In a major policy shift, the US airline industry’s largest trade group and several allies are no longer pursuing privatising US air traffic control (ATC). But Airlines for America (A4A) and nearly two dozen other lobby groups are now advocating for a major overhaul of the Federal Aviation Administration and its ATC operation, urging leaders in Washington to finally address longstanding alleged problems. Some executives are also expressing optimism that the administration of President Donald Trump will throw weight behind such efforts. “The Trump administration has committed to investing deeply, in terms of improving the overall technologies that are used in the air traffic control systems, and modernisation [of] the skies,” Delta Air Lines CE Ed Bastian told CBS News on 19 February. “They have committed to hiring additional controllers and… safety investigators.”Just days ago, news broke that the FAA fired several hundred employees, part of a broader Trump administration shake-up in the name of efficiency and cost cutting. Critics allege the layoffs will sacrifice safety – an assertion rejected by Department of Transportation secretary Sean Duffy, who says no “critical safety personnel” were fired. “I’m not concerned about that at all,” Bastian says. “The cuts do not affect us at all.” With the Trump administration seemingly poised to further roil the FAA, Delta’s trade group A4A and some 25 other lobby organisations have joined forces, seeking a seat at the table. “We are aligned on not pursuing privatisation of US air traffic control services and believe it would be a distraction from these needed investments and reforms,” the groups write in a joint 19 February letter to lawmakers on the House and Senate transportation and appropriations committees.<br/>
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Major U.S. airlines and a trade association have challenged a Biden administration rule issued in December requiring new consumer protections for disabled passengers using wheelchairs. United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways and airline trade group Airlines for America challenge the rule in the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that set stricter standards for accommodating passengers with wheelchairs and requires carriers to reimburse passengers for damage to wheelchairs. Then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last year the rule was the biggest expansion of rights for wheelchair users since 2008 and makes it easier for USDOT to hold airlines accountable for damage to wheelchairs or any delay in their return. Airlines for America said carriers have been making meaningful progress enhancing services for passengers with disabilities since signing a commitment in 2022. The airline group said it was not challenging all aspects of the regulation but said "certain provisions of the final rule go beyond the USDOT’s statutory authority, violate the Administrative Procedure Act and represent regulatory overreach by the Biden Administration." The USDOT rule says airlines must return checked wheelchairs in the same condition or face the presumption they are responsible, but carriers can challenge it. Under the final rule, airlines must notify passengers whose wheelchairs have been mishandled of their rights, provide loaners and quickly repair or replace broken wheelchairs as well as reimburse passengers for transportation costs incurred as a result of a passenger’s wheelchair being delayed by the airline. In October, USDOT fined American Airlines a record $50m for its treatment of disabled passengers, including failing to provide some with adequate assistance and mishandling wheelchairs.<br/>
A man has died at Manchester Airport after he was seen "displaying unusual behaviour" before being arrested, the police watchdog has said. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it was investigating the circumstances after the 27-year-old was pronounced dead at 13:53 GMT. In a statement, the IOPC said: "The man was due to travel from the airport on Wednesday and was stopped after displaying unusual behaviour. He was subsequently arrested by Border Force officers and taken to a holding area where he became unwell and paramedics were called. Sadly, he was pronounced dead." An investigation was launched after a referral was made to the IPOC from the Home Office. The watchdog said its investigators had been at the scene gathering evidence. IOPC director Amanda Rowe said: "First and foremost, our thoughts are with the man's family and loved ones, as well as all those affected by his death. "When someone dies after being taken into custody, it is important for there to be a thorough investigation to understand what has happened. We have been in touch with the man's family to explain our role and will keep them updated as the investigation progresses. Our investigation is in its very early stages and no further information is available at this time."<br/>
Changes to slot and parking rules at Athens International Airport (LGAV) are set to impact business aircraft operators starting March 30. Flight support group Universal Weather and Aviation has warned operators to prepare their schedules around the new Greek requirements to avoid disruption through the summer months. The airport is moving to level-two slot coordination that will result in “deviations” in requested arrival and departure times for last-minute slots, especially at peak morning and mid-afternoon times. Universal has advised that delays of an hour or more should be expected if slots and prior permission approvals are not secured in advance. Operators have also been told that free parking at LGAV will be reduced to two hours, compared with between eight and 12 hours currently Any stay longer than two hours will be subject to confirmation by the airport operator and will be granted only 24 hours before the planned arrival. The revised rules will apply to all aircraft with an mtow of more than 5,700 kilograms (12,566 pounds), whether they are private or charter flights, including ferry and technical stops. Exemptions are available for ambulance flights, as well as for military and parapublic operations. If an operator needs to extend their stay in Athens, they will have to file a new prior permission request. Universal said approvals are unlikely due to ramp space limits.<br/>
Airbus has said it aims to make 820 planes this year as the world’s biggest aerospace manufacturer attempts to overcome problems in its supply chain. The European company said that deliveries would rise by 7% compared with the 766 planes made last year, as it reported an 8% drop in income for 2024 excluding various charges, to E5.4b. Guillaume Faury, Airbus’s CE, described it as “a testing year” but said “strong order intake” confirmed there was “solid demand for our products and services”. The company, headquartered in Toulouse, France, also reported a E300m charge at its struggling space business, adding to the E1b of losses it had already recognised for the division during the year. It is considering a merger with the French rival Thales’s space division. Ramping up production of commercial planes has proved tricky, with Airbus’s supply chain struggling to recover from disruption and retirements during the coronavirus pandemic. That has prevented Airbus from fully pressing home its advantage over its US rival Boeing. Boeing has left Airbus as the unchallenged global leader because of years of safety crises, including a mid-air loss of a door panel a year ago. Adding to Boeing’s woes, the US president, Donald Trump, said on Wednesday that he was considering buying used Boeing aircraft to serve as the new presidential transport, Air Force One, after years of delays and high costs. Trump toured a newer Boeing 747-800 plane in Florida on Saturday. Speaking to reporters onboard one of the two almost 35-year-old Boeing 747-200 aircraft in current use, Trump said: “We’re looking at alternatives, because it’s taking Boeing too long.” He said: “We may go and buy a plane,” adding that he could then “convert it”. However, he ruled out buying an Airbus plane.<br/>
Airbus could prioritize deliveries to its non-U.S. customers if tariffs disrupt the European plane maker’s imports stateside, CEO Guillaume Faury said Thursday. “We have a large demand from the rest of the world, so [if] we face very significant difficulties to deliver to the U.S., we can also adapt by bringing forward deliveries to other customers which are very eager to get planes,” Faury told CNBC’s Charlotte Reed, in an interview discussing the company’s full-year results. “Those tariffs are looming, and we don’t know what they will be, [and], if and when we would have tariffs come in, what they would impact. So we stand ready to adapt accordingly,” Faury said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariff threats which have already been ramped up against China. Faury nevertheless stressed that Airbus had made moves in recent years to not only buy more from the U.S. and sell a significant number of aircraft and helicopters in the U.S., but also to base part of its production locally. That includes a large output site in Mobile, Alabama, with two final assembly lines for the company’s A220 and A320 family jets, with another U.S. line under construction to build A320 and A321s for the domestic market. A host of large U.S. carriers are Airbus customers, including American Airlines, Delta, United and JetBlue. “So we have a lot of potential flexibilities,” Faury said regarding the potential imposition of duties, whose details remain uncertain.<br/>
Airbus expects to firm up a deal to take over some of Spirit AeroSystems European operations in the next few weeks, the planemaker's CFO said on Thursday, as part of a transatlantic breakup of the aerostructures manufacturer. "We're making good progress. I think it would be realistic to expect that this will happen in the next weeks," Airbus CFO Thomas Toepfer told reporters in Toulouse, France, about a deal signing. Boeing has said it would buy back its former subsidiary Spirit Aero, which is a critical supplier to Boeing, for $4.7b in stock. Spirit Aero also produces key parts for some Airbus jets, and Airbus will take some of those activities in a deal expected to close by mid-2025. Toepfer said closing by July 1 was a "realistic assumption." Airbus reached a binding term sheet last year with Spirit Aero, but a formal agreement, initially expected last year, has not been concluded yet. Airbus will receive compensation because it will take on some loss-making operations. Sources told Reuters that talks have been challenging due to questions about how to divide intellectual property, along with the future of a Spirit Aero plant in Northern Ireland. Airbus is expected to take a part of the Belfast factory that produces wings for the planemaker's smallest A220 jet. The Airbus deal could exclude part of the plant that produces jet parts for Canada's Bombardier, which has said it is a potential buyer for that operation. Earlier this week, a union at the Spirit Aero plant in Belfast called for all operations to go to a single entity. The Boeing acquisition is important since Kansas-based Spirit Aero has said it has total financial liquidity of just $890m but expects to burn $650m to $700m in free cash during the first half of 2025.<br/>
President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as deputy secretary of the U.S. Transportation Department said regulators need to take a more aggressive approach to overseeing planemaker Boeing. "We need to be tougher on Boeing. We need to be tougher on the industry," said Steve Bradbury at a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing Thursday. Senators questioned Bradbury about whether during Trump's first term he intentionally withheld documents from a Senate probe into two fatal 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019. At the time he was the Transportation Department's general counsel and the Senate was seeking Federal Aviation Administration documents. Bradbury told senators that at the time, his department was overwhelmed with requests for information and was attempting to provide documents, not impede or block the investigation. Last month, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Congress that Boeing needed "tough love" and he would keep in place a cap on production of Boeing 737 MAX planes put in place after a mid-air panel blowout last year until he is satisfied it can be safely raised. In January 2024, former President Joe Biden's FAA chief Mike Whitaker imposed the 38 planes per month production cap after a door panel missing four key bolts flew off a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9. President Donald Trump has yet to nominate a candidate for FAA administrator.<br/>
Boeing Thursday named Jeff Shockey as its new top lobbyist, as the U.S. planemaker faces a number of issues in Washington including criticism from President Donald Trump over delayed deliveries of new Air Force One jets. Shockey returns to Boeing after the firm's last head of government affairs left abruptly in December. He previously headed global government relations at aerospace and defense firm RTX, formerly known as Raytheon, and before that was vice president of global sales and marketing for Boeing Defense, Space & Security as well as a senior Boeing lobbyist and former U.S. House aide. Boeing is dealing with the risk of potential new tariffs impacting airplane production and exports as well as scrutiny over its quality and manufacturing after a 2024 mid-air emergency involving a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9. On Wednesday, Trump said he was not happy with Boeing for significant delays delivering next-generation Air Force One planes and warned he might pursue a new option. Boeing has lost more than $2b on its contract to deliver two new presidential aircraft. Trump raised the issue of the delayed planes in a call with Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg soon after he was elected in November.<br/>
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg on Thursday said Elon Musk, the head of its space business rival SpaceX, is "helping us a lot" in navigating through delays in delivering Boeing's Air Force One presidential jet.<br/>Ortberg also told an investor conference that he expects top U.S. aviation regulators to visit Seattle soon, where the planemaker's strongest-selling 737 MAX jet is produced. Ortberg, who took the helm of Boeing six months ago, is trying to grow production of the embattled planemaker's MAX and 787 jets to at least 38 a month, while sorting contracts that hit its defense unit with pre-tax charges of $1.7b in the fourth quarter. Ortberg told the Barclays Industrial Select Conference that Boeing is making progress with the help of Trump's cost-cutting ally Musk in improving the delivery time, which will eliminate the risk of continued cost overruns. "Elon Musk is actually helping us a lot in working through the requirements...so that we can move faster and get the president those airplanes delivered," Ortberg said. "And you know he's a brilliant guy so he's able to pretty quickly ascertain the difference between technical requirements and things that we can move out of the way and he's helping us in a big way." Earlier this week, a senior administration official said the Air Force One program may be further delayed until 2029 or years later due partly to supply chain problems. Trump has said he is not happy with Boeing due to delays in delivering Air Force One planes, adding his administration might have to "do something else." Separately, Boeing said on Thursday it had named Jeff Shockey executive vice president of government operations. He will lead the planemaker's global public policy efforts, including federal operations among other things.<br/>
Boeing's supply chain for the 737 MAX is in good shape as the U.S. planemaker aims to grow output of its strongest-selling jet to 38 a month by mid-2025, CEO Kelly Ortberg said on Thursday. Ortberg told analysts and investors at the Barclays Industrial Select Conference that he doesn't see any supply chain constraints right now that are going to stop the planemaker from ramping up here to the 38 a month.<br/>
Democratic senators on Thursday questioned Steven Bradbury, President Trump’s nominee for deputy secretary of the Transportation Department, about his handling of the congressional investigation into two Boeing Max plane crashes in 2018 and 2019, and his safety record during his previous tenure at the agency. The Boeing investigation occurred during Mr. Trump’s first administration, when Bradbury, 66, served as general counsel of the Transportation Department from late 2017 through January 2021. In that role, he oversaw the agency’s legal work and coordinated its legislative efforts and regulatory programs. The investigative report, written under the direction of Senator Roger Wicker, then the chairman of the Senate commerce committee, states that Bradbury’s office obstructed the investigation by preventing interviews with Federal Aviation Administration employees who had key information and withholding documents the committee had requested. Because of interference from Bradbury’s office, the Senate committee’s investigators were “unable to effectively engage directly with the F.A.A. on document requests or related questions, despite repeated requests and assurances,” the report states.<br/>
British firms are among more than 100 western companies, including the aerospace giant Boeing, which have exported aircraft parts to India that reached Russia, according to customs data. Analysis suggests products worth more than $50m have passed through intermediaries in India to Russian airlines and other entities over a 21-month period up to September 2024. The parts appear to have been transported in 700 individual cargoes containing items ranging from critical generators, sensors, propeller blades and cockpit displays to small screws, bolts and filters. Most of the Russian importers appear to be civilian airlines, including Utair, which the EU has said also acts as a defence contractor. It received about a quarter of the cargoes. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by western companies, nor that they were aware that their products were being moved on to Russia by the Indian firms. The direct sale of aircraft parts to Russian airlines and firms has been banned by the UK and the EU and is heavily restricted by US authorities. Western allies have struggled, however, to deal with the scores of intermediary firms that have moved in to prop up Russia with western-made goods and technology. The UK government highlighted its concerns in January when issuing new guidance for exporting businesses on “countering Russian sanctions evasion”. Firms were told to “undertake due diligence to ensure that the end destination of these products is not Russia”. The analysis of Indian customs data by Investigate Europe suggests that as of last September goods were still reaching Russia via India, often within days of their original dispatch.<br/>