The long-time head of the trade group Airlines for America who helped U.S. airlines win $54b in federal COVID relief funds will retire at the end of the year. Nick Calio, a former aide to President George W. Bush, has headed the influential airline lobbying group since 2011 that includes American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, FedEx and Southwest Airlines. He has also pushed for more funding for air traffic controllers and battled with the Biden administration over regulatory efforts. Congress approved $54b in three rounds covering much of U.S. airline payroll costs for 18 months during the pandemic. Calio also defended airlines' actions to stay afloat as passenger traffic plummeted. Last year, Calio urged the Biden administration to take swift action to address a long-standing air traffic controller shortage and out-of-date facilities and technology. "Business as usual isn't cutting it," Calio said in a speech in Washington last year. "It is an urgent problem. It's easy to ignore maybe on a day-to-day basis, but we have to come up with a plan to address it." President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have repeatedly sparred with airlines, while Airlines for America and some carriers last year convinced a U.S. appeals court to block USDOT's new rule on upfront disclosure of airline fees pending a full review. The FAA is still about 3,000 controllers behind staffing targets and has about 10,600 certified controllers.<br/>
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Irish and US airlines are appealing to the incoming government to scrap an “outdated” cap on passenger numbers at Dublin airport that has made Ireland the only major European country where seat capacity is shrinking. The long-running dispute caused by local planning restrictions has spread to Europe’s top court, with the airline industry warning that it would harm Ireland’s economic growth. While the legal challenges from local and US carriers have temporarily staved off the Irish aviation authorities’ orders to comply with the cap for this year’s summer season, the battle highlights the rising tensions between local worries over the impact of airports and wider economic and industrial growth. In November 2023, the Dutch government shelved plans to cut flights at Schiphol airport, after pressure from airlines, the EU and the US. Some airlines have increased capacity thanks to the temporary stay of the cap. US carrier United Airlines plans to boost flights to Dublin for the summer 2025 season, starting at the end of March. However, capacity restrictions for the current winter season remain in force and the long-term uncertainty over the cap has led to the sector turning to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the two political parties expected to form a coalition with independents this month. Both parties promised to get rid of the cap during their election campaigns.<br/>
Airlines will boost seats on Dublin Airport flights this summer after the High Court stalled efforts to enforce a controversial 32m a-year passenger limit there pending a ruling from Europe. Dublin Airport breached the limit in 2024, when 33.3m people passed through its terminals and it expects growth to continue this year, barring a dip in numbers to the end of March, according to Kenny Jacobs, CE of DAA, the airport’s State-owned operator. Jacobs noted that airlines sought more take-off and landing slots at Dublin after the High Court put a stay on the cap pending a ruling by the European courts on key legal issues raised by the planning condition. “Ryanair and Aer Lingus have filed for more slots in 2025, charter operators have filed for more slots,” he said, adding that US and Middle Eastern carriers were also likely to bid for extra capacity at Dublin for this summer. He calculated that this would increase passenger numbers this summer by one million, meaning that the airport will once again exceed the limit, imposed by planners in 2007 to ease fears of traffic jams on the roads leading to there. “But that does not mean that the cap does not exist,” Jacobs cautioned. He stressed that DAA needed the limit lifted, either by the courts or the planning process.<br/>
Hundreds of millions of Chinese criss-cross the country during the Lunar New Year holidays each year to reunite with families back in their hometowns or for sight-seeing during an extended festive period, making it the world's largest annual human migration. The Lunar New Year travel rush, known as Chunyun in Chinese, is often seen as a barometer for China's economic health and a pressure test for its vast transportation system. This year's Lunar New Year travel rush kicked off on Tuesday and will last for 40 days, concluding on Feb. 22. The official Spring Festival holidays, as the new year celebrations are known in China, will run from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4. How many trips are expected? Officials are expecting a record 9b domestic trips during the 40-day period, an increase from the around 8.4b trips logged last year. Road trips, expected to reach 7.2b journeys this year, are projected to account for about 80% of all trips, followed by train and air travel. Rail travel is set to hit a record 510m trips, a 5.5% year-on-year increase, while air travel is expected to exceed 90m trips.<br/>
Dense fog and cold weather delayed train and flight departures in several parts of northern India, including its capital New Delhi, on Wednesday. India's weather office issued an orange alert for Delhi, the second highest warning level, forecasting dense to very dense fog in many areas. Visibility at Delhi's main airport was between zero to 100 metres, the weather office said, and more than 40 trains across northern India were delayed because of fog, local media reported. Some aircraft departures from Delhi were delayed, airport authorities said on social media platform X, warning that flights lacking the CAT III navigation system that enables landing despite low visibility would face difficulties. Delhi's main airport handles about 1,400 flights every day. "Low visibility and fog over Delhi may lead to some delays," the country's largest airline IndiGo said in a social media post. Local media showed images of vehicles crawling along highways through the fog, and people huddled indoors as the temperature dipped to 7 degrees Celsius (44.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Delhi was ranked as the world's most polluted city in live rankings by Swiss group IQAir on Wednesday, with a reading of 254, ranked as "very unhealthy".<br/>
ew OAG data has confirmed Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) has remained the busiest airport in the world. According to the commercial aviation data insights firm, the top six busiest airports globally in 2023 have remained in the same position in 2024. “With growth across all regions of the world, the ten busiest airports once again reflect the strong recovery in the aviation sector in the last two years,” explained OAG’s chief analyst John Grant. “From the successes in Dallas Fort Worth and Guangzhou to the more recent rapid recovery in capacity at Shanghai Pudong, airlines continue to power ahead with new routes and services despite the supply chain challenges of the post-pandemic world,” he said. Four of the top ten are in the US, while post-pandemic growth in the Middle East and Asia has pushed Dubai and Guangzhou significantly up the rankings compared to 2019 standings. ATL continues to lead as the world’s busiest global airport by capacity with 62.7m seats. Capacity at ATL has increased by 2% compared to 2023 but is still just below 2019 levels by 1%.<br/>
Deliveries of new Boeing jets bounced back in December after a crippling labor strike that slowed production last fall, but the company's annual deliveries dropped in 2024 to the lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic. The company said on Tuesday that it delivered 348 commercial jets last year, down from 528 the previous year. New orders for jets in 2024 dropped to less than half as many as Boeing recorded one year earlier. The company also recorded 569 gross orders and 377 net orders after cancellations and conversions. Production quality issues, stricter regulatory scrutiny, supply chain delays and a seven-week strike slowed the U.S. planemaker's assembly lines. The company has taken a cautious approach to resuming production in the wake of the strike, which ended Nov. 5. Its 737 lines restarted in early December, as Reuters first reported. The company delivered 30 jets in December, including 17 737 MAX and 9 787s. The monthly total was up from the 13 in November and 14 in October. For the year, Boeing delivered 260 737 MAX, 51 787s, 18 767s and 14 777s. Planemakers get most of their revenue when they deliver an airplane. New Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told investors in October that he expects the company to continue to burn cash this year.<br/>
Boeing expects to reach a balance between supply and market demand for passenger jets by the end of the decade, an executive said on Monday. "From my perspective that's ... about a five-year impact in terms of what we need to do ... to get back to balance" from the current supply deficit, Darren Hulst, Boeing's vice president for commercial marketing, told the Airline Economics conference in Dublin.<br/>
President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to head the Transportation Department will tell a Senate committee on Wednesday he aims to ensure worldwide trust in U.S. planemaker Boeing after a 2024 mid-air emergency. "I will work with Congress and the FAA to restore global confidence in Boeing and to ensure our skies are safe," said Sean Duffy, a former U.S. House lawmaker, according to written testimony seen by Reuters. The FAA is maintaining tougher oversight of Boeing indefinitely, a year after a door panel missing four bolts flew off a new Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 in mid-air. It has also barred Boeing from expanding production beyond 38 MAX planes per month. Boeing did not immediately comment. FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker plans to step down on Jan. 20, while Deputy FAA Administrator Katie Thomson left the agency last week. Trump has not yet named a new nominee to head the department. On Saturday, Trump said he was nominating Steve Bradbury, a former DOT general counsel, to serve as deputy DOT secretary. Duffy will face a number of aviation issues including a persistent shortage of air traffic controllers, aging FAA facilities and a series of dangerous near-miss incidents. The FAA is still about 3,000 controllers behind staffing targets and has about 10,600 certified controllers. In June, the FAA extended cuts to minimum flight requirements at congested New York City-area airports through October 2025, citing a shortage of air traffic controllers.<br/>