general

The world’s skies are becoming crowded, posing a risk to airlines as rockets, drones, and “flying taxis” in the near future begin to use airspace. The huge number of new rockets — pioneered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX — is set to exacerbate the problem as the growing commercial space industry will share airspace used by tens of thousands of passenger planes. Meanwhile, drones and the expected emergence of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs), so-called flying taxis, are set to complicate the management of the lower levels of airspace through which planes take off and land. The number of passenger planes is forecast to grow by a third to more than 36,000 aircraft by 2034, according to consultancy Oliver Wyman. By that point, they will be sharing the skies with more than 10,000 eVTOLs, according to Bain, and thousands of rocket launches. Aviation experts believe the way airspace is managed will need to change. “There are more users and more vehicles that want to use airspace . . . the way that we provide our services will probably need to change significantly,” said Eduardo Garcia, senior manager for future skies at Canso, the body that represents the air traffic management industry. “It is a key topic, and it will not be easy. Ours is a safety critical industry,” he said. The issues facing airlines were illustrated last month when Qantas delayed several flights between Australia and South Africa after the US government warned about the risk of SpaceX rocket parts re-entering the atmosphere in the southern Indian Ocean. But Chris Quilty, co-CE of space business consultancy Quilty Space, said the Qantas delays could be the “tip of the iceberg” in a rapidly developing space industry. It is not just rocket companies that are developing vehicles designed to return to earth. A host of start-ups are targeting manufacturing products such as pharmaceuticals in space, using the benefits of no gravity, all of which will need to be brought back down to earth. “It is the wild west. The rate at which this is happening is starting to impact the aviation community,” he added.<br/>

Personnel from Elon Musk's government downsizing team, DOGE, will visit the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Control command center in Warrenton, Virginia, on Monday, as the Trump administration says it wants to reform the system. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy disclosed the plan in a social media post on Sunday, saying DOGE will "get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system." The Trump administration this month reversed course and said it would not allow air traffic controllers or Transportation Security Administration security officers to take part in a government incentive program to quit. On Saturday, the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union said several hundred FAA probationary employees were among thousands fired as part of a campaign by President Donald Trump and Musk to slash the U.S. bureaucracy. The union said the "draconian action will increase the workload and place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin." The FAA did not immediately comment on Sunday.<br/>

Transportation safety officials on Friday said they believe the crew of an Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into a passenger jet outside Washington, D.C., last month were wearing night vision goggles and possibly relying on inaccurate flight data moments before the fatal collision. Preliminary analysis of voice recordings and other black box data recovered from the crash site showed the helicopter pilot and her instructor read aloud conflicting altitudes before the collision, while some of the Black Hawk's altitude data appeared to investigators as faulty, National Transportation Safety Board officials said. "We are seeing conflicting information in the data, which is why we aren't releasing altitude for the Black Hawk's entire route," NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters on Friday. Homendy said investigators are confident that at the time of the crash the helicopter was at an altitude of 278 feet (85 meters) - higher than it should have been for the area. "But I want to caution," Homendy added, "that does not mean that's what the Black Hawk crew was seeing." One of the helicopter's sources of altitude data that relies on atmospheric pressure - but is not typically used directly by pilots - was deemed by investigators as invalid. "This altitude is calibrated using what we call standard atmospheric pressure, we have found that this parameter is not valid. This is bad data," said Sean Payne, head of NTSB's vehicle recorder data division. The NTSB has been investigating the January 29 mid-air collision between the helicopter and the American Airlines Bombardier jet that killed 67 people in the deadliest U.S. air disaster in more than 20 years. The Black Hawk crew, who were on a nighttime training flight but regarded as experienced pilots, were believed to be wearing night vision goggles that could have made it difficult to distinguish the American Airlines jet from city lights on the horizon, Homendy said.<br/>

Following this week’s storms, more winter weather will continue to pound much of the eastern U.S. this weekend, bringing impacts for more than 100m Americans ahead of dangerously cold arctic air. Much of the nation is set for a triple threat this weekend of rain, snow and bitter cold, as a storm moves east of the Rockies. "Storms have been on a fast track across the U.S. since the start of the month, and the next one on deck will be no exception," forecasting company AccuWeather’s Senior Director of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin said in a statement. "Most storms have been crossing the country in three days." Inclement weather will start over the central Plains, creating slippery driving conditions in Nebraska as snow, sleet, and drizzle falls. Through Saturday, airline delays are expected in major cities across the northern and eastern U.S., AccuWeather said. They include Minneapolis, Chicago, Albany, Boston, and Detroit. “Direct airline delays are anticipated in these locations due to deicing operations. Ripple-effect flight cancelations will be possible across the U.S.,” it cautioned.<br/>Some flights were already canceled in Washington D.C., according to tracker FlightAware.<br/>

Iran barred Lebanese planes from repatriating dozens of Lebanese nationals stranded in Iran on Friday, in a standoff after Lebanon blocked an Iranian civilian flight following what Tehran described as an Israeli threat to attack it. Lebanon halted an Iranian flight to Beirut this week after the Israeli military accused Tehran of using civilian aircraft to smuggle cash to Beirut to arm Hezbollah. Iran said it would not allow Lebanese flights to land until its own flights were cleared to land in Beirut. The standoff has left dozens of Lebanese citizens stranded in Iran for three days after attending a religious pilgrimage. They had been due to return to Beirut on Iran's Mahan Air before Lebanon barred the plane from landing. Dozens of Hezbollah supporters cut off roads around Beirut's airport late on Thursday and Friday in protest. The outgoing deputy force commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was injured on Friday after a convoy taking peacekeepers to the airport was "violently attacked," the mission said. UNIFIL demanded a full and immediate investigation by Lebanese authorities and for all perpetrators to be brought to justice, it said in a statement. Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and army both condemned the attack in separate statements and said urgent measures would be taken to identify and arrest the attackers and prevent any violation of civil peace. Shi'ite Amal movement, a Hezbollah ally, also said "the attack on UNIFIL is an attack on southern Lebanon," describing blocking of the roads as "a stab at civil peace." Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Friday that Israel had threatened a passenger plane carrying Lebanese citizens from Tehran, "which caused a disruption in the country's normal flights to Beirut airport". He condemned the alleged Israeli threat as a violation of international law.<br/>

A 22-year-old air passenger from Bangkok has been arrested in Hong Kong on suspicion of bringing in eight kilogrammes of the key component of the emerging drug known as "space oil", worth an estimated HK$8.4m (36m baht). The case was reported on Thursday, a day before etomidate will be classified as a dangerous drug. The government is set to gazette the change and enforce it immediately on Friday. Etomidate and its three analogues - metomidate, propoxate and isopropoxate - will also be listed in the gazette as dangerous drugs. Currently, etomidate, an anaesthetic, is regulated as a Part 1 poison that can only be prescribed by a doctor. The male traveller arrived from Bangkok on Thursday, and during customs clearance, a batch of suspected "space oil drug" in powdered form was found concealed in eight packages of fruit-flavoured drink powder in his check-in suitcase. Additionally, two suspected alternative smoking products were found in his carry-on backpack. The 8kg of etomidate powder is enough to produce more than 24,000 space oil cartridges, worth about HK$8.4m. He was subsequently arrested. The Customs and Excise Department said it would continue to apply a risk assessment approach to screening passengers and focus on selecting travellers from high-risk regions for additional checks. Once etomidate is listed as a dangerous drug, possession or consumption of space oil will be punishable by up to seven years in prison and a maximum fine of HK$1m.<br/>

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg will testify on April 2 before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, the panel's chair, Republican Senator Ted Cruz, said on Friday. The hearing will examine the steps taken at Boeing to address its production and safety issues following an Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 incident last year and a Federal Aviation Administration safety review, Cruz said in a statement. "Given Boeing's past missteps and problems, the flying public deserves to hear what changes are being made to rehabilitate the company's tarnished reputation," Cruz said. The U.S. planemaker's safety and manufacturing procedures have been under increased scrutiny after a series of crises involving safety, including when a door panel flew off a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 in mid-air last year. Boeing has a production cap of 38 jets a month, imposed by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration last year after the Alaska Airlines plane incident. Boeing said on Tuesday that it had delivered 45 airplanes in January, up from 30 deliveries the previous month and the most deliveries in a month for the U.S. planemaker since 2023. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Thursday he had asked Boeing's CEO to come to Washington, D.C., "as soon as possible" to discuss quality and safety issues at the company. Duffy has said the federal government needed to make sure the company was implementing its safety plan.<br/>

How bleak is the future for low-cost airlines? For decades, budget carriers successfully offered travelers no-frills, cheap flights. But that scrappy business model is now eroding as costs soar and passengers opt for more comfortable seats and spacious upgrades. The business, it seems, can't even merge itself out of its tailspin. Earlier this week, Spirit Airlines once again rejected an acquisition proposal from Frontier, valued at $2.16b. The offer was similar to the one Frontier presented earlier this month. Spirit countered, but its offer was rejected. Frontier's first takeover bid in 2022, for $2.9b in cash and stock, was foiled by a $3.8b offer from rival JetBlue. Spirit filed for bankruptcy in November after a federal judge sided with the Justice Department to block its tie-up with JetBlue. The low-cost carrier model works by offering cheaper seats than traditional airlines to domestic and near-US destinations while charging fees for items like checked bags, seating selection, and snacks or drinks. Often, the airlines will use secondary airports with lower landing fees, such as Long Beach Airport in Los Angeles instead of LAX. But between increased competition from traditional carriers in domestic routes and rising labor and maintenance costs, the low-cost model has slowly unraveled. Story has more.<br/>