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The Transportation Department has tentatively awarded room for five new daily long-haul flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to five of the nation’s biggest airlines while rejecting proposals from some low-fare carriers. The routes announced Wednesday would offer more options to travelers flying between Washington and major Western cities including San Francisco and Seattle. The Transportation Department said it will take comments on its decision until Oct. 30, then allow answers to the comments until Nov. 8. Many travelers prefer the convenience of Reagan National, which is a short Metro subway ride away from downtown Washington, to Dulles International Airport, located more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of the nation’s capital. Flights longer than 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) to Reagan National are strictly limited by federal law, but under pressure from Delta Air Lines and others, Congress this year approved enough new takeoff and landing rights to support five new daily round trips. Story lists winning airlines and their planned routes.<br/>

The U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday it has approved conditional loan guarantee commitments totaling nearly $3b for two sustainable aviation fuel projects. The agency's Loan Programs Office said the funding of up to $1.44b to Calumet's unit would support the expansion of its facility in Montana. The facility will utilize vegetable oils, fats, and greases to produce SAF, renewable diesel, and renewable naphtha. If finalized, the loan guarantee would fund facility expansion to produce about 315m gallons per year of biofuels, most of which will be SAF, the agency said. The White House aims to meet all of the U.S.'s aviation fuel demand with SAF by 2050 and to supply at least 3b gallons of SAF annually by 2030. Once the Montana facility reaches full capacity, its output would represent 10% of the SAF Grand Challenge goal of 3b gallons annually by 2030, DOE said. The government body also approved an up to $1.46b loan guarantee to renewable fuels company Gevo to help finance a corn starch-to-jet fuel facility in Lake Preston, South Dakota. Gevo would be the first integrated, commercial-scale facility in the United States to convert corn starch to SAF with carbon capture and renewable power, DOE said. The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects domestic production of biofuels to increase by about 50% in 2024, led by rising SAF production.<br/>

The bosses of Ryanair and the world’s most influential airline body have sounded the alarm over production issues at Boeing as European airlines struggle with delivery delays. The International Air Transport Association’s director general, Willie Walsh, said delivery delays from the US planemaker and its European rival Airbus would pose a problem for many years. “It’s massively frustrating for airline CEOs and it’s having a big impact,” he told an Irish thinktank on Wednesday. “It’s going to be a problem for a number of years to come. The message I get from airline CEOs is the situation doesn’t look like it’s getting any worse, so it seems to have bottomed out or plateaued, but it’s not yet getting better.” His comments came after Ryanair said it would have to lower its passenger traffic estimates for next year because of expected aircraft delivery delays from Boeing. The Irish budget airline’s CE, Michael O’Leary, said it had been due to receive 20 deliveries before the end of December that were now likely to come in January and February. He said the airline would still have them in time for next summer’s peak travel season. O’Leary said Ryanair would be doing well if it got 10 or 15 aircraft from Boeing after next March, instead of an expected 30. The Ryanair share price fell by as much as 3.5% after the comments before easing to a fall of 1.7%. Boeing is grappling with a strike by 33,000 workers that began a month ago, and the persisting fallout from safety fears, prompting the US planemaker to announce a year’s delay to the first delivery of its 777X commercial jetliner and moves to cut 17,000 jobs worldwide.<br/>

Boeing is closing in on a plan to raise around $15b with common shares and a mandatory convertible bond as the jetmaker bolsters finances worsened by a crippling strike, but the timing remains unclear, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The company said on Tuesday in regulatory filings that it could raise as much as $25b in stock and debt with its investment-grade credit rating at risk. One of the sources cautioned that a $15b sale may not be enough for Boeing to address its ongoing crises. Boeing is also considering a structured finance transaction to raise up to $5b that could resemble the securitization of a portion of a subsidiary's revenue, according to a separate source familiar with its financing plans. Boeing did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the securitization plan, which had not been reported previously. The aerospace giant has been dealing with increased regulatory scrutiny, production curbs and a loss of confidence from customers since a door panel blew off a 737 MAX plane in midair in early January. Shares gained 1% on Wednesday, but are down more than 40% this year.<br/>

European aircraft maker and Boeing rival Airbus said Wednesday that it was laying off 2,500 workers as it tries to turnaround its struggling defense and space division. Airbus said it would implement other organizational changes as it faces ongoing challenges in the defense and space sector, including disrupted supply chains, the rapid evolution of warfare tactics and increasing costs. The announcement comes after the company had already begun making organizational changes in the division last year, which it said have begun “bearing fruit.” “We want to shape the division so it can act as a leading and competitive player in this ever-evolving market,” said Mike Schoellhorn, the CEO of Airbus’s defense and space division. “This requires us to become faster, leaner and more competitive.” The company’s defense and space business struggled last year, notably taking a E477m loss on the long-troubled A400M military transport plane, in part linked to unusually high inflation. The European space sector also was hit by the loss of access to Russia’s Soyuz rocket launchers and the failure of a new Vega-C rocket soon after takeoff from French Guiana in late 2022. Outside of that division, business has been booming for the aerospace giant. Airbus has outpaced Boeing for five straight years in plane orders and deliveries and its profits have soared. The bigger problem for Airbus has been keeping up with demand for commercial airplanes. As of June, the French manufacturer had an order backlog of 8,585 commercial aircraft.<br/>