Three airports in Eastern Finland are reintroducing radio navigation equipment to facilitate aircraft landings during times that authorities believe Russia is interfering with satellite navigation, their operators told Reuters. Finland believes Russia is disturbing signals used in navigation, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Global Positioning System (GPS), in eastern Finland and the Baltic Sea region, to protect its oil ports and other strategic assets from Ukrainian air strikes or drones. Russia has denied interfering with communication and satellite networks. Two Finnish airports operated by Finavia in the towns of Joensuu and Savonlinna, both about an hour's drive from the Russian border, introduced refitted ground equipment in September, while another airport in Lappeenranta is planning to do the same as soon as possible, the operators said. The radio-based Distance Measuring Equipment, previously widely used in aviation, provides "an alternative approach method" for aircraft during GPS interference, said Finavia's head of infrastructure and security, Henri Hansson. "We have kept some earlier system infrastructure, even if it has not necessarily been in operational use. Now we have been able to update it to put it back into use," he told Reuters. Hansson declined to comment on the cost of the upgrades. Finavia reintroduced the equipment after two domestic flights of national carrier Finnair to Joensuu had to be aborted in June and August due to GPS interference.<br/>
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Singapore’s Changi Airport will charge passengers and airlines more to fly in and out of the city-state to help finance a S$3b ($2.3b) upgrade of its terminals. The operator of one of Asia’s most-loved airports said in a statement Thursday that the hike in fees, between 2025 and 2030, will aid in covering the cost of rising demand for air travel while enabling the airport to stay competitive. “As a major air hub for the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, Changi Airport is well-poised to serve this rise in demand and provide better connectivity to travelers,” it said. “The aviation sector will continue to be a key driver of economic growth for Singapore and provide more and better jobs for Singaporeans.” Most of the money will go toward upgrading baggage handling systems, expanding check-in desk facilities, improving air-side infrastructure and also paying for some wider refurbishments of the facilities outright, such as Terminal 3, which will be 20 years old by 2030. A passenger service and security fee for people departing from Singapore currently costs S$46.40 a flight, which is baked into ticket prices. By April 2030, that will come to S$58.40, a 26% increase. There will also be a one-time increase to the aviation levy from S$8 to S$10 in 2027. Fees for transit passengers stand at S$6 now and will rise to S$18 gradually by 2030. For everyday passengers, the added cost translates into about a 1% rise in airfares relative to the average cost of an economy class ticket, according to Thursday’s statement.<br/>
A technical outage crippled all of Australia's major airports on Friday, leading to long queues at international terminals after the disruption of automated kiosks for identity and facial recognition, authorities said. In a statement the Australian Border Force (ABF) said immigration staff were added to manually process travellers, adding, "The issue is currently being rectified and systems are slowly returning online." No flights have been affected at Australia's busiest airport of Sydney, however, a spokesperson said by email, but added, "Inbound and outbound queues are longer than usual." It was not immediately clear when operations would return to normal.<br/>
The FAA said on Thursday it will boost its oversight of Boeing as the planemaker prepares to resume production of its 737 MAX jets following a 53-day strike that ended earlier this week. FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker spoke with Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg this week and stressed the importance of Boeing using its system for managing safety risks as it resumes production, the agency said. The FAA noted that it maintained its enhanced on-site presence at Boeing factories throughout the strike "and will further strengthen and target our oversight as the company begins its return-to-work plan." Boeing has not said yet when it plans to resume production, but workers do not have to return until Nov. 12. About 33,000 machinists who work on the best-selling 737 MAX, as well as the 767 and 777 wide-body jets, agreed to end a strike that began on Sept. 13. Boeing did not immediately comment on the matter. Reuters has previously reported that Boeing is expected to resume production of the 737 MAX at a very gradual rate. Whitaker capped production at 38 737 MAX planes per month in January after a door panel missing four key bolts flew off an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 in midair that month, exposing serious safety issues at Boeing.<br/>
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said on Thursday that employees furloughed during a seven-week strike by factory workers would be repaid by the company for lost wages, but it would proceed with plans to cut about 10% of its global workforce. Boeing furloughed thousands of salaried employees on a rolling basis after the strike by 33,000 union machinists began in September and halted production of its best-selling 737 MAX. But the planemaker later canceled the unpaid leave after announcing plans to cut 17,000 jobs. "Your sacrifice made a difference and helped the company bridge to this moment," Ortberg told staff in an email seen by Reuters. "We want to acknowledge your support by returning your lost pay if you went on unpaid furlough." Boeing is dealing with morale issues as it moves ahead with its job cuts, with many of the employees due to be notified about the future of their roles this month. "We will continue forward with our previously announced actions to reduce our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and a more focused and streamlined set of priorities," Ortberg wrote to staff. "These structural changes are important to our competitiveness and will help us deliver more value to our customers over the long term." A spokesperson for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, which represents Boeing engineers, said earlier it was informed that 60-day notices of job losses would be issued to its members on Nov. 15. Boeing on Monday won ratification of a contract giving its machinists a 38% pay hike over four years and a $12,000 bonus, ending the strike.<br/>Those workers are due back by Nov. 12. Boeing has not said yet when it plans to resume production of the 737 MAX, but has indicated it will be gradual and under regulatory scrutiny.<br/>
Airbus delivered 62 jets in October to bring this year's total to 559, the company said on Thursday, as it chases an increasingly challenging year-end target. The latest deliveries leave Airbus with more than 200 more to deliver to reach an annual goal of "around" 770 planes, revised down from 800 in July after supply chain problems. Reuters reported last week that Airbus had delivered a little more than 60 planes in October. Analysts have said Airbus may be able to deliver as few as 750 planes this year without having to announce a new cut, but the company is widely expected to lean on the flexibility provided by the word "around" in its guidance, which it reiterated last week. Much depends on the availability of engines and the planemaker's ability to repeat the type of end-of-year sprint typically seen before the pandemic, but this time with a supply chain that has been weakened by parts and labour shortages. "While it is clearly possible that Airbus might pull something out of the bag ... it is increasingly feeling to us as though 750 deliveries, the bottom end of Airbus’s new range, would be a good result," said Agency Partners analyst Sash Tusa. "We would not rule out another guidance cut towards the end of November if management sees no signs of improvement by then." Jefferies analyst Chloe Lemarie said that underlying production looked solid, going by the number of test flights.<br/>
Bombardier's third-quarter revenue beat analysts' estimates on Thursday, helped by strong demand for business jet parts and repairs. But the manufacturer of Challenger and Global jets reported cash burn, a metric closely watched by investors, of $127m during the quarter, compared with positive cash flow of $80m in the same period last year. Shares of Bombardier were down 1.2% in morning trading. CFO Bart Demosky told analysts he expected strong free cash flow performance in the fourth quarter. The order backlogs of business jet makers are growing as they benefit from a wave of interest from wealthy travellers and fleet operators that has continued since the COVID-19 pandemic. “The market is well balanced and is proving to be resilient,” CEO Eric Martel told analysts. But Montreal-based Bombardier, like other planemakers, continues to wrestle with supply chain snags, particularly on engines, even as Martel said other parts like windshields have improved.<br/>
The mega-rich are using private jets like taxis, warn climate scientists who tracked flights to calculate the planet-warming gases they release. The scientists worked out that the carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to climate change, rose by 46% between 2019 and 2023. Researchers traced all private flights globally, including summer weekend trips to Ibiza, Spain and travel to the Fifa World Cup and the UN climate conference in Dubai. Flying in a private jet for a single hour can release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the average person produces in a year, according to the research team. “There are a lot of people using these aircraft as taxis, where you cover whatever distance by aircraft simply because it's more convenient,” Professor Stefan Gossling, from Sweden's Linnaeus University, who led the research, said. “If somebody’s flight emits in one hour as much as an average human being emits in a year - just to watch a soccer game - then perhaps it shows those people think they are outside the standards that we have as a global community.” In 2023, private flights produced an estimated 15.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide - the equivalent of 3.7m petrol cars being driven over the course of a year - according to the research.<br/>
From Friday, citizens of nine more countries can enter China without needing a visa to visit. Holders of ordinary passports from eight countries in Europe — Slovakia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Andorra, Monaco and Liechtenstein — as well as South Korea can visit for business or leisure purposes for up to 15 days without needing a visa. The visa exemption is set to remain in effect until Dec. 31, 2025. South Korea is a major tourism source market for China. In 2019, some 4.3m South Koreans visited China, according to The Korea Times. Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported less than 1.3m visited in 2023. Share prices of prominent Chinese and Korean travel companies rose following Beijing’s announcement of the expanded visa-free program on Friday. Trip.com shares have risen more than 5%, while low-cost carrier Jin Air rose nearly 4%. This is the latest round of countries to be added to China’s ever-growing visa-free program, designed to spur inbound tourism which has yet to rebound to pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, China welcomed some 49.1m travelers — as of July this year, around 17.25m foreigners had arrived, according to the state media agency Xinhua.<br/>