general

After more than a year of eye-watering airfares post-Covid, there’s some good news for fliers this summer, at least for those traveling in economy — prices aren’t expected to go any higher and in fact may moderate. That was the assessment of many airline chief executives gathered in Dubai this week for IATA’s annual meeting. Several singled out the UK as one place where demand is looking particularly weak. Upcoming elections around Europe may also be suppressing people’s desire to spend on travel, they said, as economic uncertainties weigh on consumer sentiment. “In the UK, specifically in economy class, we’re seeing a bit less robust demand but a strong summer overall,” Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Shai Weiss said. “That tells us there’s a bifurcation of prospects for individuals.” Ryanair Holdings Plc’s Michael O’Leary was one of the first to sound the alarm about softer fares last month, predicting they’d hold steady into summer even with aircraft in short supply, challenging the accepted wisdom that a lack of supply always means higher prices. United Airlines Holdings Inc. CEO Scott Kirby on Monday described the picture right now as “steady as she goes” with demand holding but not increasing, while Emirates President Tim Clark said despite strong demand going into summer, prices are “very much at an equilibrium.” IATA DG Willie Walsh said the chance of political change in Europe was one reason people may be less inclined to travel. The UK goes to the polls on July 4 and the European Parliament holds its elections in the coming days. “With economy class fares I’ve heard a number of CEOs say pricing is a bit softer, particularly in the leisure market,” said Walsh. “It’s interesting, when I think back to my time as a CEO, this was often influenced by elections.” Walsh oversaw the merger of British Airways and Iberia that formed IAG in 2011.<br/>

The FAA said on Wednesday it is again extending cuts to minimum flight requirements at congested New York City-area airports through October 2025, citing air traffic controller staffing shortages. The FAA said the number of controllers handling traffic in New York is insufficient for normal traffic levels and that without "increased flexibility," congestion, delays, and cancellations are likely at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports. Under minimum flight requirements, airlines can lose their takeoff and landing slots at congested airports if they do not use them at least 80% of the time. The FAA's waiver allows airlines to fly fewer flights and still retain slots. Airlines for America (A4A), the trade group representing American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, in April asked the FAA to extend the cuts, citing the controller shortage. 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. The agency will require 17 air traffic controllers to move from New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON), known as N90, to Philadelphia. New York TRACON is one of the busiest U.S. facilities in the country.<br/>

The landmark near collision last year involving two commercial flights on the runway at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was caused by pilots who were repeatedly distracted in the cockpit, according to early findings released by the National Transportation Safety Board. “Interruptions and multitasking led to distractions” of the three pilots in the cockpit of the American Airlines Boeing 777 that erroneously taxied across JFK’s runway 4 Left in front of a Delta Air Lines Boeing 737 that had begun accelerating for takeoff, investigators said. The pilots of the Delta flight aborted their takeoff run following a frantic call from the air traffic controller in the tower. The two planes came within 1,400 feet of colliding, NTSB data released earlier this year found. The January 13, 2023, incident kicked off heightened awareness of similar cases – formally known as runway incursions – involving commercial flights at major airports, triggering at least six other NTSB investigations in 2023 and causing the FAA to convene a rare, daylong safety summit. Story has more.<br/>

Recent chaos at Peru’s main airport, including the lights going out Sunday night on its main runway while the second runway remains inoperative, has the global airline industry fuming and heading to the Andean nation looking for answers. IATA representatives plan to meet Peru’s Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen on Monday to get to the bottom of the issue and review other longstanding concerns, said Peter Cerda, an IATA vice president who’ll be traveling to Lima for the meeting. “He’s finally decided to meet with us,” Cerda said of Adrianzen in an interview. “I think finally - because of what happened this past weekend - he’s realized that he cannot continue to ignore us.” The lights of the main runway in Lima’s Jorge Chavez suddenly went off Sunday evening forcing over 200 flights to be diverted to other airports, grounding dozens of other planes and impacting over 10,000 passengers, according to IATA figures. The chaos lasted 10 hours before the runway lights were fixed. So many planes were rerouted that some had to land in airports in Chile and Ecuador. Peru’s Transport Minister Raul Perez-Reyes told reporters this week that the incident was “fortuitous,” but local aviation officials have said they cannot rule out it happening again. The ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. “What is not comprehensible is that Peru didn’t have a contingency plan that was activated,” said Cerda. “You have a brand new second runway that was finished last year and it’s not being used even though it could have been used.”<br/>

Airline executives are no strangers to failed mergers in Europe.  Michael O’Leary, CE of Ryanair, notably made three failed bids to buy Aer Lingus in a campaign over nearly a decade. He finally gave up in 2015 after EU regulators insisted the deal would force up prices and cut choice. But O’Leary’s experience has done nothing to reduce the appetite for deals among big airline groups in Europe, with two of the region’s leading carriers under close scrutiny in Brussels over consolidation plans. Regulators have launched probes into deals by Germany’s Lufthansa and British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG), which were announced in the first half of last year. Lufthansa agreed to buy a 41% stake in ITA Airways, the successor to bankrupt Alitalia, for E325m, while IAG agreed to purchase the remaining 80% of Spain’s Air Europa it does not already own for about E400m. The main concern of watchdogs is that the airlines could use the acquisitions to boost already dominant positions, with passengers losing out because of higher fares and fewer airlines competing on routes. “Regulators have seen airline deals make matters worse for consumers,” said a person with knowledge of the EU’s thinking. “They lead to less competition on routes that it is impossible to restore, less frequency of flights and less quality of service.” Regulators, however, have not yet launched a probe into a third deal announced last October involving Air France-KLM. The carrier is to take a 20% stake in Scandinavian airline SAS in a rescue plan including private equity firm Castlelake and the Danish state. Luís Rodrigues, the boss of Portugal’s TAP, thinks Air France-KLM has received less scrutiny because it has been working as a minority investor in a wider consortium and not seeking a full takeover of SAS.<br/>

The Turkish airport ground services company that recently acquired an Indonesian peer expects "massive" growth in the Southeast Asian nation's aviation sector, its CE said. Celebi Aviation has announced the acquisition of 100% of Prathita Titiannusantara (PTN), an Indonesian ground handling company, for E7.5m ($8.2m), marking its entry into Southeast Asia's largest economy. PTN operates at 26 airports in Indonesia, including the country's busiest, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, near Jakarta, which served 50m passengers last year, and the Makassar airport in South Sulawesi, a hub for eastern Indonesia that handled 9m passengers in 2023. "The prediction is [that Indonesia] will become the fourth-largest aviation market globally within the next couple of decades," Celebi Aviation Group CEO Dave Dorner told Nikkei Asia in an interview. "[There's] going to be massive growth in Indonesia for international-international or domestic-international connectivity." An archipelago spanning over 5,000 kilometers from east to west, Indonesia has over 400 commercial airports, including 17 for international connections, operated by the Ministry of Transportation and state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura Indonesia. According to the Indonesian Civil Aviation Association, the total number of passengers reached 336m last year, with that number expected to go up to 390m in 2030. Airlines contract out to ground handling companies to help with passengers, handle ramps, do cargo service jobs and carry out other tasks. PTN's many clients include Garuda Indonesia and AirAsia, according to its website.<br/>

Indian airlines are expected to post a bigger industry-wide loss in fiscal 2025 as higher costs outweigh rising demand and costlier tickets, a top aviation consultancy said on Wednesday. CAPA India estimated losses for the year ending March 2025 at between $400m to $600m. The industry reported a loss of $300m-$400m the previous year, helped by market leader IndiGo's record profit. Overall airline costs are expected to rise 3.8% in the fiscal year 2025, the consultancy added. It did not say how much they rose last year.<br/>India is currently the world's fastest-growing aviation market with demand surpassing the supply of planes. That has helped the industry report record yields as carriers charge higher fares due to a capacity crunch, resulting in more packed planes, measured in passenger load factor (PLF). CAPA said it expects the trend of record yields – the average amount paid by a passenger to fly one kilometre – to continue in the short term and sees a roughly 1% rise for fiscal 2025. It pegged PLF at 85% for the same period. However, the crunch would be eased with an addition of 84 aircraft in the current year, taking airlines' overall fleet – including grounded jets – to 812 from 728 as of March, CAPA India CEO Kapil Kaul said at the consultancy's annual summit.<br/>

After two trips to the launchpad that did not end up going to space, two NASA astronauts finally headed to orbit on Wednesday in a vehicle built by Boeing, the aerospace giant. The first trip of Starliner, a 15-foot-wide capsule, with astronauts on board comes four years and six days after SpaceX, the other company that NASA has hired to provide astronaut rides, launched its first mission with astronauts to the International Space Station. Boeing is now set to also provide that service, but a series of costly delays repeatedly kept astronauts from flying the company’s vehicle earlier. SpaceX, once seen as an upstart, has flown 13 crews to orbit in total. The long awaited flight of the Boeing vehicle is the latest step in NASA’s efforts to rely more heavily on the private sector for its human spaceflight program. “This is another milestone in this extraordinary history of NASA,” Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator said during a news conference after the launch. When Starliner arrives at the space station on Thursday, it will join a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule already docked there. NASA officials have steadfastly said that they want to have two different American spacecraft capable of taking astronauts to orbit. “We always like to have a backup,” Nelson said. “That makes it safer for our astronauts.” If the vehicle’s mission goes well, it will also provide some good news for Boeing, whose aviation safety record is under heavy scrutiny after a side panel of an Alaska Airlines jet blew out during a flight earlier this year. The space division of Boeing has also been under pressure, with work on Starliner stretching years longer than either the company or NASA had expected. Technical pitfalls included inadequate software testing, corroded propellant valves, flammable tape and a key component in the parachute system that turned out to be weaker than expected.<br/>

Boeing<br/>CEO Dave Calhoun will testify before a Senate panel on June 18 to answer lawmaker questions about whistleblower allegations and quality control at the aircraft maker as it navigates a safety crisis. “I look forward to Mr. Calhoun’s testimony, which is a necessary step in meaningfully addressing Boeing’s failures, regaining public trust, and restoring the company’s central role in the American economy and national defense,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. “Years of putting profits ahead of safety, stock price ahead of quality, and production speed ahead of responsibility has brought Boeing to this moment of reckoning, and its hollow promises can no longer stand,” he said. The hearing comes after a company engineer alleged the assembly of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners put excessive stress on the planes and reduce their lifespans, allegations Boeing called inaccurate. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.<br/>

The FAA has granted Archer Aviation a key certification that gets the electric air taxi maker closer to eventually flying travelers, the company said Wednesday. Archer is making electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, and won orders and backing in 2021 from United Airlines, which says the new technology could reduce carbon emissions. Carriers have been investing in or ordering eVTOL aircraft, which take off and land vertically like helicopters and whose developers say they can cut down on emissions in congested areas. United, for example, says passengers could take them to and from the airport in big cities, such as between Manhattan and United’s hub in Newark, New Jersey. “Today we have received the Part 135 certification, which allows us to effectively become an airline so we can carry passengers,” Archer CEO Adam Goldstein told CNBC. The process has taken Archer about two years: It submitted more than 2,000 pages of documents and 14 manuals outlining operational procedures, training and maintenance.<br/>

NetJets, the luxury plane unit of billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, sued its 3,400-member pilots union for defamation over statements about its commitment to safety and training pilots. The lawsuit filed on Monday in a state court in Columbus, Ohio, where NetJets is based, seeks unspecified damages. It follows years of often contentious relations between the carrier and the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots. "NJASAP stands by the concerns we have raised about pilot training and the safety and maintenance cultures--concerns that have only increased in intensity in recent months," the union's president Pedro Leroux said on Wednesday. "We view the lawsuit as an attempt to silence us." Neither NetJets nor its lawyers immediately responded to requests for comment. Buffett flies on NetJets planes, and in 2015 told Berkshire shareholders "we have no anti-union agenda whatsoever."<br/>