager and EU industry chief Thierry Breton dated May 22 they said their worries have mounted since then. "Our industries have serious concerns that currently considered solutions and requirements for implementing the DMA could further increase discrimination," they wrote. "Initial observations indicate that these changes risk severely depleting direct sales revenues of companies by giving more prominence to powerful online intermediaries due to the preferential treatment they would receive," they said. The Commission, which is now investigating Google for possible DMA breaches, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Google, which in a March blog post said changes to search results give large intermediaries and aggregators more traffic and less for hotels, airlines, merchants and restaurants, had no immediate comment. "We are concerned that the non-compliance investigation refers only to the need to treat third-party services in a fair and non-discriminatory manner, without any acknowledgement of European businesses that also offer their services on Google," the groups said.<br/>

Airbus is showing off an unusual vehicle - a truck fitted with basic A350 airliner controls - that it hopes can demonstrate how automated taxiing will make airports safer as concern grows over a spate of jetliners colliding on the ground. The converted electric truck at VivaTech, Europe's biggest technology event, can be driven normally, or the aircraft systems can be given control. Sensors keep track of warning lines and obstacles as onboard computers guide the vehicle to a specific location, accelerating and braking as needed. "These use cases are much more critical and complicated compared to those of the car industry," said Matthieu Gallas, head of automation research at Airbus UpNext,the planemaker's innovation lab. "Copying and pasting technology already available on the market won't work." Airbus is at pains to avoid linking the research to specific accidents, but comparisons with January's fiery Tokyo collision between a landing A350 and a coast guard plane that appeared to have strayed onto the runway are inevitable. Airbus declined comment on the accident, which is being investigated. A separate investigation was launched last month after the wingtip of an empty Virgin Atlantic jet collided with a stationary British Airways jet. In February, U.S. regulators said they would look into a collision between two JetBlue planes at Boston Logan. Airbus hopes the vehicle crawling through a side alley of the Paris exhibition centre hosting the tech billionaires and startups of VivaTech shows how automation can help safely squeeze $100-million-plus jets through increasingly congested airports.<br/>