The Netherlands' Schiphol Airport, one of Europe's main aviation hubs, is likely to be allowed 475,000 to 480,000 flights annually, up from the previous target of 460,000 to 470,000, the Dutch government announced on Wednesday. The European Commission's advice would be sought before a final decision, it added. The previous government had estimated that a reduction to 460,000 to 470,000 was necessary to reduce noise pollution around Schiphol by 17%. But the current government said more detailed information recently provided by the sector showed this new target would be enough. The revised flight cap is expected to take effect in November 2025. Last week, Schiphol Airport announced plans to invest E6b by 2029, marking the largest investment in its history.<br/>
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Ireland risks losing 1,000 aviation jobs and E500m in tourist spend and other investment because of a cap on passengers at Dublin airport, its operator warned, adding to fears that infrastructure bottlenecks are throttling the country’s growth. Kenny Jacobs, CE of Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), told the Financial Times that in a country already struggling with a chronic housing crisis, strains on the electricity grid and severe planning delays, the limit on passengers “just looks chaotic”. His comments came as the airport announced it was set to exceed the 32mn passenger annual limit imposed in 2007 for the first time this year, by 1mn, due to “record-breaking demand” for travel. “This has gone beyond a transport issue. This is now an Ireland issue,” Jacobs said. DAA said it had made “extensive efforts” to reduce passenger numbers to comply with the cap, which was designed to ease congestion on nearby road links, but was still expecting some 33m travellers this year. The group has applied for permission to raise the annual limit to 40m passengers, not counting those in transit, and said current demand stood at 37m. Jacobs said the “outdated cap” created “uncertainty around inward connectivity . . . it’s another black mark on foreign direct investment in Ireland”. He added he was unsure if the DAA would face any punishment for breaching the limit, saying that “we are in uncharted territory”. Ireland, a small open economy, owes its economic success to a decades-long focus on winning foreign direct investment, with the European headquarters and large operations of major US, European and Chinese tech and pharma companies based in the country.<br/>
Tackling airspace inefficiencies is “long overdue” and will happen “under my watch”, a minister has pledged. Aviation minister Mike Kane said UK airspace management is “an analogue system in a digital age”, and improvements will lead to “quicker, quieter, cleaner flights”. He was speaking at an easyJet sustainability event at Cranfield University, where the airline said inefficient use of airspace contributes to increases in fuel consumption, carbon emissions and flight times. The carrier described the problem as a “universal issue” across the whole of Europe, but the “greatest inefficiencies” for its operations are in the UK. Among the causes are aircraft being required to climb in steps after take-off, complex routing, and delaying descents to manage the workload of air traffic control (ATC) staff. Kane told the audience he and easyJet CE Johan Lundgren have “banged on about this for years” while Labour was in opposition. He said he wants to develop “a Britain where the negative impacts of aviation are minimised”.<br/>
Russian state leasing company GTLK has signed an agreement on terms covering delivery of 238 domestically-built jet and turboprop aircraft. Its agreement with United Aircraft spans 132 Yakovlev SJ-100s, plus 65 Ilyushin Il-114-300s and 41 Tupolev Tu-214s. The documentation sets out the primary terms for aircraft deliveries over the course of 2027-32. United Aircraft states that the terms will “subsequently be reflected in firm contracts”. The signature took place at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. The agreement creates a “long-term mechanism” for financing the supply of new aircraft, of various capacities, to Russian carriers’ fleets, says United Aircraft chief Yuri Slyusar. “Our interaction with GTLK will contribute to the implementation of the import-substitution strategy, meeting the needs of airlines for domestic aircraft and ensuring transport accessibility and connectivity of Russian regions.” United Aircraft says the Russian sovereign wealth fund could be used to finance transactions, and that domestic airlines would benefit from “preferential” leasing rates. “We are already the basic supplier for regional aviation and see a great demand for modernised domestic aircraft from carriers,” says GTLK chief Evgeny Ditrikh. He adds that the lessor is also working to support development of the Russian aerospace industry.<br/>
China's southern provinces and cities braced for the arrival of super typhoon Yagi, shutting schools and postponing flights ahead of its expected landfall along Hainan's tropical coast, in what could be the most powerful storm to hit in nearly a decade. Yagi strengthened into a super typhoon on Wednesday night and is currently around 610 kms south-east of Xuwen County, Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province, China's Meteorological office said on Thursday. Yagi is expected to move westward at a speed of 10-15 kmh (6-9 mph) bringing torrential rains to the southern coastal areas of Guangdong and Hainan island. It is due to make landfall along the coast from Qionghai, Hainan to Dianbai, Guangdong from the afternoon to the night of Sept 6. Trains and boats suspended operations in Hainan on Thursday morning, while many schools across southern China, including in the financial hub of Hong Kong and gambling hub Macau were shut. Hong Kong said it would consider issuing its third highest typhoon signal on Thursday afternoon, which would shut down many businesses and reduce transport in the special administrative region. All inbound and outbound flights from Hainan's Haikou airport would be suspended from Thursday at 8pm until Friday midnight, local authorities said, as they closed beaches and coastal tourist attractions.<br/>
Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su on Wednesday encouraged Boeing and more than 30,000 of the planemaker’s factory workers to bridge a divide in negotiations and reach a fair contract, as a vote on a new deal looms on Sept. 12. Boeing’s Seattle-area workers, who produce the planemaker’s strongest-selling 737 commercial jet, are voting next week on their first new contract in 16 years, with the two sides still tackling demands such as job security. The workers can strike as early as Sept. 13 if they reject the contract and overwhelmingly support a work stoppage. The U.S. planemaker has been seeking to restore 737 MAX production to a rate of 38 per month after a January mid-air panel blowout on a new plane led Boeing to slow output of the jet. The union wants Boeing to commit to job security by providing guarantees that the next airplane program will stay in Washington state's Puget Sound area. “We fully support collective bargaining,” Su told Reuters on the sidelines of a New York convention held by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers which represents the Boeing workers. “I would just continue to encourage the parties to bargain, like they’re not quite there, and that reaching a fair contract is a good thing. It’s the way to allow everyone to then march forward together to accomplish the mission of the company in a way that prioritizes the workers,” she added.<br/>
Boeing Co. delivered the most 737 Max jets to China in almost six years, offering a glimmer of progress to new CEO Kelly Ortberg as he works to clear a stockpile of completed aircraft and bolster cash at the embattled planemaker. The estimated nine handovers in August eclipsed every month since December 2018, based on data from Cirium. That was shortly before regulators grounded the Boeing narrowbody in response to two fatal crashes. Inventories swelled to about 450 undelivered Max jets by late 2020 due to the extended grounding and the Covid-19 pandemic. “If Boeing can continue August’s pace of delivery to customers in China then it will go a long way towards clearing inventory that can potentially be delivered,” said Rob Morris, head of consultancy at Cirium, the aviation analytics firm. A fresh crisis this year slowed Boeing’s effort to pare down the backlog, and the recent progress could yet unravel with a potential strike looming at the company’s Seattle-area plants. Handing over more aircraft to Boeing’s biggest export market would unlock delivery payments, easing pressure on Boeing’s battered balance sheet while Ortberg focuses on stabilizing factory operations. A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment ahead of the August orders and deliveries report expected on Sept. 10.<br/>
Parts and labor shortages. Delayed deliveries of new airplanes from Boeing and Airbus. An engine recall. Premature repairs. It’s all piling up, and aircraft engine shops around the world are overflowing. As travelers boarded planes in record numbers this summer, airline executives waited anxiously for repairs and overhauls of their engines. The repair and overhaul of engines has swelled from a $31b business before the pandemic to $58b this year, according to Alton Aviation Consultancy. It’s a cash cow for engine makers like GE Aerospace and the hundreds of smaller specialists that service GE engines, and others made by Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce. American Airlines’ solution is to do more of the work itself. “We just have one customer and that’s American Airlines doing our work,” American’s chief operating officer, David Seymour, said. “We can control our own destiny in that area.” At its bustling engine shop at the airline’s 3.3m-square-foot maintenance facility at Tulsa International Airport, the largest such space in the world, American is on track to increase its overhauls roughly 60% from 2023 to more than 16 engines a month this year. That’s up from five a month in 2022. It’s added some 200 jobs there, as well more equipment like cranes to hang the 2-ton engines during overhauls. The work focuses on CFM56 engines, made by a joint venture of GE and France’s Safran. They power American’s older Boeing 737 workhorse jetliners and many Airbus A320s. Those narrow-body airplanes make up the majority of American’s mainline fleet of more than 960 aircraft, according to an annual company securities filing. “I can get these engines overhauled and through the shop in less than 60 days versus [outside] shops nowadays [are] 120 to 150 days, in some cases north of 200 days,” COO Seymour said.<br/>
After more than 3,700 flights, half a million passengers, impeccable punctuality and higher-than-average passenger load over the last 15 months, China Eastern Airlines this week has handed in a glowing report card for China’s home-grown C919 passenger jet. And having demonstrated its reliability, the rival to the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320 families of aircraft has also shown profitability potential, analysts said, although the C919 is set to face hurdles as it seeks presence in overseas markets. “Some of the C919’s metrics show it’s nosing closer to Boeing and Airbus jets and it has potential to turn a profit … but we need more and quicker deployment as the current scale is too small to make an impact,” said Beijing-based aviation commentator Zhang Zhonglin. Since inducting the first narrowbody C919 into service in May 2023, China Eastern has grown its fleet to seven, with seat occupancy averaging 82%. Average passenger loads per flight edged up to 85% in the busy summer travel season between July and August, according to the Shanghai-based carrier, with its overall seat occupancy 80% in the first half of the year. Passenger trips have also jumped from 300,000 between May 2023 to June, to 500,000 as of the end of August. “The speed with which China Eastern has boosted the twinjet’s deployment is impressive. It has proven its reliability and profit prospects, provided that there is good airline management,” said Zhang. In 2023, the airline had initially only flown the C919 for four hours per day due to teething problems. China Eastern Airlines now operates 22 C919 flights per day on routes from Shanghai to Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Xian, as well as from Beijing to Xian.<br/>