The U.N. aviation council this week will launch the first audit of the U.S. civil aviation safety oversight system since 2007, a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration official told reporters on Tuesday. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will conduct the two-week audit with 12 auditors from 10 countries, beginning on Wednesday. Results are due in January. It will review the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Defense Department, Federal Communications Commission and other U.S. agencies involved in aviation. The U.S. has the world's most complex airspace and has an impressive safety record with the last fatal U.S. passenger airline crash in February 2009. The last ICAO audit of the U.S. was in 2007 was under a different methodology. The FAA also audits other countries for compliance with ICAO safety standards. The FAA downgraded Mexico in May 2021 and restored Mexico's higher rating in September, which allowed Mexican carriers to expand U.S. routes and add new service. The FAA has struggled with a persistent shortage of air traffic controllers and a series of near-miss incidents, including some blamed on controller errors. At several facilities, controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day work weeks to cover shortages. The FAA is short of staffing targets by about 3,000 controllers. Last month, the FAA said it was again extending cuts to minimum flight requirements at congested New York City-area airports through October 2025, citing air traffic controller staffing shortages.<br/>
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The FAA says it is investigating an incident in which a commercial flight aborted a landing as another plane apparently was taking off from the runway the first plane intended to use this week in upstate New York. The immediate aftermath of Monday’s incident at New York’s Syracuse Hancock International Airport was captured on North Syracuse police dashboard camera video. The video shows the two airplanes appearing to pass close to each other in the sky; it’s not clear how close the planes were. The incident happened around 11:50 a.m. when “an air traffic controller instructed PSA Airlines 5511 to go around at Syracuse Hancock International Airport to keep it separated from an aircraft that was departing on the same runway,” a FAA spokesperson said. Preliminary data from FlightRadar24 shows that the PSA flight, which was coming from Washington, and Endeavor Air 5421, which was heading to New York, were as close as 625 feet from each other vertically as their courses began to converge. So far, the FAA has not classified the incident as a near collision.<br/>
Complaints against US airlines rose by nearly 29% in 2023, but not all carriers came in for the same level of passenger discontent. The three airlines with the highest ratio of complaints to passengers were jetBlue, Spirit, and the most-complained-about airline, Frontier, according to a US Public Interest Research Group analysis of US Department of Transportation data. Frontier had 33 complaints for every 100,000 passengers, while Spirit had 15 and jetBlue received 13. At the other end of the spectrum, Alaska received the fewest complaints, with just two per 100,000 passengers. "We have been disappointed in our historical complaints but are pleased to have seen a recent drop in complaints due to better operational reliability, the reopening of our call center, and the recent launch of the New Frontier which offers clear, upfront low-cost pricing, and no change fees," Frontier told CBS News. The Independent has contacted jetBlue and Spirit Airlines for comment. Complaints about airlines, according to the PIRG analysis, are increasing faster than the level of passengers. They rose nearly three times faster than the 11% increase in passengers between 2022 and 2023, on the way to setting an overall record of 61,233 complaints last year.<br/>
Hungary will build a third terminal at Budapest's airport and develop road and rail routes linking it to the capital, Economy Minister Marton Nagy said on Tuesday, as the government aims to transform the airport into a major hub. Hungary's state-owned Corvinus Zrt. and French co-investor Vinci Airports acquired Budapest Airport last month. Corvinus Zrt. is the majority owner with an 80% stake, while its French partner holds the rest. The new owners estimate that the new terminal will be ready by 2032 at the earliest, a deadline that also applies to the construction of new road and rail links around it, which Nagy said expected to cost about E2b. He also said the government is in talks with the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) on the latter buying a stake of less than 10% in the Airport. "We will decide on this together with Vinci," Nagy said. Nagy added that extra taxes on airlines will be phased out from the start of next year. The government announced windfall taxes on airlines worth 30b forints ($82.28m) in 2022 as it was looking for funds to plug holes in the budget. It involves a tax worth 10 to 25 euros on passengers departing Hungary and was criticized by airlines. Since nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban took power in 2010, his government has boosted Hungarian ownership in energy, banking, telecoms and the media, and has been planning to buy the airport for years. The acquisition of the airport cost E3.1b with an extension of E1.44b worth of previously issued loans.<br/>
Boeing delivered 44 commercial aircraft in June, the highest monthly total since the company curbed work in its factories in the wake of a harrowing near-miss in early January involving a 737 Max jetliner. The US planemaker handed over 35 jets from its 737 family during the month, all of them Max models except for one militarized P-8. Boeing also delivered five 777 freighters, three 787 Dreamliners and one 767 to its defense division to be converted to an aerial tanker. The company recorded 14 gross orders against two cancellations in the month. While the rebound in deliveries is rare good news for the embattled manufacturer, it also underscores the growing market gap between Boeing and rival Airbus SE. The European planemaker delivered 67 jets in the month, including 53 of its narrowbody A320neo models that compete directly with the Max. Boeing is counting on rising deliveries during the second half of the year to bolster finances that have been battered by a production slowdown as it retrained workers and stepped up supplier inspections. The company faces multiple investigations and tougher regulator scrutiny after investigators linked the structural failure on the Alaska Airlines jet in January to a breakdown in protocol within Boeing’s factory. During the three months ending on June 30, Boeing delivered 92 commercial jets, an improvement from its first-quarter tally of 83 aircraft. Executives have predicted that deliveries of the 737, a critical source of cash, will rise close to the 38-jets-per-month cap imposed by US regulators following the Alaska Air accident. The FAA won’t allow Boeing to hike production to higher levels until it’s convinced quality controls are in place and the supply chain can keep pace.<br/>
Holding patterns for airports in dusty regions are particularly potentially damaging to aircraft engines, analysis of dust ingestion at 10 airports worldwide has found. Arrival holds contributed over 50% of the total dose ingested by the engine core, according to research led by the University of Reading, which also determined that the dose during departure was 24% lower than during arrival. This is the result of aircraft spending a prolonged period, some 10min, in the hold at altitudes which frequently coincide with – or lie close to – maximum dust concentrations. While a previous study in 2020 had calculated engine dust dose at Doha for an Airbus A380, the new research says an assessment of dust at a wider range of airports had not been undertaken. It examines 10 airport locations selected for their proximity to dusty regions and air traffic levels: Phoenix, Marrakech, Niamey, Dubai, Delhi, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Beijing, Sydney, and the Canary Islands. The dust doses were found to be largest in the June-August periods, followed by March-May, for most airports, although the latter period was the most significant for Beijing and Niamey. Calculated arrival doses were greatest for Delhi in June-August, at 6.6g, followed by Niamey in March-May at 4.7g, and Dubai in June-August with 4.3g. “Dust doses are mostly largest in summer for descent,” the study states. It points out that while core ingestion of 5g of mineral dust is a “negligible problem”, the cumulative dose – some 10kg for 1,000 landings and departures at a dusty hub – begins to “represent more of a problem”, accelerating deterioration of engine performance and reducing component life.<br/>
The French government approved the use of a barge docked on the River Seine to facilitate the take off and landing of electrically-powered flying taxis during the Olympic Games. Aeroports de Paris SA, the French capital’s airport operator, can build a so-called vertiport on the river near the Austerlitz railway station in central Paris, according to an official decree published Tuesday. Still, Paris City Hall opposes the project and it remains uncertain whether the flying taxis will be allowed to fly during the Paris Olympics, due to kick off on July 26. European startup Volocopter GmbH failed to win European regulatory certification to operate commercial flights in time for the Olympics, however the company has said its VoloCity two-seater aircraft will still be allowed demonstration flights during the sporting spectacle. President Emmanuel Macron has been keen to showcase so-called eVTOLs at the games as a symbol of the country’s innovation and technological prowess with visitors envisaged darting across Paris in the helicopter-like craft. However, the industry’s overly-ambitious certification timelines have run up against regulators keen to carefully scrutinize the revolutionary new type of aircraft. The Paris vertiport will be allowed to operate until Dec. 31 and only between 8am and 5pm, according to the decree published Tuesday. <br/>