Global airlines have raced to develop a series of increasingly lavish perks — from bottomless caviar to onboard art galleries — to tempt high spenders into premium cabins while other improvements remain grounded. The race to improve in-flight “soft products” is taking place as supply chain disruption across the aerospace industry has generated long waits for carriers seeking to deploy game-changing new seats or planes. Qatar Airways has started offering caviar, typically a preserve of the highest spenders in first class, to its business class customers on some routes. It will launch high-speed WiFi powered by Elon Musk’s Starlink technology next week. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s China Airlines this year partnered with a three-star Michelin restaurant to offer an in-flight tasting menu. Emirates, which says it has spent more than $1bn on wines and champagnes over the past 16 years, this year touted deals for exclusive use of some vintages from champagne producers Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Dom Pérignon. Industry experts said the new perks ranged from gimmicks to upgrades that genuinely improved the customer experience. “Airlines are trying to find a point of difference to attract customers, and are doubling down on soft products because it is faster and the supply chain is quicker,” said Jonny Clark, an airline brand consultant. Supply chain problems have dogged the industry since travel restarted at scale in 2022 following the coronavirus pandemic. Delivery delays from Boeing and Airbus have led to many aircraft being delivered years late, while there is also a shortage of new seats because of production delays. Factors including tighter certification rules, shortages of labour and electronics shortages for embedded in-flight entertainment systems had all combined to slow deliveries of seats, industry experts said. “There are lots of little things you can do,” said Etihad CE Antonoaldo Neves of the luxury touches. “To get new seats takes a long time.”<br/>
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About 1,500 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland remain without power as a result of damage caused by Storm Ashley on Sunday. Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) said it has restored power to more than 10,000 customers after outages. Meanwhile, passengers were left on board airplanes at Belfast City Airport for a number of hours after landing due to Storm Ashley. The airport was unable to bring steps to the aircraft due to the high winds and planes had to queue to pull up to a land bridge so people could disembark. "We were able to fly over in a storm from Alicante to Belfast and landed safely but we can't get off the plane," Tracey Godfrey from Comber told BBC News NI. On social media Belfast City Airport said the safety of passengers and staff was of the utmost importance. "The crew have been brilliant in updating us, but we're number four in a queue of five planes," added Ms Godfrey. Eamonn O'Sullivan, was also on the flight from Alicante to Belfast. He described the landing as "very, very difficult" with a lot of turbulence. After landing, passengers were kept on the runway for almost three hours. A flight from Bristol to Belfast International had to abort its landing and divert to Manchester airport. About 60 flights due to land or depart at Dublin Airport were cancelled on Sunday, with 27 incoming aircraft performing go-arounds and 28 opting to divert to other airports. The Met Office had issued an amber warning for western counties until 20:00 BST.<br/>
Germany's aviation sector called for taxes on air travel to be slashed on Sunday. It comes after Ryanair and Eurowings recently scaled back services to and from Germany, citing high costs. "Flying has to remain affordable," German Aviation Association president Jens Bischof said in remarks published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. "The air transport tax must be abolished. Sweden has shown the way," said Bischof, who is also the CEO of Eurowings. Germany has some of the highest airport fees in Europe. But one particularly contentious fee has been an air travel tax that the government increased in May 2024. The tax now adds between E15 and E70 per ticket, depending on the distance. The measure was introduced for environmental reasons but it has now been earmarked for other purposes too.<br/>
A new international airport will soon open in Greenland’s capital Nuuk, allowing larger aircraft to land for the first time - paving the way for direct flights from the US and Europe. It’s the first of three airport projects that officials hope will boost the local economy, by making the Arctic territory more accessible than ever before. Covered by an ice cap and sparsely populated, Greenland is a vast autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Its capital Nuuk, on the southwestern coast, is a small town of 18,000 residents. Modern apartment blocks and colourful wooden cottages look out over a wide sea fjord. Sitting on a hillside above the city, small 35-seat propeller planes take off and land from a tarmac airstrip. Currently anyone wishing to fly overseas first has to take one of these aircraft 200 miles (319km) north to a remote former military airport at Kangerlussuaq, and then change to a larger plane. Built by the Americans during World World II, Kangerlussuaq is currently one of only two runways on Greenland long enough for big jets. The other is Narsarsuaq in the far south of the country, and that was also a former US military base. But from the end of November, large planes will be able to land at Nuuk for the first time, thanks to a new longer runway, and a sleek new terminal building.<br/>
Incheon International Airport is expanding its capacity for both passengers and cargo as it aims to transform into a global mega hub, with a goal of handling over 100m passengers annually by 2031. Terminal 2, home to major international airlines, will reveal its expanded sections in December. It has also incorporated art, giant media walls and other passenger-focused features to enhance the visitor experience and redefine how the terminal serves travelers. Supported by an investment of over 4.8t won ($3.5b) and undergoing renovations since 2017, the airport's fourth phase of construction has added a new runway and extended the terminal by 600 meters at both ends, giving it a wing-like appearance. The expansion enables the airport to accommodate an additional 29m passengers annually. With Terminal 1’s capacity of 54m and Terminal 2’s original capacity of 23m, the airport can now handle a total of 106m passengers per year. The latest improvements have added 1.3m tons to the airport's freight capacity, raising the total to 6.3m tons annually. The number of flights it can accommodate each year has also grown by 100,000, reaching 600,000. The expanded terminal now offers 75 additional docks for aircraft on the apron, bringing the airport's total docking capacity to 285. A new 43-km conveyor belt for luggage transportation extends the total system to 184 km, allowing for the efficient handling of baggage. For visitors arriving by car, the expansion has added over 25,000 parking spaces, increasing the airport's capacity to accommodate more than 48,000 parked vehicles.<br/>
The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday it will open a new safety review into Boeing as the agency continues aggressive oversight of the U.S. planemaker after an in-flight emergency in January The new review will probe issues like risk-assessment quality, resource allocation, and adherence to regulatory requirements, and is expected to take three months, the FAA said. An FAA spokesperson said the agency plans regular reviews of Boeing. Last week, the Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General criticized the FAA’s oversight of Boeing, saying the agency does not have an effective system to oversee the planemaker’s individual manufacturing facilities. A Boeing spokesperson said the planemaker continues “to cooperate fully and transparently with the FAA. We support all actions that strengthen safety in aviation.” The FAA said Friday it was reviewing Boeing’s operational safety processes “to ensure they meet FAA requirements and result in timely, accurate safety-related information for FAA use” and said it was “part of our aggressive oversight to ensure Boeing has the right tools to sustain lasting changes to its safety culture.” An FAA audit of Boeing completed in February found 97 incidents of noncompliance, spanning “issues in Boeing’s manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control,” according to a U.S. Senate report, adding that the FAA found 23 examples where employees “failed to follow processes or lacked proficiency.”<br/>
Leaders of Boeing’s largest union said on Saturday that they had reached a “negotiated proposal” for a new contract and would put it up for a vote to end a long and expensive strike. In a post on its website on Saturday, the union said that “with the help of Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su,” it had reached a deal that “warrants presenting to the members and is worthy of your consideration.” The strike by the union’s more than 33,000 members, who mostly build commercial airplanes in the Seattle area, began on Sept. 13 and has taken a notable toll on Boeing, which was already in difficult financial straits. Within days of the walkout, Boeing announced cost-cutting measures, including temporary furloughs for tens of thousands of white-collar employees. The proposal, which was agreed to after multiple rounds of failed talks, would raise wages cumulatively by nearly 40% over the four-year life of the contract, according to details shared by the union. That is a significant increase over the previous proposal and close to the amount the union had initially sought. The deal also includes a bonus of $7,000 should workers ratify the deal, and the reinstatement of performance bonuses that were set to be cut. The union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said that the vote on the proposal would take place on Wednesday. In a statement, Boeing said, “We look forward to our employees voting on the negotiated proposal.” If members vote for the contract, it would replace one that was agreed to in 2008 after a two-month strike. Boeing later said in securities filings that the strike contributed to decline in revenue that year of about $6.4b because it delivered 104 fewer planes than expected. In its first week, the current strike cost the company at least $571m, according to an analysis by Anderson Economic Group, a Michigan-based research and consulting firm.<br/>
Boeing is exploring asset sales in a bid to boost its fragile finances by shedding its non-core or underperforming units, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The planemaker last week reached an agreement to offload a small defense unit that makes surveillance equipment for the U.S. military, the paper reported, citing people familiar with the deal. Boeing has lurched from crisis to crisis this year, ever since Jan. 5 when a door panel blew off a 737 MAX jet in mid-air. Since then, its CEO has departed, its production has been slowed as regulators investigate its safety culture, and in September, 33,000 union workers went on strike. The Journal reported that in recent financial-performance meetings, new CEO Kelly Ortberg asked the heads of the company's units to lay out the value of those units to the company. Boeing's board recently met to discuss the next steps for the company, where directors questioned division heads and combed through reports to examine the state of each unit, the report said. Boeing declined to comment on the report.<br/>
Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems will furlough some 700 workers as a strike by machinists at the plane maker enters its sixth week, a spokesman for the supplier said Friday. More than 32,000 Boeing workers walked off the job Sept. 13 after overwhelmingly rejecting a tentative labor deal with Boeing, deepening the aircraft producer’s financial strain and handing a new challenge to CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took the reins just over two months ago. The temporary furloughs account for about 5% of Spirit’s U.S. workforce, according to its latest annual filing. The temporary furloughs will affect employees at Spirit’s largest facilities, in Wichita, Kansas, and account for about 5% of Spirit’s U.S. workforce, according to its latest annual filing. Meanwhile, Boeing and its machinists’ union remain at an impasse, and Spirit is considering deeper cuts. “If the strike continues beyond November, we will have to implement layoffs and additional furloughs,” Spirit spokesman Joe Buccino told CNBC on Friday. Ortberg, who faces investors in his first earnings call next Wednesday, last week announced a series of drastic measures meant to slash costs as the company’s losses mount, including cutting the workforce by 10%, or about 17,000 people. Boeing is also ending 767 commercial production when orders are fulfilled in 2027 and said its long-delayed 777X wide-body jet won’t debut until 2026, pushing it back yet another year. Boeing is in the process of raising debt or equity to increase liquidity.<br/>
Brazilian plane maker Embraer is studying the market and new technology that could warrant it building an all-new jet, CEO Francisco Gomes Neto told CNBC. A new airplane could help the airplane manufacturer compete with much larger rivals Airbus and Boeing, which deliver hundreds of jets a year compared with Embraer’s dozens of aircraft. But Gomes Neto noted that no decisions have been made yet. “At this point in time, we don’t have concrete plans to go to a big narrow body,” he said, adding that the studies for new engine technologies, avionics and potential demand are “to be prepared.” In the meantime, Gomes Neto said Embraer is focused on improving results and selling its regional planes, which won orders earlier this year from American Airlines, manufacturing its E2 jet, and “delivering what we promise” customers. Embraer said Friday that it delivered 16 commercial jets in the third quarter, up more than 5% from a year earlier. Including its defense and business jets, the company handed over 57 jets in the period, a third more than last year.<br/>
Union members voted to end their strike at Textron Aviation on Saturday and Sunday 19-20 October, accepting a new five-year contract. On Sunday 20 October it was announced that workers will start to return to work from Wednesday, 23 October. The strike began when IAM Local 774 (District 70) members voted down the Textron’s last, best, and final offer when their previous contract expired on 22 September. Nearly 5,000 union members at three campuses in Wichita have been on strike since then, primarily due to dissatisfaction with the company’s offers over wages and healthcare. The new five-year contract adds a year of General Wage Increase (GWI) to provide ‘stability’ to Textron employees and their families and will bring the total general wage increase to 31% over the five-year term, including an immediate 11% raise upon ratification, and a cost of living adjustment has more than doubled from US $700 to $1,500 per year. There will be a guaranteed US $3,000 lump sum payment for each year of the contract, which can be added to workers’ paychecks, retirement plans or Health Savings Accounts. Long-term employees will receive new ‘longevity pay’, and there will be a cap on increases to annual health insurance premiums. Additional free services (primary care visits, preventative care, mental health care, health coaching, physical therapy, lab services and X-rays) will be provided at the Plane Healthy Wellness Center and Pharmacy locations, and there will be no premium increases to the company’s no deductible health plan from 2025 – 2029.<br/>