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The Department of Transportation said Tuesday it is in contact with airlines about the affordability of their flights in areas hit by Hurricane Helene and those bracing for Hurricane Milton, as concerns about price gouging grow. “DOT officials have been in touch with airlines to get more information about the capacity and affordability of flights in the affected areas,” a DOT spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. It is typical for the alarm around price gouging to grow louder in disasters such as hurricanes, when demand spikes from consumers scrambling for items such as last-minute flights and survival supplies. Price gouging is the practice of retailers artificially inflating prices dramatically when the retailer’s costs have not increased. In times of crisis, when urgent demand vastly outpaces supply, consumers can be especially vulnerable to price gouging. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a Monday post on social media platform X that his agency was “keeping a close eye on flights in and out of areas affected by Hurricane Milton to make sure airlines are not charging excessively increasing fares.” “The Department takes all allegations of airline price-gouging seriously,” he added.<br/>

Bahrain plans to expand its air connectivity to 100 new destinations by 2026, a senior official revealed on Tuesday, following the conclusion of Routes World 2024, a key event in the global aviation sector. The 29th edition of the summit, held in Bahrain, facilitated more than 9,000 meetings between airline and airport representatives and attracted over 2,300 delegates from 230 airlines and 530 airports worldwide. Mohamed Yousif Al Binfalah, CEO of Bahrain Airport Company, underscored the importance of the event in positioning Bahrain as a hub for strategic partnerships and innovation in aviation. "We are committed to driving the continued growth of this crucial sector," he said. Bahrain's Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Mohamed bin Thamer Al Kaabi highlighted the conference's role in shaping the future of global aviation and enhancing air connectivity. The event also saw participation from several Chinese airport groups, including those from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, which promoted their regions through cultural performances and marketing activities.<br/>

Pilots in India will soon get e-licences. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is in the final stages of introducing the same. “The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is vetting the same as our e-licences have to be linked to their job aid,” said a senior official. ICAO website says the purpose of this job aid “is to provide necessary information to civil aviation safety inspectors while verifying an electronic personnel license (EPL) of a pilot issued by the issuing authority during a ramp inspection.” It enables EPL offline verification during such checks. ICAO is the United Nations' specialised agency for aviation. “The ICAO vetting and linkage to job aid should happen quickly and we are hopeful of rolling out EPL for pilots in India very soon,” said the official. The DGCA is rolling out EPLs for other categories. Last month it announced that paperless or digital licences for air traffic controllers (ATCOs) will soon be introduced. Controllers will then be able to access and manage these electronic licenses on their mobiles and tablets, improving the former’s operational efficiency. “This innovative move signifies a pivotal shift in the management of personnel licenses, ushering in an era of enhanced efficiency and modernisation within the Indian aviation landscape,” the regulator had said in a statement then.<br/>

The aviation industry believes proposed pricing changes by the Civil Aviation Authority will be “detrimental” to the industry and put some operators at risk of going out of business. The CAA is undergoing a pricing review which proposes to increase aviation safety and security levies, fees and charges, to re-establish a sustainable funding model for the two years from July 2025. These changes include increasing passenger safety levies by $2.34, domestic passenger security levies by $4.36 and the international passenger security levy by $9.42. There would be a 47% increase to other levies, fees, and charges. The Aviation Industry Association (AIANZ) told Stuff Travel the proposal was the “single biggest threat to airfares”. Association CE Simon Wallace said, if the proposals go ahead, all domestic airlines will have no option but to pass on the increase to customers. “The CAA Pricing Review will also have a detrimental impact on other parts of New Zealand’s aviation industry.” The CAA’s funding model was last reviewed in 2017, with some passenger levies revised in 2019. A review of levies, fees and charges in 2020 was suspended due to the pandemic. Since then, the CAA has received extra Crown funding to meet shortfalls, but that will end on June 30, 2025.<br/>

Hong Kong’s three-runway system is scheduled to go into service next month after the Airport Authority acquires the needed licences and completes the final round of tests. Transport and Logistics Bureau officials also said on Tuesday they would expand Hong Kong’s aviation network to fill new capacity arising from the system, revealing that eight airlines would launch 11 new routes under a subsidy scheme managed by the Airport Authority. Authority executive director Steven Yiu Siu-chung told lawmakers the final crucial task was to designate the third-runway system as a restricted zone and obtain the licence from the Civil Aviation Department. “Obtaining the licence is like taking an exam with 900 aspects to pass, including meeting the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organisation,” Yiu said. “We need to provide blueprints, test records and conduct on-site coordination with the Civil Aviation Department and then obtain the licences hopefully in mid-November. We then need to test the Civil Aviation Department’s landing system using an aircraft, stimulating taxiing on the taxiway or runway.” He added an annual incident drill would be held next Monday and Tuesday involving 1,000 people including the Fire Services Department. The airport’s expansion project cost HK$141.5b (US$18b) and includes a new 3.8km (2.3 mile) third runway, a second terminal building opposite the existing one and new concourse. The authority added the main primary construction of the terminal building was finished with all glass curtain walls in place, ensuring weather protection, while evaluation of power generation procedures was under way.<br/>

The FAA Tuesday said it had issued a safety alert to airlines warning of the potential for limited or jammed rudder movement on certain Boeing 737 airplanes. Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said more than 40 foreign operators of Boeing 737 airplanes may be using Max or 737 Next Generation planes with rudder components that could pose safety risks. The FAA said the alert provided information on an existing automated check of the rudder system “that would identify limited or jammed rudder movement during approach prior to landing”. The board on 26 September issued urgent safety recommendations and urged the FAA to take action over the potential for a jammed rudder control system on some 737 airplanes after a February incident involving a United Airlines flight. Last week, the NTSB said 271 impacted parts may be installed on aircraft in service operated by at least 40 foreign air carriers and 16 may still be installed on US-registered aircraft and up to 75 may have been used in aftermarket installation. Boeing, which did not immediately comment on Tuesday, said earlier it had informed affected 737 operators of a “potential condition with the rudder rollout guidance actuator” in August, in what is known as a Multi Operator Message.<br/>

Boeing delivered 33 airplanes in September, six more than during the same period a year earlier, as the company and its customers keep an eye on the impact of a machinist strike, now in its fourth week. Through September, Boeing has handed over 291 aircraft, well below the 371 it had delivered in the first nine months of 2023. Rival Airbus has delivered 447 airplanes this year through August, Last month’s deliveries were led by 27 of Boeing’s bestselling 737 Max aircraft to customers including United Airlines, which received five, and Ryanair and Southwest Airlines, which each each took three. Deliveries are key to Boeing. It’s already burned through more than $8b this year since customers pay the bulk of the price when they receive the airplane. The aircraft are produced in Renton, Washington, one of the factories where machinists walked off the job on Sept. 13 after workers overwhelmingly voted down a tentative agreement the company had reached with their union. The two sides are back at the negotiating table this week, though the union dismissed a sweetened offer from Boeing last month. All but 10 of the 27 Maxes were handed over before the strike began, according to Jefferies aerospace analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu. In a note Monday, she forecast that Boeing will be producing 25 Max aircraft per month if the strike ends in October but the company’s planned ramp-up to 38 Maxes a month will be delayed by a year.<br/>

Boeing said on Tuesday that it had withdrawn its pay offer to around 33,000 U.S. factory workers and no further negotiations were planned with their union representatives as a financially damaging strike nears its fourth week. Boeing and the union held their latest round of negotiations with federal mediators on Monday and Tuesday, but talks collapsed and the sides were left locked in acrimonious stalemate showing no signs of being resolved anytime soon, a person briefed on the talks said. "Unfortunately, the union did not seriously consider our proposals," Boeing Commercial Airplanes head Stephanie Pope said in a note to the employees, calling the union's demands "non-negotiable".<br/>"Further negotiations do not make sense at this point and our offer has been withdrawn." She noted Boeing had been taking steps to preserve cash. Reuters reported earlier on Tuesday that the planemaker is examining options to raise billions of dollars through a sale of stock and equity-like securities while the factories producing its best-selling 737 MAX and its 767 and 777 planes are shut. The company, which is on the brink of losing its prized investment grade credit rating, has also introduced temporary furloughs for thousands of salaried employees. The striking union of its West Coast factory workers is seeking a 40% pay rise over four years and the restoration of a defined-benefit pension that was taken away in the contract a decade ago. More than 90% of workers voted down an offer of a 25% pay rise over four years before going on strike. Boeing made an improved offer last month that it described as its "best and final", which would give workers a 30% raise and restore a performance bonus, but the union said a survey of its members found that was not enough. Pope, referring to the two days of negotiations this week, said: "Our team bargained in good faith and made new and improved proposals to try to reach a compromise, including increases in take-home pay and retirement."<br/>

S&P Global Ratings is looking at downgrading Boeing’s credit grades to junk, citing the planemaker’s growing cash needs as it suffers from a protracted strike by machinists. The credit grader estimated that Boeing will burn through about $10b of cash in 2024. The company is likely to need additional funding to meet its day-to-day cash needs and finance debt maturities, according to a statement Tuesday. “The strike puts Boeing’s recovery at risk,” according to S&P. “We believe the company remains exposed to higher-than-expected cash usage and adjusted debt for the next year or two.” Junk-rated companies usually face higher borrowing costs than their investment-grade counterparts. Boeing has $4b of debt coming due in 2025 and also $8b coming due in 2026, according to Moody’s Ratings, which said last month that it’s considering downgrading Boeing to junk. Boeing has been plagued by manufacturing problems for years, and has lost money on an annual basis since 2019. This year it has faced additional pressure, most recently from a strike by 33,000 hourly factory workers that’s shut down its manufacturing across the Pacific Northwest. That walkout is costing Boeing more than $1b a month, even with a slew of cost-saving measures that it’s put in place, S&P said in the report. The ratings firm doesn’t expect Boeing to reach its target of producing 38 of its 737 Max jets per month until mid-2025, months after the year-end goal set by company executives. <br/>

Airbus’ already-reduced annual delivery goal has increasingly become a long shot, as handovers in September have left the European company with gap for the final three months that will be a stretch to fill even at a higher rate. The company probably managed to get 50 jetliners to customers last month, according to people familiar with the figures. Such a number would bring deliveries after three months to about 500, leaving Airbus with a gap of 270 toward its annual goal of 770 deliveries. While the pace tends to pick up toward the end of the year, Airbus would have to consistently hand over more planes in each of the last three months than it has managed at any point so far in 2024. The highest that Airbus managed in 2023 was 112 deliveries in December. Airbus’s delivery target is a closely watched metric in the aviation industry. In June, the world’s largest planemaker was forced to cut the goal to 770 from 800 previously, citing persistent supply-chain shortages on parts including interiors and engines. Airbus declined to comment on September deliveries ahead of their scheduled monthly release on Wednesday. The manufacturer could be forced to downgrade its full-year guidance when it reports third-quarter earnings at the end of October, Ian Douglas-Pennant, an analyst at UBS, wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. UBS is now modeling for 750 deliveries in 2024, according to the note. The European planemaker has long complained that the supply chain has struggled to ramp back up after the pandemic upended the industry and forced parts makers to slash jobs and cut spending to preserve cash. The shortage of deliveries has weighed on airlines, who are not receiving their ordered planes at the desired speed, forcing them to fly older models for longer or pare back some routes. <br/>

Airlines have a "significant shortage" of clean fuel, a major freight carrier warned on Tuesday as it called for supplies to be funnelled into planes rather than cars. German logistics company DHL said the aviation sector should take priority because electric cars mean "there is an alternative" for going greener on the road. A more radical remodelling of planes to run on hydrogen will take another decade at least, said board member Melanie Kreis. A summit in Hamburg heard plane maker Airbus is banking on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), typically made from animal fats or used cooking oils, to replace fossil fuels in its jet engines and cut more than 50% of its carbon footprint. However, the industry will "need a ramp up of SAF production this decade if we want to make any progress", Ms Kreis said. While DHL bought 70,000 tonnes of sustainable fuel for its 300 cargo planes last year, it was still a small part of the picture, she added. "I could now say we were the airline with the highest SAF blend. Amazingly, it was 3%," she said. "With the 3% that we had last year, we actually bought 14% of global SAF production. What these numbers show clearly is that there a significant shortage. Road is also a big topic but when I look at our last mile delivery fleet, there is an alternative. We can go electric. For the next 10 years, the only chance apart from getting newer aircraft in is SAF. We have to prioritise that these precious limited production facilities are used for aviation."<br/>