A chartered campaign plane carrying Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, was forced to make an emergency landing in Milwaukee on Friday shortly after takeoff because of a door malfunction on the aircraft, a campaign spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman, Taylor Van Kirk, said that the aircraft, a Boeing 737-86J that the campaign refers to as Trump Force Two, returned to Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, where the problem was quickly resolved before the flight continued to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. “The pilot advised there was a malfunction with the door seal,” Van Kirk said in a statement. It was the second time in a week that one of the Trump campaign’s planes had a mechanical issue. Last Friday, former President Donald J. Trump’s Boeing 757 had to divert to Billings, Mont., while he was en route to a rally in Bozeman, Mont., because of an unspecified issue. He completed the journey on a charter aircraft. This week, Vance went to Wisconsin to deliver remarks to the Milwaukee Police Association, a union of about 1,500 members that endorsed the Republican ticket. He was traveling with his wife, Usha, along with a group of advisers, Secret Service agents and journalists, including a reporter from The New York Times — and his German shepherd, Atlas. The flight landed around 4 p.m. Eastern time near Cincinnati, where the Vances live. About four minutes after the plane took off from Milwaukee, the pilot asked passengers over the intercom to fasten their seatbelts and said that the plane would be immediately returning to the airport. Secret Service agents aboard the plane reacted with confusion and laughter, and it was not immediately clear to some passengers that there was an emergency until after the plane had landed.<br/>
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The ski resorts near Gunnison and Crested Butte, Colorado, are so close to Aspen, you’d think the area wouldn’t need its own airport. Their glitzier neighbor is just 48 miles north as the crow flies, though that’s roughly 150 miles by road. But people flocking to Crested Butte’s laid back town, extreme ski slopes and epic mountain biking have a new reason to bypass farther-away Aspen: the destination’s gleaming new airport, which debuted in January 2023. Not only is the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport terminal easy to get across quickly, at just 40,000 square feet, it's also heated and cooled with geothermal energy and uses triple glazed windows to keep travelers warm in a town known to be one of the coldest places in the US. And Crested Butte isn’t the only small town airport receiving an upgrade. All across the US, at least a dozen small and medium-size facilities are being renovated and, in some cases, entirely rebuilt—typically on budgets that stretch eight and nine figures. That contradicts a long-held belief among aviation industry pros that these regional facilities were destined to gather dust and die out. Indeed during the pandemic, smaller US airports fell out of favor. With business travel reduced to virtually nothing, airlines cut service to focus on more profitable leisure routes between large hubs. Planned facility improvements were also put on hold. Even as those issues faded, severe pilot shortages forced major airlines to cut back on more routes. In the process, they realized that the profit margins on smaller flight loads simply aren’t what they were a decade ago. It was a confluence of crises that seemed to doom small airports for good.<br/>
It’s not just you. Air travel really is getting worse. Story features chart from Morgan Stanley. European air travel is busiest during summer, with the third quarter representing 30% of passenger miles flown, so it should be no surprise that airport delays are seasonal. The challenges of running at full capacity were compounded last year by air traffic control strikes, unusually stormy weather, and the introduction of unfamiliar flight paths to avoid Ukraine’s no-fly zones. None of these excuses apply for Brat summer ’24, yet punctuality has not improved, say the MS analysts Jamie Rollo et al, citing Eurocontrol data: "June itself saw delays rise to 21 minutes, 27% above June 2019 levels and exceeding 2023 levels. [ . . . ] July looks like delays reached 24 minutes, 38% above 2019. This is consistent with what we have heard from companies after the latest results season - airlines and tour operators are generally reporting strong demand expectations for summer (as seen in passenger volume figures) but that disruption is likely to rise as we head into the busy period." Flight cancellations are a forward indicator of delays as well as an inconvenience. Story has more.<br/>
The end of the same-day, out-and-back business air trip has been a long time coming — despite dire predictions of its side-effects. In 1973, a British Airways executive warned of the stress suffered by “businessmen [sic] who think that they can be 100% effective on a there-and-back-in-a-day trip”. “Just watch some of our customers losing control of themselves when told of a delayed departure or read complaint letters written in flight or just post-flight,” he told an FT conference. It has taken 50 years, a global pandemic, looming climate catastrophe, tightening travel budgets and previously unimaginable technological and workplace advances to curb bosses’ belief that if the flight schedule says a there-and-back-in-a-day trip can be done, it should be done, if not by them then by their minions. This week Suzanne Neufang, head of industry trade body the Global Business Travel Association, said the one-day flight business trip “went out the door at the beginning of Covid and hasn’t really come back”. Good riddance. In 1988, British Airways introduced a supersonic “day return” ticket to New York. Its “back in a day” discounted fare catered to a small minority of Concorde passengers who wanted to fly out from London in the morning, wheeler-deal in a JFK airport conference room for a few hours, and fly back that afternoon. At the time, the cost of the ticket was said to compare favourably with staging a video conference. Concorde is long gone, but the ubiquity and cheapness of Zoom and competing platforms is one of the significant changes that is condemning the out-and-back trip. Another is an effort by corporate purse-string holders to cling on to the savings they reaped when coronavirus grounded most workers. Travellers are now encouraged to group multiple encounters into fewer, longer trips: three- to five-night stays account for 40% of business travel, according to a GBTA survey. Story has more.<br/>
For airlines struggling to reconcile their stated aims of cutting carbon emissions and making billions from flying ever more passengers, one target has emerged repeatedly for their projected frustration: the air traffic control services that manage Europe’s skies. Irritation through years of strikes in Europe that upended peak season schedules turned to rage this time last year when a glitch in the UK’s National Air Traffic Services (Nats) system grounded planes, leaving airlines to pick up the tab for the disruption. Another festering sore for airlines is the supposed inefficiency of a system that runs European airspace based on the borders far below. The CE of the continent’s biggest travel company, Tui, told the BBC this week that the company had calculated it could avoid 10% of emissions if there was an “effective flight organisation over Europe”. Sebastian Ebel told BBC Radio 4: “A decision is needed that there is one European sky”. Willie Walsh, the boss of the airlines body Iata, has also claimed that a single operator could reduce CO2 from flying by about 10% “almost overnight”. One unified airspace would allow planes to fly straighter routes from takeoff to landing; instead, there is an invisible patchwork of sovereign skies under the control of myriad national operators. “The US, Canada, and Australia are enormous areas with one air traffic control agency. In Europe, you’ve got 43,” says Andrew Charlton, the managing director of Aviation Advocacy, a Geneva-based consultancy. “If the Wright brothers walked in today with aircraft, and we decided that we didn’t want them to bang into each other, I don’t think you would have invented an air traffic control system that looks like this.”<br/>
Hundreds of border force staff at Britain's biggest airport, Heathrow, will strike from Aug. 31 to Sep.3 - a peak travel period for hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers. The four-day strike by 650 members of the PCS union will be followed by more than two weeks of industrial action, border force staff union PCS said in a statement on Friday. The strike will coincide with the end of Britain's school summer holidays when the airport to the west of London usually has one of its busiest periods. PCS said staff would work to rule and refuse to work overtime until Sept. 22. They blamed the industrial action on a long-running dispute over changes to terms and conditions including new inflexible rosters. "We know our strike action is likely to cause serious disruption to travellers using Heathrow at the end of the summer, but the strike can be avoided if the employer listens to the concerns of our members," PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said in a statement. A spokesperson for Britain's interior ministry, which is responsible for border force officers, said the government was committed to continuing talks with the union to resolve the dispute. If an agreement cannot be reached, the spokesperson said the government had plans in place to minimise disruption but urged passengers to check the latest advice from their airlines before they travel. Heathrow, which at peak holiday times is used by about 250,000 passengers a day, said disruption had been avoided during past strikes.<br/>
A fledgling British cargo airline has said Brexit red tape has forced it to go as far as the US for routine servicing and repairs, at huge environmental and financial costs. The CE of One Air, Chris Hope, said the last government failed to do any Brexit impact assessment for aviation and the sector was concerned that Labour would make a similar “mysterious” omission when it opens talks with the EU about a reset in the cross-Channel trading relationship. The company has criticised post-Brexit rules that require British pilots to be formally re-examined for identical qualifications in the EU at a substantial cost, while engineers’ hard-earned licences are rendered practically worthless outside Britain. Part of the problem is the lack of mutual recognition for those with professional qualifications between the EU and the UK, something that also causes problems for architects and accountants. One Air’s problem is compounded by its position as the only company in the UK operating Boeing 747s. Servicing and maintenance infrastructure for the aircraft is fast disappearing as passenger airlines have switched to Airbus since the pandemic. As part of the Brexit arrangement, EU-based aircraft engineering companies in the bloc could apply to be recognised in the UK before the end of 2022 but there were no takers for 747s. It means One Air is forced to fight for slots in the one repair workshop in Germany recognised in the UK or go to the US for the work to be done. “In the seven months of this calendar year so far, we’ve had two [services] that had to go to the US. The kind of incremental cost difference is approaching $500,000 for each of them,” Hope said, resulting in costs so far of $1m.<br/>
Airlines fear the aviation regulator will cut Dublin Airport passengers by up to one million next summer to comply with a planning limit imposed on Ireland’s biggest gateway, according to Ryanair. Passenger numbers were capped at 32m in 2007 as a condition of allowing the airport to open a second terminal. Ryanair predicted on Friday that the cap could prompt the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to cut summer 2025 passenger numbers by up to a million in order to ensure the airport complies with the condition. “Any such reductions will damage Irish tourism and jobs, and will lead to much higher fares for passengers and Irish families going on holidays in 2025,” said the airline as it called on Government to scrap the limit. The IAA said it had made no decision relating to next summer. However, the authority is preparing to publish a draft decision early next month on the allocation of take-off and landing slots from March to October. That could propose limiting carriers to a total of 25.2m seats over the seven-month period, which industry figures agree would be a reduction of about a million on this summer. The authority said airport operator DAA tabled the 25.2m seat limit at a recent meeting of a co-ordination committee that advises the IAA on slot allocation.<br/>
The biggest union of Kenya's aviation workers has postponed for two weeks a planned strike that was scheduled to start on Monday, to allow talks with the government over a proposed deal with an Indian company to develop the country's main airport. The union, which represents airport workers, opposes the proposed agreement announced last month with India's Adani Airport Holdings which it says will cause job losses and bring in non-Kenyan workers. "The Union has decided to postpone the strike notice, since we are going into discussions," the union's secretary general Moss Ndiema said on Sunday, adding negotiations would be with the state-run airports authority and the transport ministry.<br/>"If the meeting fails to reach any agreement, the union will issue fresh strike notice for its members." The airport is a major regional aviation hub and a strike would cause significant disruption to the region's air traffic. The government has said the airport is not for sale and that no decision had been made on whether to proceed with what it called a proposed public-private partnership with the Adani company to upgrade the hub. The airports authority has said Adani plans to add a second runway at the Jomo Kenyatta international airport and upgrade the passenger terminal if its proposal is approved. According to the Kenyan government, the airport is stretched beyond its capacity of 7.5m passengers a year and is in urgent need of improvements, projected to cost $2b.<br/>
Airfare for international flights to and from Asia is falling as Chinese airlines aggressively expand cross-border service amid softening post-pandemic travel demand. "Compared to last year's summer break, the prices of tour packages have gone down considerably," said a representative of a travel agency in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. "Family group tours have been especially popular." For example, a trip to Japan costs roughly 6,000 yuan ($839) per person, down roughly 1,000-2000 yuan from last year. The decline in tour package costs is being driven by lower air ticket prices. For this year's summer holiday, the average ticket price for an international flight is 2,183 yuan, according to data from Chinese travel data tracker DAST. That is 26% below 2023 levels and down 12% from the pre-COVID year of 2019. The zero-COVID policy the Chinese government put in place until January 2023 delayed a full-fledged recovery in the country's aviation and travel industries. Domestic flights continued to open in 2023, but a clear recovery in international flights did not start to take hold until this year. The number of flights on international routes is expected to reach 80% of 2019's volume, according to China's Civil Aviation Administration. A number of large carriers are not just reopening flights, but also adding new routes and expanding existing ones. China Eastern Airlines by July has opened new routes connecting Shanghai to Vienna, and to Marseille, France. The airline also added flights to London and Madrid. China Southern Airlines established a new direct route connecting Guangzhou with Budapest. Juneyao Airlines added three new direct routes coupling its home city of Shanghai with Brussels, Athens and the British city of Manchester. Overall, there were more flights in July compared to 2019 in routes linking China to Malaysia, Singapore, the U.K. and Italy. During the summer break, international flights are expected to increase to Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia, due to rising demand for trips and overseas study, according to the Civil Aviation Administration. <br/>
Private jet flights fell 15% in the first half of the year compared with their peak in 2022, as the industry grapples with waning demand and a new competitive landscape for high-end travel. Despite a short boost from the Summer Olympics, with a record 713 private jet flights to Paris the last week of July, the private jet industry continues to lose altitude this travel season. Private jet charter flights dropped to 610,000 in the first half of the year, down from 645,000 last year and 716,000 in 2022, according to data from Argus International. The two-year decline highlights the ongoing correction in the world of private aviation, as the surge of new jet card members and charter fliers who started traveling private for the first time during Covid pulls back. Even ultra-wealthy travelers are showing signs of spending fatigue. “During the peak, everyone was saying, ‘People who fly private for the first time will never go back to commercial,’” said Rob Wiesenthal, CEO of Blade Air Mobility, the air charter and helicopter company. “Well guess what? Many went back. And they’re still going back.” The industry is still ahead of 2019 levels, and experts say if you take out the aberrational spike in 2021 and 2022, business has been rising along its usual growth path. Yet the boom times of the post-Covid era created a wave of euphoria in the industry, ushering in a burst of IPOs and startups, and a mad scramble for jets and pilots. Now, many say, all that expansion is setting the stage for a shakeout. <br/>
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg met with union representatives during his first week on the job and said he’s “committed to reset” the company’s relationship with workers as the US planemaker heads into crucial labor negotiations next month. Ortberg told the presidents of Boeing’s largest workers union and another labor group that he’s seeking “a new contract where we can come together to build a strong future for our employees in the region,” he said in a memo to Boeing employees that was shared by the company. Avoiding a potentially crippling strike is one of the top tasks facing Ortberg as he takes over as Boeing’s CEO. The company is in the “final phase” of contract negotiations, according to the memo, with labor groups representing more than 33,000 workers. Ortberg, who succeeded former CEO Dave Calhoun last week, said he also conducted one-on-one meetings with some airline customers, walked the 737 factory in Renton, Washington, and visited the facilities of Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. facility in Kansas. That company is the key supplier that Boeing is the process of buying back to improve its manufacturing quality after a series of defects. <br/>