London Stansted said it recorded the busiest day in its history after more than 107,000 passengers passed through the terminal on 27 October. The new daily record beat the previous high of 104,000, set on 23 August, and is the fourth time the record has been broken in 2024. Strong demand for family holidays and short breaks, particularly during half-term, also saw Stansted Airport record its busiest ever October. Destinations like Turkey, the Canaries, Spain, and Portugal were the most popular, while the number of passengers flying into Stansted also reached new levels. More than 2.6m passengers used the airport in October and 99% of passengers passed through security in 15 minutes or less with an average queue time of two minutes during the main departure peaks. Gareth Powell, London Stansted’s managing director, said it was "an incredible achievement" and its investment programme would benefit passengers in the future. The five-year programme will secure links to even more global destinations, helping transform the airport journey." <br/>
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The average domestic airfare increased by 13% after the collapse of Rex flights between capital cities, the consumer watchdog has found, as Qantas and Virgin’s duopoly surged to 98% market dominance. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found that since Rex suspended operations across 11 routes and entered administration, the average airfare on all major city routes increased by 13.3% in the quarter to September. The average cheapest economy tickets increased dramatically on routes formerly serviced by Rex: Adelaide-Melbourne jumped 95% to $296; Melbourne-Gold Coast was up 70% to $432; and Canberra-Melbourne rose 54% to $298. Four operators competed on the Melbourne-Gold Coast route before low-cost carrier Bonza’s collapse – now just two remain. The price index for best discount airfares also rose sharply on several holiday routes, with Canberra-Gold Coast tickets rising 171% over the quarter to $490; Brisbane-Hamilton Island up 122% to $871; and Cairns-Sydney up 43% to $380. Flights are fuller after Rex’s exit, with the number of seats on capital city routes falling by 6% despite passenger numbers remaining stable, according to the ACCC’s latest domestic airline monitoring report.<br/>
Boeing's head of quality for commercial airplanes, Elizabeth Lund, who has spearheaded the planemaker's improvement plans, will retire in December, the company said on Monday. A 33-year veteran of Boeing, Lund had been named in February to the new position of senior vice president of quality for its commercial planes, after the crisis sparked by the Jan. 5 mid-air panel blowout of a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9. In June, the National Transportation Safety Board said Boeing violated investigation rules when Lund provided non-public information to media and speculated about possible causes of the blowout. The agency barred Boeing from receiving information produced during its probe.<br/>Federal Aviation Administration chief Mike Whitaker took the unprecedented step in January of preventing Boeing from expanding 737 MAX production until he is satisfied it has made significant quality improvements. Boeing has been implementing a quality plan it submitted to the FAA in May as it seeks approval to boost 737 MAX production.<br/>
Boeing reached a last-minute settlement with the family of a 737 MAX crash victim, averting a federal civil trial set for Tuesday in Chicago. The Ethiopian Airlines crash in 2019 killed 157 people. The court will meet Tuesday to inform Judge Jorge Alonso, who must approve the settlement. Beleaguered aviation giant Boeing reached a last-minute settlement Monday with the family of a woman killed in the crash of a 737 MAX jetliner in 2019, averting a federal civil trial. Three sources close to the case told AFP that a settlement had been agreed upon out of court, but they gave no details. The crash of the Ethiopian Airlines plane killed 157 people. The trial was set to begin Tuesday in Chicago. It originally involved six plaintiffs but until now all but one had settled, according to a source familiar with the case. The hearing on Tuesday will take place to inform Judge Jorge Alonso of the settlement, who must approve the deal for it to be officially settled, the source said. "It is a damage-only trial, meaning no evidence regarding the liability of Boeing will be presented," the source told AFP. The remaining case involved Manisha Nukavarapu, an Indian-born woman who was on board Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 on March 10, 2019, when the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. Lawyers for the plaintiff's family did not respond to a request for comment by AFP.<br/>
Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc has set up a task force to address maintenance issues with engines that power Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner jet after British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways said they had to cancel some routes because of a lack of planes. The group will bring together employees from operations, supply chain, engineering, technology and planning teams to speed up maintenance on the Trent 1000 model, Rolls-Royce said in an email Monday. The company will also increase investment in maintenance and repair facilities to create short-term surge capacity, which it aims to then double by 2030. “We take the industry-wide issue that the aerospace supply chain is currently dealing with extremely seriously,” a Rolls-Royce spokesman said in the email. “We’ve introduced a number of initiatives to reduce the impact on our customers.” The British enginemaker has come under fire from British Airways and Virgin after both airlines said they’d scrap some routes next summer due to a shortage of aircraft caused by 787 maintenance. Virgin said it would delay the restart of services to Tel Aviv and a new route to Ghana, while BA will remove Bahrain and Kuwait from its schedule. <br/>
The head of Airbus China said on Tuesday that Chinese certification of its A330neo jet was going smoothly and the first delivery of the widebody model in the country could come in 2025. Airbus China CEO George Xu also told reporters at China's biggest air show in Zhuhai that the European planemaker expected its A330 passenger-to-freighter conversion to see rapid development in China. Airbus has overtaken Boeing as a supplier to Chinese airlines during a deepening rift between Washington and Beijing that began during Donald Trump's first term as president. Airbus first established an official presence in China in 1994 and its first final assembly line outside the borders of its four founding European countries was opened in the city of Tianjin in 2008. It now produces the A320neo single-aisle family of passenger aircraft in Tianjin. Xu said the company was deepening its industrial chain in China, noting it was important to Airbus' global footprint. The company hoped to see its Chinese industrial chain supply global customers in addition to local ones, he added. A quarter of deliveries from Tianjin in 2024 were to non-Chinese airlines including Easyjet and Wizzair, Xu said. In April 2023, Airbus agreed to build a second Chinese assembly line for its A320neo family during a state visit to China by French President Emmanuel Macron, in a move to strengthen access to the world's second-largest aviation market.<br/>
Chinese planemaker COMAC has rebranded its ARJ21 regional jet as the C909, aligning the plane with the state-owned firm's naming convention for its other models as it seeks to present itself as an alternative to dominant Western planemakers. The rebrand, which was unveiled at China's biggest air show in Zhuhai on Tuesday, features C909 painted in white on a blue tail. "After careful consideration, a long gestation and asking opinions of many involved parties, we chose to use C909 as a new commercial name to build the brand," Zhang Xiaoguang, COMAC's marketing director, told reporters. The C909 has also reduced weight, resistance and noise and made some improvements in flying costs compared to the previously marketed ARJ21, staff at COMAC's air show booth told Reuters.<br/>COMAC has launched the rebrand with the English slogan "Old friend, New look", and a Chinese slogan that can be translated as "meeting an old friend for the first time". COMAC's ARJ21 regional jet was China's first jet engine-powered plane to reach commercial production, entering service in 2016. Signs of the possible new name for the ARJ21 came in mid-October when one was spotted by aviation enthusiasts at a Chinese airport with C909 painted on its blue tail. The tail design and C909 name correspond with the green tail and white lettering of COMAC's C919 narrow-body jet that has been in service since 2023, and the red tail of its planned wide-body C929 which is under design.<br/>